FACTORS DRIVING the Gender  Gap IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY:

Poverty-Environment Initiative

Empowered lives. Resilient nations.

FACTORS DRIVING the Gender Gap IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY: TANZANIA This report is a joint product of UN Women Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO) and the United Nations Development Programme–United Nations Environment Programme Poverty- Environment Initiative (UNDP–UN Environment PEI) Africa.

© 2018 UN Women, UNDP and UN Environment.

Authors: A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Professor of Economics and International Development Studies, Trent University, and UNDP–UN Environment PEI Advisor; and Immakulata Menas Komba, Director, Ecosystem on Land Consult Ltd

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women or UNDP–UN Environment PEI.

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Photos: p. 7 © FAO/Marco Longari; all others A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi

Editing: Will Stolzenburg and Mark Bernstein

Design: Nita Congress Contents

Acknowledgements iv

Executive summary v

Study context and purpose 1

The gender gap in agricultural productivity in Tanzania 3 Gender challenges in rural Tanzania 4 Purpose and scope of this study 6 Analytic framework and methodology 7

Analytic framework 8 Methodology 10 Findings from the field 12

Farming system characteristics 13 Drivers of the gender gap in agricultural productivity 14 Agricultural productivity, climate change and extension services 17 Study findings in light of the 2015 report 18 Policy recommendations 20

Boosting agricultural performance 21 Social norms and values 23 Further research 27 Notes 28

References 29

iii Acknowledgements

he United Nations Entity for Gender Kabunga, Kibondo District Agricultural Irri - Equality and Empowerment of gation and Cooperative O cer for their Women (UN Women), in partnership invaluable contribution to the success of the with the Poverty-Environment Initia - eld consultations. Ttive (PEI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations We would like to acknowledge the eorts of Environment Programme (UN Environment) Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Professor of Economics commissioned this study, Factors Driving the and International Development Studies at Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity in Trent University, and Immakulata Menas Tanzania. Komba, Director, Ecosystem on Land Consult Ltd, in conducting the study. We would also UNDP–UN Environment PEI and UN Women like to acknowledge Will Stolzenburg and in Tanzania and the Eastern and Southern Mark Bernstein, who edited the report, and Africa Regional O ce (ESARO) in Nita Congress, who designed the publication. would like to express their gratitude to the Government of Tanzania through the Ministry We are grateful to all the participants of the of Agriculture. Sincere appreciation goes validation workshop held 18 October 2017. to Jofrey Oleke, Monitoring and Evaluation The invaluable inputs of these representatives O cer, and Nkuvililwa Simkanga, Director of of governmental organizations, UN agencies, Policy and Planning (in the then–Ministry of civil society organizations and researchers led Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries) for their to renement of the document. consistent and valuable contributions of rele - vant information throughout the process of Finally, special appreciation goes to the sta the study. Further appreciation goes to the members who provided strategic guidance local government authorities of the regions and substantive inputs for production and and districts in which the research took place; publication of the nal document, notably specically, the Ikungi district in the Singida Ambrose Mugisha, Jacinta Okwaro, Kris - region, the Bunda district in the , tina Weibel and Moa Westman, UNDP–UN the Kibondo district in the Kigoma region, Environment PEI; Maria Karadenizli and and the Ngorongoro district in the Arusha Mehjabeen Alarakhia, UN Women Tanzania; region. We particularly commend Lilian and Fatmata Sesay-Kebbay, UN Women Edward Mbunito, Ngorongoro Community ESARO. Development O cer; Hadija Mtambi Said, Bunda Community Development O cer; Ayub Sengo, Ikungi District Agricultural Irri - gation and Cooperative O cer; and Victor iv Executive summary

griculture is at the core of both the of the nation’s women farmers — and thereby Tanzanian economy and Tanza- thwart efforts to raise the country’s general nian society. The sector employs standard of living. This gender gap was 67 per cent of the nation’s affirmed by a joint investigation by the United Aworkers and accounts for about 23 per cent Nations and the World Bank, which in 2015 of the country’s gross domestic product. produced the report The Cost of the Gender Agriculture is the source of key exports such Gap in Agricultural Productivity in Malawi, as coffee, cotton, cashew nuts and tea. To Tanzania, and Uganda. The report provided ensure the country’s continued growth and quantitative evidence of the links between meet the challenge of reducing rural poverty, agricultural productivity, economic growth the agricultural sector can and must make a and gender inequalities; and estimated the greater contribution to the nation’s economy. costs of growth opportunities lost to gender At present, only 27 per cent of Tanzania’s inequalities in agriculture in the three coun- 44 million hectares of arable land is under tries. cultivation. Irrigation is rare, so most crops depend on rainwater. Further, short-sighted For Tanzania, the gender gap was substan- land management practices undercut the tial: an elimination of the gender gap in fertility of some cultivated lands. As to the agricultural productivity in Tanzania would people who work this land, many survive on increase agricultural production by 30 per extremely limited means. Of the 12 million cent. Closing the gap could raise the coun- Tanzanians who live in poverty, 10 million are try’s gross domestic product by $105 million rural dwellers, individuals whose incomes are (T Sh 210 billion) and lift 80,000 people out of less than $1.90 a day. poverty each year over a 10-year period.

Clearly, the well-being of Tanzanian farmers This study differs from its predecessor in that and of the country generally is strongly it takes a qualitative rather than quantitative dependent on improving the productivity approach to the subject. In its attempt to find of its agricultural sector. For this to occur, underlying causes of the gender gap, the however, this sector and the influences on its study conducted extensive interviews with outcomes need to be thoroughly understood. 547 women and men in 19 farming villages in rural Tanzania. That is, it moves beyond At first glance, Tanzania presents a picture of merely establishing that a gender gap exists small-scale agriculture. A more disciplined in Tanzanian agriculture to explain why it look, however, reveals that it is in fact a exists and what steps can be taken to reduce heavily gendered society, one in which a host and eliminate this gap. of factors combine to reduce the productivity

v This study found that the gender gap in Tanza- Identify male champions of gender nian agriculture stems from the following: equality who can demonstrate the power of husband-wife cooperation to improve Tanzanian women devote many more livelihoods. hours to maintaining the home; gathering firewood; fetching water; and caring for Facilitate women’s self-help groups to the young, the ailing and the aging. Not collectively advocate for the assets and only are these tasks uncompensated, but incomes needed to produce better crops. they significantly reduce the time women have available to cultivate their own crops. Introduce scalable government pilot This “time poverty” is further exacerbated projects to harvest rainwater and provide by the cultural expectation that women will solar cookers. labour on plots owned by their husbands before working on their own. Roll out Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net programme to ease the cash Tanzanian women are expected to provide limitations that push women into casual cash to meet household needs. This waged labour and petty trading, thereby commonly prompts them to seek outside freeing their labour for farming. employment, which is generally less well paid than that available to men and which Expand training of women farmers and of further reduces the time available to work agricultural extension officers in providing their own plots of land. gender-responsive and climate-smart agricultural services. The lower incomes characteristic of Tanza- nia’s women farmers make it more difficult Scale up the government’s Mkurabita for them to take advantage of commercial project which allocates certificates of fertilizers, improved seeds, pesticides or customary rights of land occupancy to better tools that could be employed to both the wife and the husband when land boost their productivity. is assigned to households.

