How can Tanzania build capacity to accelerate women’s economic empowerment?

One key piece of the puzzle in accelerating progress towards gender equality in Tanzania is the having the same legal rights for women and men and boys and girls. Earlier this year, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law team convened government representatives, private sector, and women’s groups during the mission between March 11–15 to take stock of the country’s legal and policy achievements to reflect on what more  Tanzania can do to make gender equality a reality. Here are some key findings and reflections:

One step forward could close the legal gender gaps in Mobility, Workplace, Parenthood, and Pension

Tanzania has already made significant strides to nationalize international conventions to ensure women realize their fundamental rights.  In 1998, Tanzania enacted the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act protecting women from sexual harassment in employment. With the enactment of the Employment and Labor Relations Act in 2004, the Government of Tanzania began administering maternity benefits through the social security system, enabled fathers to take paternity leave, and instituted the landmark principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. In 2005, Tanzania prohibited discrimination based on gender in employment — the last gender sensitive reform captured by the Women, Business and the Law historical reform database.

However, when it comes to freedom of movement and agency measured by the Mobility indicator, Tanzania’s Citizenship Act prevents a woman from passing her nationality to a spouse posing challenges to maintaining the family unit and women’s inheritance and property rights.

The Employment and Labour Relations Act does not include the possibility to request flexible work option — contrary to the recognition of the importance of work-life balance measured by the Workplace indicator. When it comes to Parenthood,  only 84 days of paid maternity leave is available for a woman with one child instead of  the minimum 98 days established by the ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention. The National Social Security Fund Act does not account for maternity period in pension benefits leaving Tanzania a step away from a score of 100 on the Pension indicator (figure 1).

Figure 1: Tanzania is only a step away from achieving legal gender parity in mobility, workplace, parenthood, and pension indicators

^{Source: Women, Business and the Law 2024 database.
Note: Sub-Saharan Africa includes 48 countries, of which Eastern and Southern Africa includes 26 countries.}

Tanzania could do better when it comes to laws on women’s entrepreneurship and assets ownership

“You need money to make money.”

— Ms. Jane Magigita, Executive Director, Equality for Growth, Tanzania

The country is only half-way there when it comes to women’s entrepreneurship and assets ownership.  In Tanzania, women’s ability to start businesses is limited due to lack of access to formal finance. The absence of legal prohibition of discrimination in access to credit based on gender provides a leeway for creditors to limit women’s access to loans diminishing their role in the overall private sector development.

The latest Afro Barometer study  reported unequal inheritance rights as the second most important women’s rights issue in Tanzania, mostly fueled by the discriminatory customary law and practices which deny women’s and girls’ opportunities to inherit property, especially land. On both these matters, entrepreneurship and inheritance, the Government of Tanzania could leverage the experiences from reform efforts of its regional peers, including Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia, to remove the outstanding barriers to enable women to accumulate wealth and invest. Notably, the government has shown commitment through a standalone World Bank funded project on women’s economic empowerment. The  Project for Advancing Gender Equality (PAMOJA) aims to increase access to (i) economic opportunities for women and (ii) Gender-Based Violence prevention and response services, in targeted areas of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The legal framework is weakest when it comes to ensuring women’ safety.

Violence against women is a pressing concern in the country. Tanzanian Network of Legal Aid Providers (TANLAP) emphasizes gender-based violence as one of the most important gender equality issue.  Nearly 50% of respondents in Afro Barometer study reported gender-based violence as the most important issue for women.  Tanzania has no laws on domestic violence. Child marriage remains a wide-spread concern in the country limiting girl’s agency, education, and economic opportunities. The Law of Marriage Act 1971 allows girls aged 14 or 15 years to marry with parental consent, contrary to the Maputo Protocol.

“You cannot empower women without taking care of their children first.”

— Honorable Doctor Dorothy Gwajima, Minister of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, Tanzania

The 2024 Eastern Africa Regional Early Childhood Conference in Dar es Salaam also made it evident that the enabling environment for childcare services across the region and in Tanzania remains a blank page on public finance commitments and quality standards. In fact, according to the newly introduced childcare indicator, Tanzania has put in place only about a fourth of the minimum needed childcare legal frameworks. Closing legal gaps on childcare on average could lead to about 1 percentage point increase in women’s labor force participation, with this effect doubling five years after the enactment of the law.

Tanzania has less than a fourth of the policy frameworks measured by Women, Business and the Law for effective implementation of laws.

While the law is the first necessary step towards creating the enabling environment, even more needs to be done to ensure its meaningful implementation. In Tanzania, the gap between the laws and the frameworks supporting their implementation, as measured by Women, Business and the Law 2.0 for the first time, is the largest for the indicators with the perfect legal scores of 100 – Pay and Marriage (figure 2).

The Pay supportive frameworks score of 0 indicates an urgent need for the government’s investment in pay transparency measures and the statistical data on women’s sectoral employment to avoid discriminatory pay practices. Similarly, the establishment of the minimum set of policy instruments, including fast-track procedures, specialized family courts and legal aid, could facilitate quick resolution of family disputes by addressing issues that women face, including domestic violence, child custody, divorce, and property rights. Some regional peers, including Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, have already instated some of these practices bringing their WBL 2.0 supportive frameworks score to 66.7.

Figure 2: The implementation gap is the highest in pay and marriage indicators

^{Source: Women, Business and the Law 2024 database.}

What is the way forward? The new National Gender Policy in Mainland Tanzania as well as the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children notes that laws and supporting regulations with a gender bias must be amended to truly ensure gender equality. We heard from legal rights advocates, scholars and women’s groups that some of these include the Local Customary Law (Declaration No. 4) Order on the matters of inheritance and the Citizenship Act - on of conferring citizenship and the amendment to the Law of Marriage Act 1971.

One option being explored could be a comprehensive law on gender-based violence prohibiting all forms of violence against women.

Even the best laws on the books mean very little without meaningful implementation: this ensures awareness about rights and legal procedures that must be disseminated all the way to the ward level. Beyond this, there is also a need to change entrenched and “sticky” gender norms that limit the effectiveness of legal reforms. We also learned and were humbled by the strong voices both within and outside of government who championed for change. Tanzania has a vibrant set of stakeholders that form a part of the policy dialogue but also must be at the table.

Women, Business and the Law stands committed to producing data and knowledge in support of the Government of Tanzania. The World Bank stands ready to support the Government in reform undertakings.