Supporting development policies towards sustainable livelihoods, industrialization, and resource mobilization in Tanzania (https://www.wider.unu.edu/opportunity/supporting-development-policies-towards-sustainable-livelihoods-industrialization-and)

Consultants: Dr. Nasibu Mramba (CBE) & Dr. Nandera Mhando (UDSM)
Value: USD 12,000
Sponsor: United Nation University (Unu-wider)
Project output: Report and article publication
Year:2021

The project investigates the working conditions of the young women working as assistants in the food vending sector in Tanzania using qualitative data, which are supplemented with quantitative data. Data were collected in the municipalities of Nyamagana and Ilemela in Mwanza Region, northern Tanzania, and from officers working with the government and insurance fund organizations in Dodoma region, central Tanzania.
The results show that young women’s working conditions are poorer than those of the fellow workers in the informal sector and that they continue working in the sector on the basis of resilience. They are paid lower salaries than those paid to informal workers in Tanzania in general and most young women seek employment in food vending as a matter of economic necessity. The emergence of the coronavirus disease has further increased their vulnerability.
The government can improve their working conditions by establishing an authority/agency responsible for managing the informal sector, making formalization of their business a long-term objective, reviewing the municipal councils’ by-laws that are prohibitive, establishing vending zones, and, in collaboration with other institutions, empower women. Publication from the project can be accesses via. https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-157-improving-young-women-working-conditions-urban-food-vending-sector-Tanzania.pdf

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