Tanzanian women are commonly the Develop a small-scale project to rapidly victims of gender-based violence that, identify the most promising agricultural among other things, maintains male value chains where Tanzanian women prerogatives related to the sale of cash feature prominently. crops and control over the money thereby derived. Revise Tanzania’s key statistical instru- ments to reflect gender considerations. The gender gap is substantial, and closing it will increase economic growth and food Undertake further quantitative research security and foster poverty reduction. To that into the gender gap in agricultural produc- end, this report points to concrete steps that tivity in Tanzania. can be taken to realize what can be done for the betterment of Tanzania’s citizens. In brief, these policy proposals are as follows:

vi Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania Study context and purpose griculture is at the core of both standards of living are most strongly driven by the Tanzanian economy and increases in productivity. In economic terms, Tanzanian society. The sector productivity is the relationship of inputs to accounts for about 67 per cent outputs — or, stated more casually, how much Aof employment, about 23 percent of gross does it take to produce how much? In rural domestic product (GDP), 30 percent of economics, agricultural productivity reflects exports and 65 percent of inputs to the a unique relationship between farm inputs industrial sector (Ministry of Finance and and farm outputs, and is most commonly Planning, 2016). Agriculture is the source of expressed as output per unit of a single input key exports such as coffee, cotton, cashew (GSARS, 2017). In the agricultural sector, the nuts and tea. Overall, the Tanzanian economy key inputs are land and the time of those who is expanding, with per capita income rising till it. Productivity may be measured either in from $870 (T Sh 1.4 million) in 2012 to $926 terms of crop yield relative to cultivated land (T Sh 2.0 million) in 2016 — despite a higher — say, yield per hectare — or crop yield rela- than average population growth over the tive to hours devoted to farming. However period, which partially offset GDP growth of measured, productivity is key. The World Bank more than 6 per cent per year during those noted in its 2015 Tanzania Mainland Poverty years (World Bank, 2017).1 Assessment report that “for every 10 percent increase in growth per person, poverty can Growth in the agricultural sector is not keeping be expected to be reduced by 10.2 percent” pace with these overall positive economic (World Bank, 2015) trends, with annual average The value added growth of about 2.8 per cent Given the importance of rising productivity as over the 2012–2016 period a driver of general economic improvement, per worker in (World Bank, 2017). The chal- it is discouraging that, according to World rural Tanzania has lenges to growth in the sector Bank data, the value added per worker in are myriad. Regarding the rural Tanzania has remained essentially stag- remained essentially land itself, only 27 per cent nant since 2010.2 This stagnation has effects of the 44 million hectares of beyond locking individuals and families stagnant since 2010. the country’s arable land is into their existing low levels of economic under cultivation. Irrigation well-being. It also prompts individuals to is rare, so most crops depend on rainwater. over-exploit their environmental resources, Short-sighted land management practices further perpetuating disappointing produc- undercut the fertility of some cultivated tivity in farming — which in turn can affect lands, and little is being systematically done other rural subsectors such as forests and fish- to counter the encroaching impacts of climate eries. The impact of soil degradation on crop change. Regarding those who work this land, production reinforces the negative conse- many survive on extremely limited means. Of quences of a changing climate for Tanzania’s the 12 million Tanzanians who live in poverty, farmers. 10 million are rural dwellers (World Bank, 2017), individuals whose incomes are less For the rural economy to contribute more than $1.90 a day (purchasing power parity– fully to Tanzania’s growth and modernization, adjusted 2010 dollars). efforts must focus on improving the situa- tion, prospects and production of Tanzania’s Pervasive rural poverty is a compelling women farmers, who conduct 80 per cent of argument for improving the productivity of Tanzania’s farm work (USAID, n.d.). Given the Tanzania’s agricultural sector. Improvements in disproportionate engagement of women in

2 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania the sector, Tanzania’s rural economy is clearly metric by which to gauge the importance a gendered one, with important implications of the gender gap. Not accounting for any for the country’s economic growth and its alle- differences in the quality and quantity of land viation of poverty. farmed by men and women respectively, the report assessed the “unconditional gender gap” in agricultural productivity in Tanzania at The gender gap in 16 per cent. As shown in Figure 1, eliminating agricultural productivity this gap would produce an increase of: in Tanzania 2.1 per cent of current crop output In Tanzania’s gendered society, agricultural productivity is not equitably shared between 1.5 per cent of agricultural GDP; or about male and female farmers, thus thwarting the $85 million (T Sh 169 billion) country’s economic growth and exacerbating its poverty. This recognition was an important 0.46 per cent of total GDP; or about rationale for a joint investigation by the United $101 million (T Sh 201 billion), with multi- 3 Nations and the World Bank, which in 2015 plier effects included produced the report The Cost of the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity in Malawi, When differences in land quantities and qual- Tanzania, and Uganda (UN Women, UNDP- ities are taken into account, the conditional UNEP PEI and World Bank, 2015; hereafter gender gap is much larger: 30 per cent. Elimi- referred to as the 2015 report). The report nating this gap would produce an increase of: provided quantitative evidence of the links between agricultural productivity, economic 3.9 per cent in current crop production growth and gender inequalities. It assigned dollar values to the gender inequalities in agri- 2.7 per cent in agricultural GDP; or about cultural productivity, thus providing a simple $105 million (T Sh 209 billion)

FIGURE 1 Results of closing the gender gap in Tanzania

$105 million Closing $85 million increase in increase in total GDP  the agricultural GDP 2% increase in 80,000 gender crop production 4 people 16% $ lifted out gap of poverty; $ 80,000 4 more people in adequately  Tanzania  nourished

SOURCE: Adapted from UN Women, UNDP-UNEP PEI and World Bank, 2015.

Study context and purpose 3 0.9 per cent in total GDP; or about micronutrient deficiencies, both of which $196 million (T Sh 390 billion) affect more women than men. Tanzania’s rural poverty is gendered because, in agriculture, Combining the gross gains in GDP with women typically make do with less than their the poverty-growth elasticities reported by male counterparts. Seventy-three per cent Dorosh and Thurlow (2014) show that closing of small farms in Tanzania are held by men. the agricultural gender gap would lead to In contrast, women’s farms are smaller, have a reduction of 0.42 per cent in head count fewer plots, are less likely to be irrigated and poverty. Restated, this would be sufficient employ less labour than farms managed by to move 80,000 people a year out of poverty a man (Osorio, Percic and Di Battista, 2014; every year over a 10-year period. MoHCDGEC et al., 2016). Male farmers are also more likely than their female counter- The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach parts to use improved seeds (Osorio, Percic (Fortin, Lemieux and Firpo, 2010) was used and Di Battista, 2014). to determine the shares of Women are more the gender gap attributable Women farmers are particularly disadvan- to women and men farmers taged by the lack of agricultural extension likely than men to be having different levels of agri- services available to them, a problem stem- employed as casual cultural inputs and women ming in part from the fact that the extension receiving a lower return officers are predominantly men who often farm labour, for from similar inputs.4 The do not recognize the unique and specific which they are paid first finding was that women constraints facing women plot operators farmers received much less (TGNP, 2017; United Republic of Tanzania, only one-third of male family labour to till their 2016). Women are more likely than men to be plots; indeed, this gener- employed as casual farm labour, for which they what men receive. ated 97.3 per cent of the are paid only one-third of what men receive gender gap in agricultural for such work (Osorio, Percic and Di Battista, productivity in Tanzania. If this gender gap 2014). Further, such income earned by women was eliminated, GDP could rise by as much is more likely to be spent on household needs as $102 million (T Sh 203 billion). The second than that earned by men. finding was that women characteristically used lower volumes of fertilizers and pesticides. Women also have a harder time securing Eliminating the gender gap here could raise investment capital. For example, although the GDP by $19.3 million (T Sh 38 billion). A third Tanzania Agriculture Development Bank was finding was that women’s lower level of access established to provide low-interest loans to to improved agricultural tools accounts for 8 guarantee food security and aid in the transi- per cent of the gender gap. tion from subsistence to commercial farming (Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives, 2014), few women possess the Gender challenges formal land title required to obtain such loans. in rural Tanzania Gender and climate change Farming and poverty Social norms are not the only factor that As noted, the poor of Tanzania are largely influence gender distinctions in Tanzanian rural poor. Rural poverty is the substan- agriculture. All Tanzanian farmers are affected tive cause of chronic malnutrition and by climate change and associated natural

4 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania disasters. Drought forces men to travel further cent of the political leadership at the district to find pasture for their livestock. Drought level or below (USAID, n.d.). These and forces women to travel further to obtain water related factors explain Tanzania’s relatively and firewood, thus reducing the time they can low ranking in the gender equality indices of apply to tilling their plots. the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Nonetheless, men — with their knowledge, United Nations Development Because women ownership of land and control of farming Programme (USAID, n.d.; resources — have an advantage over their MoHCDGEC et al., 2016). manage more fragile female counterparts when it comes to climate change (UMFULA, n.d.). Because women The country’s 1977 Consti- lands, their plots are manage more fragile lands, their plots are tution contains the juridical more vulnerable to more vulnerable to floods, landslides, drought foundation of gender equality and the impoverishment of soils that ensues. in Tanzania, seeking to build floods, landslides, With their lower cash incomes, women cannot “a nation of equal and drought and afford the technologies that might otherwise free individuals enjoying compensate for their deficient soils. freedom, justice, fraternity resulting degraded and concord,” and stipulating Coping and adaptation strategies can also that “the state authority and soil. be gendered. Climate change may prompt all its agencies are obliged to farmers to move from traditional cash crops direct their policies and programmes towards such as tobacco towards more drought-re- ensuring” this outcome.7 Moreover, women sistant, early maturing food crops — such are constitutionally entitled to the same rights as cassava, beans and maize — that can be to land as men. The Tanzanian government sold at market. However, this reorientation has committed to gender equality through can contribute to food insecurity, as the cash its ratification of a series of key international earned from these “flexible” crops is gener- conventions and policy instruments and laws ally expended according to men’s wishes. which provide the legal basis for improving women’s equality.

Government institutions and Vision 2025 is Tanzania’s overarching national gender policy policy framework, seeking to guide its tran- Tanzania has long-standing commitments sition from a least developed country to a to human rights, having made impressive middle-income country by the year 2025 improvements in female enrollment in primary (United Republic of Tanzania, n.d.). Vision school5 and representation in parliament (IRI, 2025 is anchored in the country’s Long Term 2015). Nonetheless, 42 per cent of women in Perspective Plan 2011/12–2025/26, which is Tanzania experience intimate-partner violence being implemented through five-year devel- during their life; in 2015, 30 per cent reported opment plans. Tanzania’s second Five Year experiencing such violence within the past Development Plan 2016/17–2020/21 is built 12 months.6 Young Tanzanian women have on three pillars: transformation, industrial- little access to reproductive health services, ization and implementation effectiveness resulting in high incidences of early marriage, (President’s Office, Planning Commission, pregnancy and lethal diseases, and low rates 2012). While the plan recognizes the lower of secondary school completion. Sixty per yields of women’s farms, gender remains only cent of Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS are weakly integrated into its objectives (Ministry female. Finally, women comprise only 10 per of Finance and Planning, 2016).

Study context and purpose 5 Key documents guiding the integration of collected through stakeholder consultations gender equality into all policies, plans and and interviews at the community and house- programmes include the Women and Gender hold levels, and secondary data are used, as Development Policy of 2000, the National detailed in the next section. Specifically, this Strategy for Gender and Development of study: 2005, and the 2016 National Plan of Action to End Violence against Women and Children in Explores factors underpinning the gender Tanzania. In the agricultural sector, the 2013 gap not highlighted in the 2015 report National Agriculture Policy and the 2016 Agricultural Sector Development Programme Seeks a better understanding of how each Phase II recognize that women are the factor might be addressed in policy and majority of the labour force in the country’s programming agriculture sector and are in need of assis- tance in bridging gender gaps. Women have Deepens understanding of women’s and been targeted by the 2015–2025 Tanzania men’s vulnerability to climatic variations Climate Smart Agricultural Programme, and environmental degradation which promotes climate-resilient agricultural techniques to ensure the resilience of crops Explores how gender gaps in agriculture and livelihoods (Ministry of Agriculture Food might influence unsustainable agricultural Security and Cooperatives, 2013; United practices, environmental degradation and Republic of Tanzania, 2016). Thus the legal poverty and policy landscape for Tanzania’s farming women is progressive, although results on the Provides recommendations on the most ground remain disappointing. cost-effective solutions to closing gender gaps in agricultural productivity through climate-smart agricultural practices Purpose and scope of this study

This study aims to better and more deeply understand the gender gap in Tanzanian agriculture. It builds on the 2015 report, presenting an in-depth qualitative analysis of what drives the gender gap in Tanzanian agricultural productivity. Both primary data,

6 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania Analytic framework and methodology onventional approaches to work that is primarily borne by women and its analysing gender gaps in agri- implications for agricultural productivity. culture — and that used by the 2015 report — assess differences Here lies this study’s crucial distinction from Cbetween women and men regarding factors its predecessor. It offers a deeper insight of production (land, labour, seeds, fertilizers, into the underlying drivers of gender gaps in pesticides, tools, etc.), farming practices, the agricultural productivity, first and foremost, impacts of climate change and mitigation, because it incorporates the facts of women’s and climate-smart agricultural techniques. unpaid labour into the overall understanding This study additionally focuses on how of productivity. social norms and expectations — that is, the differing social contexts in which women and Clearly, unpaid care and domestic work come men work — influence their relative agricul- at a cost. Hours spent in unpaid household tural productivity. labour are hours unavailable for raising food or cash crops. As this report describes, the burden of unpaid labour follows on from Analytic framework deep-seated inequalities stemming from social norms and household power hierar- The 2015 report, in line with the United chies. Under these norms and hierarchies, Nations System of National Accounts defi- men exercise control over women, deter- nition, considered “work” to be anything mine the distribution of work, and control the individuals could theoretically pay another incomes and assets that work generates. Far individual to do for them. However, labour that too commonly, these social norms and values is performed for other household members are enforced through violence — often, is not counted as work. As a result, it is not through sexual violence — the economic considered in standard metrics of economic costs of which are only beginning to be quan- production or employment. tified.

Productivity depends upon individuals being These social norms and values create a major ready and able to work. Before people can imbalance of power in male-female relation- become useful as labourers, they must be ships. Not only do women have fewer hours born, raised, fed, sheltered, clothed, kept in which to tend their farms, they also have in good health and educated. They must more limited control over the use or misuse be taught requisite knowledge and skills to of household income and less access to perform their labour. These preparatory tasks improved methods of farming and the tools fall predominately on women. The Organ- such methods require. Less cash allows for isation for Economic Co-operation and fewer expenditures on household mainte- Development has found that in all countries nance and on the seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, for which evidence exists, women do far more and climate-smart agricultural techniques unpaid care and domestic work than do men. needed to grow more crops. Lower incomes In terms of creating productive labour, these mean less money to spend on the goods tasks are vital. Yet none of this necessary effort and services that grow a country’s economy. — most of it done by women — meets the Less money translates to less investment in standard definition of work. As a result, very personal skills, which also grow the economy. few investigations into agricultural produc- tivity pay attention to the burden of unpaid In this way, social norms and values limit the capacity of female household members to

8 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania undertake economic production — which environment, natural resources and climate has a direct impact on agricultural produc- change, stemming from differences in knowl- tivity and important implications for gender edge and experience. Ongoing processes equality and women’s economic empower- of climate change affect men and women ment. Gender differences in access to key farmers differently, and they may adopt farm inputs are a direct consequence of social differential coping and adaptation strate- norms and values. The resulting gender gaps gies in response. These choices in turn can in agricultural productivity and income only have implications for agricultural productivity, serve to reinforce the imbalance of power that household food security and cash incomes. underlies it. This way of understanding agri- cultural productivity is illustrated in Figure 2. By focusing on the impact gender differences have on agricultural productivity in Tanzania, Gender-based differences in the undertaking this study offers a new and important context of unpaid care and domestic work give rise in which the problems may be understood, to differences between women and men in and the steps needed to ameliorate these the amount and type of productive labour problems may be identified. that is done. As a result, women and men have distinctly different engagement with the

FIGURE 2 Path model of the gender gap in agricultural productivity

Economy-wide and Gendered norms environmental effects and customs Lower economic growth Division of unpaid work in Lesser poverty reduction the household Increased inequality Division of labour in the marketplace Inability to mitigate impacts of climate change Decision-making power, voice and agency Environmental degradation

Gender gap in agricultural productivity and profits

Gender differences in access to agricultural inputs Land; male labour; climate-smart fertilizer, pesticides and equipment; high-value crops Information, skills and extension services

Analytic framework and methodology 9 Methodology statistically representative of Tanzania, it may nevertheless be stated that they are fairly The purpose of this study was to build on the typical of rural Tanzania. Resource limitations findings of the 2015 report. To this end, qual- prevented the study from covering all of itative primary data were collected through Tanzania’s agro-ecological zones. stakeholder consultations and interviews at the community and household levels in Fieldwork occurred between July and order to obtain a better understanding of the September 2017. Four to six villages were factors driving the quantitative gender gap in visited in each district, with a total of 19 agricultural productivity. villages involved. These villages included 8,678 households. The qualitative data collected were comple- mented by an extensive and rigorous desk The key participatory methodologies used review of available policy documents and were semi-structured focus group discussions research literature to situate the data within and key informant interviews. Checklists for Tanzania’s broader policy environment. The each were developed to understand gender desk study described and explained the socio- gaps in agricultural productivity. The discus- economic, institutional, and policy constraints sions and interviews allowed identification that influence the gender gap in agricultural of the impact of climatic variations and productivity in Tanzania. The documentary environmental degradation on agricultural review of key secondary materials included productivity, along with the key drivers of national strategies, programmes and poli- those gendered impacts. cies on both gender and agriculture, as well as laws providing the legal basis on which The focus group discussions involved groups women’s equality issues are addressed in the of female and male farm managers; young, country. middle-aged and elderly farmers; women- only groups; and specific groups of farmers, Fieldwork locations were selected, in part, such as members of cooperative societies. In because they represented the different all, 547 individuals took part in these discus- agro-ecological zones of Tanzania and, sions. Following each session, women farmers further, because they were areas where the were asked to remain to answer an additional impact of climate change has recently been set of questions to confirm the validity of the noted. The locations were: information received in the wider focus group discussion. In all, 195 women took part in the Central zone: Ikungi district in Singida women-only discussions. In these discussions, region attention was paid to any gender-differen- tiated access to and quantities of the key Lake zone: Bunda district in Mara region factors of production: land, labour, seeds, fertilizers, water, tools and equipment. Where Western zone: Kibondo district in Kigoma such circumstances were identified, the region drivers of these differences were explored, along with their relative significance. The Northern zone: Ngorongoro district in women-only discussions also identified whether decision-making over crop disposal was gendered and the way household income While no effort was made to ascertain the was shared. Finally, the women-only discus- extent to which these four districts are fully sions explored the extent and effect of unpaid

10 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania care and domestic work and the prevalence and Agriculture Organization of the United and impacts of gender-based violence. Nations; the Economic and Social Research Foundation; Policy Research for Develop- The study team also consulted stakeholders ment; the Tanzania Gender Networking to review the findings of the 2015 report and Programme; the United States Agency for to preview the preliminary findings of its International Development; Mwananchi PPL; qualitative fieldwork. Stakeholders included TaTEDO, the Tanzania Traditional Energy Tanzania’s then–Ministry of Agriculture, Live- Development Organization; and the Makam- stock and Fisheries; the Ministry of Finance and baku Municipal Council. Planning; the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children; the National Bureau of Statistics; the Food

Analytic framework and methodology 11 Findings from the field Farming system These factors lead to low and erratic crop yields. In Ngorongoro, maize yields are as characteristics little as one-quarter of the estimated potential of the land. Many households try to supple- The four districts studied are broadly similar ment their income by raising cattle, goats, in agricultural terms.8 Agriculture—the raising sheep and chicken. In Bunda, those who live of crops and livestock—employs about 80 per near may also fish. Pastoralism is cent of each district’s population. Farms strongest in Ngorongoro, where 80 per cent typically range from 0.4 to 6.0 hectares; by of households keep livestock. Such pasto- custom, land is held over the generations ralism is under pressure, the district council by the household’s senior men, who claim to reports, because of overgrazing of land and “own” it, even though they hold no formal climate change–induced droughts and water title. shortages. Further difficulties ensue following harvest. The handling of harvested crops is Farms produce cash crops for sale, subsist- negligent, and transportation to local markets ence crops for household use, and flexible is inefficient. The consequence is decreased (”flex”) crops that can either be used for food income from crop or livestock marketing. or sold. Food and flex crops include maize, cassava, sorghum, sweet potato, finger millet, Polygamous marriage and beans, pigeon peas and, in some cases, rice. “At the end of the patriarchal asset ownership Sunflower, cotton, tobacco, groundnut and are common. Assets are horticultural crops are the principal cash day, we control all unevenly divided, with males crops. Certain cash and flex crops are grown controlling a far greater share. the harvest from all only by men on their plots; certain horticul- Decision-making relative to tural crops, grown for sale, are only grown the farm’s plots.” climate change and agri- by women. Women take principal responsi- culture is similarly handled. — Male Bunda farmer bility for producing food crops for household Women who marry rely upon subsistence. their husband or their husband’s family for access to any land they may work. As a male The land is usually prepared by hoe, though farmer in the Ngorongoro district stated, agro-pastoralists often prepare land using “Women are not aware of their rights.” cattle-drawn ploughs or, occasionally in Indeed, widows commonly face pressure from Ngorongoro, tractors. Modern tools and male relatives who want to re-assume “owner- equipment are rare. Most women and men ship” of “their” land, and women typically do plot operators in the four districts plant not defend their rights. low-yielding local varieties of seed, although some men use improved seed for maize. Most In most cases, marketing decisions are made use neither organic nor industrial fertilizers — by husbands. One man in the Bunda district they “kill the land,” said one male farmer in stated, “At the end of the day, we control all the Ngorongoro district, though a few ferti- the harvest from all the farm’s plots.” Men also lize with farmyard manure. Most farmers use control how money earned in local markets little or no pesticide, and rely on rain rather is used. As one woman from Ngorongoro than irrigation. This latter practice presents stated, “We are not allowed to speak what increasing problems, as climate change has is on our mind” where income is concerned. increased the variability of rainfall and, conse- quently, the prevalence of droughts. The incidence of gender discrimination and gender violence varies among the four

Findings from the field 13 districts studied, but the study fieldwork that food is prepared and available. Addition- found that such practices are widespread ally, women are responsible for such unpaid (Table 1). Corroborating this finding, more tasks as collecting firewood and water, tasks than three-fifths of the women respondents that have grown more burdensome with to Tanzania’s 2015–2016 Demographic and climate change. As one Ngorongoro woman Health Survey believe that wife-beating is an noted, “Nowadays, because of drought, you acceptable practice. A startling number have have to travel a much longer distance before been the victims of actual physical violence. you find water.” A second stated, “People are destroying trees in the search for firewood.” Typically, such household responsibilities Drivers of the gender absorb five to seven hours of a woman’s day, gap in agricultural thereby greatly reducing the time available productivity for women to work their plots.

Figure 3 summarizes the principal findings Clearly, the time-consuming performance of of this study’s research into the most impor- unpaid care and domestic work has a signif- tant drivers of the gender gap in Tanzania’s icant opportunity cost for women. In the agricultural productivity, as identified by context of Tanzanian agriculture, if a woman respondents across the 19 villages visited. spends time undertaking unpaid care or The following subsections expand on these domestic work, the time she has available to findings. work her own plot is thereby reduced. This, in practice, reduces a woman’s flexibility in how to spend time effectively and reduces oppor- Women’s unpaid care and tunities for gaining income through non-farm domestic work responsibilities employment. These factors combine to lower the productivity of land that is managed by Informants in all 19 of the villages studied women. stated that the performance of unpaid care and domestic work was the most significant constraint on the time women had available Women’s responsibilities to to work their plots. Such unpaid and domestic provide unpaid family farm labour work begins with preparing the household for the day — whether that be for work or for This study clearly identifies a neglected school — cleaning the home; caring for chil- aspect of farming practices in Tanzania: dren, the ailing and the elderly; and ensuring social norms dictate that women work on

TABLE 1 Women’s exposure to and acceptance of practices of gender discrimination/violence, by district

Percentage of women providing affirmative responses Instance of gender discrimination/violence Ngorongoro Bunda Ikungi Kibondo

Women have no say over major household decisions 32 22 14 21

Women think wife-beating is acceptable 69 89 64 76

Women are subjected to physical violence 34 61 31 43

Women are subjected to sexual violence 10 23 10 23

Women undergo genital mutilation 41 32 31 N/A

SOURCE: 2015–2016 Demographic and Health Survey.

14 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania their husband’s plots before working on their FIGURE 3 own. In monogamous marriages, men and Most important drivers of the gender gap in women work together but perform different Tanzania’s agricultural productivity tasks. The amount of work done by women on jointly operated plots is typically much Most important greater than that of their husbands, yet the driver husband controls the crop; determines if production exceeds household requirements, and when and where an excess will be sold; l Women’s unpaid care and domestic work and controls the cash such sales generate. responsibilities (19) Wives may receive a portion of that income, but as they are not informed of the total that was earned, they do not know what share of the income they are receiving. 0+100+2nd most important z driver In polygamous marriages, senior wives are l Women’s responsibilities assigned to manage certain plots of land to provide unpaid family by their husband, who tends to reside with farm labour (16) the most junior wife. Thus, polygamous l Economic consequences of gender-based violence (2) households have two types of farm plots: those controlled by husbands — which are l Women’s responsibilities to provide cash to meet commonly, if misleadingly, referred to as family needs (1) joint plots — and those controlled by wives, which tend to be on inferior land. The plots 11+3rd most important 5+84+z controlled by women are used to provide driver food for the wives’ household, including the husband when he chooses to eat with them. l Women’s responsibilities to provide cash to meet As one woman in the Ngorongoro district family needs (10) stated, the land that wives are assigned is l Economic consequences of “to get food for the family and money to gender-based violence (7) help the kids, but you don’t get a sufficient l None identified (2) piece of land, just a small-sized plot.” Another Ngorongoro woman observed, “My husband has 10 other wives. I take care of myself and 37+1152+z my children. I work together with my children NOTE: Figures in parentheses are the number of villages, out of a total of 19, in which on the farm. I graze the animals, I fetch water, a majority of focus group participants cited the particular driver. I collect firewood, I cook, I milk the cows and goats. I don’t rely at my husband at all.” husbands’ farm plots, the husbands effectively Before working their plots, wives are act not as co-workers, but as managers of their expected to finish work on their husband’s wives’ labour. For senior wives, work on their plots. One woman in Bunda noted, “When husbands’ plots constitutes a significant claim we begin weeding our plots, the grasses on their time. This time also has an oppor- are already much taller, and this lowers the tunity cost: when working on her husband’s yields on our plots.” A woman in Ngorongoro plot, the wife is unable to work on her own called husbands “dictators.” While women plot of land. This not only reduces the labour contribute the bulk of the work done on their available on women’s plots generally but

Findings from the field 15 complicates the task of employing climate- plots fails to meet household needs, the smart agricultural practices at the appropriate women must earn the money to buy needed time and sequence, thereby exacerbating food. Conversely, money that is earned by women’s vulnerability to climate change. husbands from the marketing of livestock, cash and flex crops is not shared with wives. Polygamous marriages may be seen as a The lack of redistribution of cash incomes form of husbands’ labour mobilization of within the household strongly reinforces the women. The money earned by the labour of need for the wife to undertake casual waged such women accrues not to them, but to the labour and petty trading, or to sell flex crops husbands. With the cash secured from their from their plots, to earn the cash needed wives, men sometimes invest in a new junior for household maintenance. This situation is wife, thereby increasing the labour pool for exacerbated when husbands take food grown their own land. As an example, the Chapa- on their wives’ plots and give it to another kazi Agricultural and Marketing Cooperative wife or sell it for cash. Moreover, women Society in Kibondo was formed by husbands may receive a lower price for the products to grow tobacco; less than 5 per cent of the they bring to market simply because they membership is female. As a group of contract are women. These factors combine to limit farmers, the men receive loans to purchase the incomes of women and to increase the inputs, then rely heavily on their wives’ unpaid demands on their time. As one key informant efforts to grow the labour-intensive crop. observed, “Women seem tired all the time.” Once the crop is sold, husbands do not share their incomes with their wives. Economic consequences of gender- based violence “Women seem tired The Chapakazi cooperative demonstrates a key point: Tanzanian men often assert their household all the time.” — Key men commonly work less on authority over women through violence. their plots than they claim, informant The percentage of women suffering phys- and women work significantly ical, sexual or emotional violence from their longer on their husbands’ husbands runs from a low of 44 per cent in plots of land than do the men themselves. the to a high of 78 per cent in Also, according to women respondents, Mara (MoHCDGEC et al., 2016). Such violence husbands generally refuse to work at all on is directed towards various ends. Men may the land their senior wives control, further use violence to claim cash earned by their reducing the labour available for work on wives or borrowed by them from village-level women’s plots of land. In many instances, it is savings and loan groups. Violence may be thus far more useful to understand husbands directed at compelling wives to do unpaid as managers of their wives’ labour, which is labour on men’s plots or to provide unpaid performed to increase the income available work as family caretaker and food provider. for the husbands. Some men use violence to force sex. As a man from the Bunda district put it, “Wife beating Women’s responsibilities to here is very normal.” A woman from Ngoron- provide cash to meet family needs goro said her husband wanted “food to be ready when he comes back home. If not, he In Tanzanian society, women are assigned beats me and all my children.” the principal responsibility for ensuring that the family’s food is available and ready to Such violence leads to physical injury, leaving eat. When food production from women’s women unable to work and thus falling further

16 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania behind in their duties as farmers and family in this regard. Many villages lack agricultural providers. A woman in Samunge said that extension officers; elsewhere, officers often she “decided to sell a goat to get some lack the budget to visit the villages to which money for medical purposes. As a result, they are assigned. Such officers were in fact when my husband was back, I was severely absent in the villages visited in this study. beaten, injured and admitted to hospital In their absence, the introduction of new, for treatment.” When women are not able climate-friendly farming prac- to undertake casual waged labour or petty tices occurs only haphazardly. “Wife beating here trading because of gender-based violence, Provided a more adequate less income is available for household main- budget, agricultural exten- is very normal.” tenance needs, which can trigger more sion officers would be — Male Bunda villager gender-based violence on the part of some capable of doing much more husbands. to support their communities and of doing so in a gender-responsive way. Gender-based violence is a significant disin- One possible role for these officers would be centive to women’s efforts to better their to introduce climate-smart agricultural prac- circumstances. The knowledge that the crops tices such as: they grow or the cash they earn may be seized by their husbands deters women from efforts Conservation agriculture to manage the they might otherwise make. Thus, gender- soil to retain its structure, biodiversity and based violence serves to reduce both the micronutrients labour supply and the incentive to save for investment. A relative shortage of cash makes Crop selection aimed at choosing early women less likely to invest in agricultural tools maturing, drought-resistant and high- and equipment or to take the steps that could yielding varieties raise productivity through climate-smart agri- culture. All these have consequences for Manuring to help maintain soil fertility agricultural productivity while limiting the ability of households to meet their food secu- Rainwater harvesting, for better yields rity objectives and ameliorate the poverty they may face. Agroforestry, to help sustain soil structure, composition and biodiversity

Agricultural productivity, A minority of farmers already practice certain climate change and elements of climate-smart agriculture, such extension services as intercropping maize and beans, switching to more drought-tolerant crops and fast- With their incomes largely devoted to house- er-maturing seeds, manuring, and judicious hold maintenance, women are less able to watering and tree plantings. But these cases afford the agricultural technologies men use. are sporadic, often undertaken with limited They have less farm equipment and fewer knowledge and guidance. Citing just one tools, and are less likely to use improved example, planting nearby trees would reduce seeds or chemical fertilizers, pesticides and the time required for women to collect fire- herbicides. wood, improve water sources and increase soil fertility. Yet the leaders in only one village Still, better access to these tools would not in the Ikungi district had received training necessarily solve the problems women face

Findings from the field 17 in climate-smart agriculture. Other farmers work. These disadvantages are often enforced responded to climate change by praying for by men through violence — the impact of rain. which is multiplied by taking women out of work, reducing their incomes and discour- aging them from saving or investing. It is thus Study findings in light not surprising that women plot operators of the 2015 report have lower levels of agricultural productivity, even when controlling for the poor quanti- The 2015 report found that women farmers ties and qualities of the land they operate. lacked access to sufficient male family Women face the barrier of “time poverty,” labour as well as to the agricultural technol- which generates lower levels of agricultural ogies they used. This study found the same productivity. problem, particularly among women who live in polygamous households or are widowed As a counterfactual to these findings, it is or divorced. Polygamous worth introducing the Amani women’s group Women’s husbands not only refuse to in Kibondo (Box 1). The Amani women’s group disadvantages in work their senior wives’ lands demonstrates that Tanzania’s highly unequal but expect them to work their social relations can change — and in the time and money own lands before carrying out course of one generation. When educated any other work. women share their household chores, work make it harder for their land collectively and reap the econo- them to adapt to This study mirrored the 2015 mies of scale, they find the time to generate report in finding that women more incomes and take control of their lives. climate change. cannot afford the agricul- The Amani women used their income to meet tural technologies needed to household maintenance needs and improve match men’s productivity. Women’s primary their plots. Their newfound economic inde- responsibility, as dictated by society, is to pendence has transformed gender relations meet household needs, which leaves little at home. Granted, the allocation of unpaid time and money for better farming. care and domestic work continues to be gender biased. However, by sharing these Cumulatively, men’s control of women’s time responsibilities, they have been individually and labour, of marketing, and of household able to reduce their responsibilities, while income leads to lower yields for women enhancing their economic independence farmers, as was also identified in the 2015 — and in so doing, to change the unequal report. Women’s disadvantages in time and social relations within which they had been money make it harder for them to adapt to enmeshed. climate change, which requires extra labour and training. The principle economic driver of the gender gap in Tanzanian agriculture is women’s burden of unpaid care and domestic

18 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania BOX 1 Closing the gender gap: the Amani women’s group

irst coming together as a dance group in school, the women still have to work their husbands’ plots Fand later as colleagues working a gravel mine, as well as their own, their husbands share in the the members of the Amani women’s group are also work. And not only is the work shared, so are the farmers, and thus subject to the widespread gender receipts from the plots’ earnings, allowing the bias of Tanzanian agriculture. But with an unusually women greater say in how they were spent. high level of education — most of them have at least seven years of schooling — the Amani women The Amani women have not had to resort to second petitioned the Tanzanian government for land to jobs, like so many of their fellow farmers. They live farm as their own. The government responded by in town, have formed a savings group and help assigning the group more than 8 hectares. Though each other with child care and domestic chores. they were not granted formal title to this land, they Their husbands assist them in some of their unpaid acted as owners of it. Without any help from their care and domestic work responsibilities, most husbands, the women grew cassava, planted maize notably the care of grandchildren. None of the with improved seeds and shared tasks. They sold husbands of the Amani women have other wives, the cassava as a group and reinvested their earn- and none of the Amani women are subjected to ings in livestock, in acquiring improved seeds and intimate-partner violence. in their daughters’ educations. Four members of the group have daughters who have since graduated The Amani women’s group has demonstrated that from or are now attending college. one way of addressing the time and cash constraints on women’s agricultural productivity is collective Breaking from tradition, the women’s husbands have organization into self-help groups. not sought to seize their wives’ earnings. Though

Findings from the field 19 Policy recommendations his study indicates a series of — albeit in a fragmentary and uncoordinated gender-based constraints exist in fashion. There is an urgent need to rebuild Tanzania that, if addressed by policy, Tanzania’s agricultural extension system, could increase women’s agricultural ideally by placing its officers in villages where Tproductivity. It has identified women farmers they are needed. These officers must recog- as suffering a poverty of time to farm, of nize the disproportionate constraints facing cash to meet household needs, of access to women farmers. improved farming techniques, of control over crops and assets, and of support from climate- smart agricultural extension services. All of Communications-based agricultural extension services these contribute to gender gaps in Tanzania’s agricultural productivity. This section presents Low-cost information and communications policy solutions in three main categories: technologies have strong potential to provide farmers with gender-responsive climate-smart

Boosting agricultural performance for agricultural practices. A majority of Tanzania’s both women and men rural farmers have mobile phones — used, for example, for financial services such as money

Promoting policies that transform the transfers. Despite the existence of promising material and cultural foundations of pilot programmes, the potential for using gender bias to free up farming time for mobile phone technology to women connect farmers with exten- There is an sion services has been poorly

Further research into the gender explored. For example, the urgent need to constraints on agricultural productivity United Nations Develop- rebuild Tanzania’s ment Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social agricultural Boosting agricultural Research Foundation intro- extension system. performance duced the Mobile Kilimo platform to link farmers and Climate-smart agricultural traders, enabling farmers timely access to extension services markets and prices.9 Various text-messaging platforms allow farmers to receive key agri- Agricultural extension services in rural cultural information on agronomic practices, Tanzania have become at best highly variable climate change and weather forecasts. Smart- since the 1990s, and at worst have all but phones also have the potential to provide broken down. Yet for farmers to learn more visual instructions in gender-responsive productive methods, they will need agricul- climate-smart agricultural techniques, serving tural extension services. Moreover, they will as a virtual farming school. need to adopt more climate-smart agricultural techniques to respond to climate change. The study therefore proposes an “e-agricul- Fulfilling these needs will require extensive ture” YouTube channel. Stemming from the training from qualified and equipped agricul- Mobile Kilimo platform, e-agriculture would tural extension officers. encompass other components of agricultural extension services to break down the produc- Many villages in Tanzania are already prac- tion cycle of key crops. For each production ticing climate-smart agriculture without the stage of a given crop, a model farmer would support of agricultural extension officers be featured in a three- to four-minute video

Policy recommendations 21 describing, in Swahili, the best way of carrying Value addition to women’s out that stage. Perhaps a dozen such videos agricultural products would be made featuring key crops and incor- porating gender-responsive climate-smart Women may benefit from agricultural produc- agricultural practices. E-agriculture could thus tion at different stages of the value chain than be integrated into the broader coverage of men. The agricultural value chain must be Mobile Kilimo across Tanzania. analysed to determine where women engage and benefit the most. Policies are also needed to reduce post-harvest losses, which impose Women’s access to land significant burdens on all farmers.

Tanzanian law engenders land tenure through The Small Industries Development Organiza- procedures that formalize customary land tion has a key role in helping women transition rights. Under the Village Lands Act, village to processing their crops, particularly when lands may be apportioned to individuals or women come together as a self-help group. groups through certificates of customary rights Village banks and credit cooperatives must of occupancy (CCROs). As the Amani women’s be engaged, although they are greatly in group has shown (see Box 1), need of resources and training in financial Both men’s and assigning group rights to land literacy. Such capacity-building should be can have a powerful impact women’s names predicated on extracting value from indige- on gender equality, espe- nous knowledge, such as the drying of food, cially when backed by social should be on the processing of dairy products and the use capital. The CCRO provides the certificate of of solar energy. the basis by which group rights to land can be formally customary rights The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme assigned to women’s groups. also has a role to play: its annual gender of occupancy when In this light, there is a need to festival provides a forum for women proces- scale-up Tanzania’s Mkurabita land is assigned to sors of agricultural products to display their programme, which allocates goods. households. CCROs across the country.

This process needs to ensure that both men Revisions to agricultural statistics and women have their names on the CCROs, and that both receive copies of the CCROs Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics when land is assigned to households. In addi- produces data through nationwide represent- tion, mechanisms need to be put in place ative surveys, including the National Panel to ensure that spouses’ legal rights of joint Survey, the Household Budget Survey, the ownership are enforced. Such documenta- Integrated Labour Force Survey, the Agricul- tion will also give women control of their land tural Sample Census and the Tanzania Service should their husband die. In other countries Provision Assessment. None, however, studied, including India and Vietnam, formal- adequately capture gender relations. This izing these rights has been associated with was strongly evident in this study’s fieldwork, reductions in gender-based violence. wherein the impact of unpaid female labour on male-controlled farmland — or on land where husbands controlled crop disposal and cash incomes — was probably undercounted in National Panel Surveys because the prin- cipal respondents were male.

22 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania Tanzania’s statistical instruments need to the implications for house- Improving use both senior males and senior females holds lacking cooperation. of households as principal respondents in Specifically, gender-based cooperation their surveys. This implies separate interviews violence — clearly a lack of between husbands with both. Another key objective should be cooperation — contributes to develop poverty measures for individuals, to gender gaps in agricul- and wives in because measures of household poverty tural productivity. This fits wrongly assume equal sharing of poverty risks with the emerging advocacy Tanzania’s among the members of a given household. and academic literature that agriculture can considers gender-based Extensive donor support exists for revisions violence to be more than a increase productivity to Tanzania’s statistical system. Such revi- violation of civil and political and household sions are also consistent with global trends rights, but also of economic in identifying the shortcomings of living and social rights (Puri, 2016). income. standards measurement surveys and labour The fieldwork supports the force surveys, and introducing revisions view that the violation of economic rights has designed to enhance the statistical reliability micro- and macro-economic consequences of such surveys, particularly around gender (National Center for Injury Prevention and relations (Bardasi et al., 2010). In particular, Control, 2003). Gender-based violence is the Evidence and Data for Global Equality rooted in socially constructed norms and project, a joint venture by the UN Statistics expectations around individual behaviour Division and UN Women, is seeking to ensure and the stereotypes they perpetuate. These the gender sensitivity of data by improving findings suggest several policy avenues to gender disaggregation and gender respon- confront these stereotypes. siveness — especially with regard to assets, which has implications for understanding growth dynamics and their relationship to Encouraging husbands to be partners with their wives poverty reduction strategies. To change their stereotypical masculine behaviour, men themselves need to confront Social norms and values it. There is a need to identify, promote and facilitate male advocates of gender equality Since 1995, Tanzania has made institutional, at the local, regional and national levels. As policy and social progress towards real- the success of the UN Women’s #HeForShe izing the aspirations of the Beijing Platform global campaign demonstrates, policies that for Action, which proclaimed that “shared support engaging with men around gender power and responsibility should be estab- stereotypes can be an important means of lished between women and men at home, in confronting corrosive dimensions of mascu- the workplace and in the wider national and linity. They can help men recognize the international communities.” But that progress importance of sharing the farm and house- has not been nearly as extensive as it might hold work conventionally expected of women have been, despite research more than two — and, in so doing, improve agricultural decades old that has shown that improving productivity by fostering greater economies cooperation between husbands and wives in of scale. Tanzania’s agriculture can increase productivity and household income (Tibaijuka, 1994).10 The fieldwork conversely demonstrates

Policy recommendations 23 Supporting women’s self-help stereotypes (Agarwal, 2010), and prepare groups more women for village leadership roles.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development has produced research from Rainwater harvesting Asia on the importance of women’s self-help The fieldwork for this study found that, for groups in transcending local forms of gender many women, collecting water and fuel takes discrimination (IFAD Independent Office three to four hours every day. Among the of Evaluation, 2017). Such self-help groups 38 million rural Tanzanians, more than half empower women to claim the critical farming have no access to an improved water source.11 resources they may be lacking, learn new skills Tanzania, which averages more than a metre and enhance their bargaining power; as well of rain a year spread between two rainy as providing them with a forum for expressing seasons, has an abundant supply of rainwater their voice. that, by and large, is not harvested. Utilizing this resource would reduce the time poverty In too many communities, women’s lack of that affects women in rural Tanzania. Further, agency stems from not knowing their choices, the operating costs of rainwater harvesting as well as from the use of intimate-partner are low, when local, low-cost materials are violence to constrain choices when they used to build storage jars and tanks. are known. Women’s self-help groups need to be facilitated by village govern- Multiple Tanzanian projects harvest rainwater ment and development partners to discuss for soil conservation, irrigation, livestock, and confront gender-based violence, while schools and household consumption. Through informing women of their civil and political support from a non-governmental organ- rights, especially when it comes to house- ization (NGO), Ereto Masaai Youth in Elerai hold assets and incomes. These groups can expanded the rainwater collection system by also transfer knowledge about livelihood building 30 storage tanks at selected public options — including climate- buildings. The result was a strong demand for smart agriculture options Women’s lack of more tanks (Kesho Trust and EMAYO, n.d.). In — and enhance collective the Kilimanjaro region, UNDP has supported agency frequently skills. Finally, they can offer a a local NGO in constructing micro-dams that first opportunity for women collect water as it streams down hillsides. stems from not to have a role in community The micro-dam in one village can store up knowing their decision-making and can to 220,000 litres of rainwater for irrigation. prepare women for village According to UNDP, the project has resulted choices. leadership roles. in better nutrition and higher incomes.12

The Amani women’s group provides field Equipment and material costs are key evidence of all these benefits (see Box 1). A constraints to adopting rainwater harvesting “digital village” programme in Ngorongoro in Tanzania (Mwamila, Han and Katambara, has brought women together to improve 2016). There are also water shortages during their livelihoods by producing and marketing the dry season, issues with water quality and crafts, to great effect. As these examples a general lack of demonstration projects demonstrate, women’s self-help groups can showing the benefits of rainwater harvesting. improve livelihoods by empowering individ- Rainwater harvesting in Tanzania thus remains uals to challenge gender-based violence and a significantly under-utilized resource. However, the NGO WaterAid has produced

24 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania a technical brief on rainwater harvesting that the health benefits of using clean, smokeless demonstrates that a 1,500-litre storage jar in energy. Systematic community-based educa- Uganda, using locally sourced materials and tion in the use of solar cookers would be labour, can serve five households at a cost of required. T Sh 124,000, or $55 (WaterAid, 2013).13 Tanzania has an Interventions by NGOs and A government project in rainwater harvesting the private sector have been abundance of solar could be supported by multilateral and bilat- undertaken to provide solar energy that is not eral donors. While the details need to be cookers across Tanzania. refined, the project could begin by scaling The Tanzania Solar Bakery currently utilized by up the most cost-effective practices from Project in the Kisarawe rural households as existing pilots, both within Tanzania and district recently provided regionally. Consideration should go beyond marginalized women with a an energy source. manufactured water tanks to less costly tanks commercial solar oven. Inter- constructed with local materials, such as views suggest that the oven led to higher those suggested by WaterAid. This project incomes, better health and enhanced social could start small and at a relatively low cost, status for women who took part in the project possibly using a randomized control trial to (Welch and De Francesco, 2017). More than evaluate its effectiveness. 9,000 solar cookers of various designs have been distributed.14 However, these distribu- tions have not been systematically evaluated. Solar cookers In the early 2000s, the College of Engineering and Technology at the University of Dar es Women are the gatherers of firewood in Salaam conducted studies on the devel- Tanzania, a chore that adds significantly to opment and performance of solar cookers the time poverty they face. However, as more (Kimambo, 2007). The research found many of than a third of every day is bright and clear the cookers sufficient for households in areas in Tanzania, the country has an abundance with medium or high insolation. And while of solar energy that is not currently utilized heating efficiency was an issue, the SunStove by rural households as an energy source. Use box cooker was able to cook 2 kilograms of such solar power could offset the need to of rice, enough to feed a moderately sized provide firewood and charcoal for cooking, family in Tanzania (Kimambo, 2007). Solar thus freeing time that could be applied to cookers available on the Internet cost far less raising agricultural productivity. than some piloted in these studies. Units that last approximately two years can be obtained Problems do exist. Solar panels are the for between $3 and $7 (T Sh 6,700–15, 600).15 conventional means of converting sunshine to usable energy. Their cost, however, makes A pilot project could be initiated to introduce a universal rural programme prohibitively solar box ovens into villages and districts. The expensive. Alternatively, solar cookers can be objective would be to start small at a relatively constructed with local, inexpensive materials low cost, and then evaluate the effectiveness and negligible upkeep. The key limitations of of the intervention, possibly through a rand- solar cookers are that their energy yield relies omized control trial. The project should factor on sunlight, that they perform optimally at in the direct cost of supplying the ovens along mid-day and that some foods take longer to with training the community in their use. The prepare using solar cookers. These limitations, goal would be to scale up the most successful however, must be weighed against the time pilots, both within Tanzania and regionally. otherwise devoted to collecting firewood and

Policy recommendations 25 Lack of cash and its implications for and school enrolments (Seidenfeld and agricultural productivity Handa, 2011). A four-year randomized control trial of cash transfers in Uganda significantly Since the introduction of Vision 2025, Tanzania boosted income, particularly among women, has implemented a wide variety of rural and found that mismanagement was limited programmes and projects designed to boost (IPA, n.d.). A two-year randomized control agricultural production, incomes and house- trial of cash transfers in Kenya produced hold welfare. Because these programmes robust improvements in food consumption, seek to manage risks and vulnerabilities, they reductions in child labour, accumulations of constitute social protection. Often, however, productive assets and increased formation these protections prove inadequate due to a of non-farm enterprises, particularly among lack of institutional capacity. For example, the women (Asfaw et al., 2014). Finally, an evalua- National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme tion of a cash transfer scheme in rural Malawi pilot project, implemented with support demonstrated strong increases in food from the World Bank, offered a three-year, production and ownership of farming assets, 50 per cent subsidy to provide small-scale and a significant decrease in casual labour farmers with critical agricultural tools, such (Boone et al., 2003). as fertilizers and improved seeds. In many ways an admirable pilot, the The Tanzania Social Action Fund under the scheme’s lack of institutional The most effective President’s Office is implementing a nation- capacities compromised its wide Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) social protection for results. At the same time, as programme, which targets women to receive with many programmes and cash transfers on behalf of their household. poor people lacking projects, gender constraints The programme reaches 1.1 million house- cash is to provide were not addressed in imple- holds, of which 51 per cent are headed by mentation, which affected females (TASAF Management Unit, 2017). them with cash. project effectiveness. In addition, the Tanzanian government, with support from development partners, International development is developing a comprehensive and coordi- institutions have established that the most nated social protection policy. In light of this effective social protection for poor people development, the PSSN programme should lacking cash is to provide them with cash. continue to ease the ways in which a lack of Claims that cash transfers are an inefficient cash can constrain women’s choices, espe- use of scarce government resources are not cially in rural areas — reducing their reliance supported by global comparisons (Hanlon, on second jobs and petty trading, and freeing Barrientos and Hulme, 2010). While transfers time to allocate to their plots of land. This from government to citizens in the form of will improve labour productivity in women’s cash preclude the targeting of social protec- farming. tion towards consumption or production, this apparent weakness is in fact a strength. Poor people are themselves the best judges of how Further research social protection expenditures can assist their efforts to prevent, manage and overcome risks Given the findings of this study, two further and vulnerabilities. A three-year quasi-experi- avenues of research are recommended: mental evaluation in found that a cash transfer scheme strongly affected livestock Re-estimate the gender gap in agricul- ownership, fertilizer use, cash crop production tural productivity in Tanzania using the

26 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania 2014-15 National Panel Survey, but explic- Additionally, Tanzania’s National Panel Survey, itly incorporating the key drivers of the while statistically representative, has limita- gender gap — women’s unpaid care and tions which could be addressed. The survey domestic work in the household and in the focuses on household-level statistics, thereby community, unpaid family farm labour, and overlooking significant differences in well- gender-based violence. being that may exist between members of a single household. Further, it does not account Undertake quantitative research at the for the effects of the unpaid labour to which micro-level to incorporate the economic the women of Tanzania devote a dispropor- dimensions of gender-based violence and tionate amount of their time. unpaid care and domestic work into esti- mates of the gender gap in agricultural productivity.

Policy recommendations 27 Notes

1. All currency conversions are based upon Socio-Economic Profile 2015; the Kibondo the prevailing average exchange rate in the District Council Socio-Economic Profile 2016; relevant year, as reported by the International and the Ngorongoro District Council Medium Monetary Fund. Source: http://data.imf.org/ Term Strategic Plan 2016/17–2020/21. regular.aspx?key=61545850. 9. For more information, see the Mobile Kilomo 2. World Bank, World Development Indicators, website, http://mkilimo.esrf.or.tz/. http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports. aspx?source=world-development-indicators; 10. Tibaijuka found that greater cooperation accessed June 2017. would improve labour productivity by 15 per cent, capital productivity by 44 per cent and 3. A multiplier of 1.11 is used, as the benefits of household cash incomes by 10 per cent. raising agricultural production also include spillovers to other sectors in the economy. It 11. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme is also assumed that closing the gender gap JMP for Water Supply, Sanitation and influences all agricultural sectors equally in Hygiene, https://data.worldbank.org/ Tanzania. indicator/SH.H2O.SAFE.RU.ZS, accessed October 2017. 4. This analysis builds on work by Ali et al. (2015); Kilic, Palacios-Lopez and Goldstein 12. UNDP, Rain water harvesting improves lives of (2015); and Slavchevska (2015). Tanzanian farmers, web page, www.undp.org/ content/undp/en/home/ourwork/ourstories/ 5. UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls’ and water-harvesting-improves-lives-tanzanian- Women’s Education – One Year On, www. farmers.html, accessed April 2018. unesco.org/eri/cp/factsheets_ed/TZ_ EDFactSheet.pdf, accessed March 2018. 13. The estimate in the brief (WaterAid, 2013) has been increased to reflect Tanzania’s inflation 6. UN Women, Global Database on Violence and exchange rates between 2013 and 2017. against Women, http://evaw-global-database. unwomen.org/en/countries/africa/united- 14. Solar Cookers International, Distribution of republic-of-tanzania, accessed June 2017. solar cookers, www.solarcookers.org/work/ capacity/distribution-solar-cookers, accessed 7. Constitution of Tanzania, www.parliament. September 2018. go.tz/publication/journals, accessed October 2017. 15. Solar Cookers International, Solar cooking wiki, http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/ 8. District data are drawn from the respec- CooKit, accessed September 2017. tive district’s most recent development plans: the Bunda District Council Strategic Plan 2011/12– 2015/16, the Bunda District Socio-Economic Profile 2014, and the draft Bunda District Socio-Economic Profile 2016; the Ikungi District Council Medium Term Rolling Strategic Plan for the years 2014/15– 2018/19 and the draft Ikungi District Council

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30 Factors Driving the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Tanzania

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