This PowerPoint presentation examines gender and social justice issues in Tanzania with proposed ways to address them, including issues of: - Gender and Development - Family Life and Structure - Women in Tanzanian Society - Maternal Health, including Obstetric Fistula - Healthcare in Tanzania - Violence against Women and Children - Environmental Impact on Women, including Water Access and Soil Degradation - Women as Decision-Makers - Women and Albinism

3. ♀ Located in East Africa, the United Republic of
Tanzania was formed in 1964 by the union of
Tanganyika and Zanzibar, both recently liberated
from British colonial rule.
♀ With a population of nearly 43 million people, it is
one of the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries.
♀ Tanzania is ranked 152 out of 187 on UNDP’s
2011 Human Development Index.

4. Tanzania’s National Strategy for Gender & Development identified
key challenges relating to gender equality in Tanzania:
♀ Patriarchal system; customs & traditions that discriminate against
women and perpetuate gender inequalities
♀ Inadequacies of the legal and institutional framework
♀ Lack of capacity for implementing programs towards gender
equality & women’s empowerment
♀ Persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women
♀ Inequalities in arrangements for productive activities and in
access to resources
(continued)

5. ♀ Inequalities in the sharing of power and decision‐making
♀ Inequality in access to education, especially secondary and
tertiary education
♀ Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of
the human rights of women
♀ Inequalities in managing natural resources and safeguarding the
environment

6. “At the family level, boys (have been) socialized at the father’s fireplace school
and girls by mothers in the kitchen school. While boys were trained to be
‘men’ [outside looking, open minded, and making decisions], girls were
trained for their role of housewife and mother.”
The dominant family structure in Tanzania had been the extended family,
but it is now shifting to nuclear as more people migrate to cities away
from their extended families. Polygamy exists among some tribal
cultures and Muslims, but it is decreasing due to the influence of
Christianity, the education of women, and limited money to support
multiple households.

7. The following video link of an interview with
Tanzanian women offers a picture of the
treatment of women in their society –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpSZ5adaCjE

8. ♀ As is the case with all of the gender-related issues
highlighted in this presentation, education, good
governance, and money (program funding, responsible
economic empowerment) are key to making changes.
♀ For a society in which gender inequality is accepted as
part of deeply ingrained cultural beliefs and traditions,
it is critical to have respected opinion shapers voice
educational messages.

10. “Giving birth holds deadly risks for mothers in Tanzania, where on
average one woman and six infants die each hour from
preventable, birth-related complications.” - PBS NewsHour
The following video clip offers a glimpse of maternal health in Tanzania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXC5RK07eI

11. “Many women who die in childbirth (in Tanzania) are young and
healthy, and most maternal deaths are preventable with basic
obstetrical care.” – New York Times
♀ Maternal mortality is 790 per 100,000 live births (WHO 2011).
♀ According to slightly different data (with a lower MMR) used by
the medical journal, Lancet, in a 2010 report, Tanzania’s MMR
translated to a global rank of 148 out of 181.
♀ Main causes of maternal mortality in Tanzania are:
Hemorrhaging, Infection, High blood pressure, Prolonged labor, and
Abortion-related complications

12. ♀ Death is not the only all-too-common result of pregnancy
and childbirth for women in Tanzania. One debilitating and
long-term result can be obstetric fistula (OF).
♀ OF is a painful and marginalizing health condition
resulting from complications during childbirth.
♀ Women with OF often live in shame, isolated and shunned
by their community, friends, and even family.
♀ It can result from prolonged labor, female genital
mutilation, giving birth too young – before a pelvis has
time to fully develop, insufficient ante-natal care, and the
“3 delays” described later.

13. Tanzania’s overall health statistics are
greatly troublesome.
♀ Tanzania is ranked 192 out of 192 countries for physician
density, with a mere 0.008 physicians per 1,000 people.
♀ It is ranked 140 out of 183 for hospital bed density, with
1.1 hospital beds per 1,000 people.
♀ Just over 5% of its GDP is spent on healthcare.
♀ With an overall low life expectancy of 52.85 years, its
maternal and infant mortality rates are high: 790 per
100,000 live births and 66.93 per 1,000 live births.

14. The 3 delays:
Maternal mortality occurs most often due to what is termed the 3
delays, which are:
♀ Delay in seeking healthcare
♀ Delay in reaching a healthcare facility
♀ Delay in getting medical attention
Other cohort members have reported identical or similar causes
of maternal mortality in their project countries, including Nepal,
Pakistan, India, Angola, Ghana, and Latin America/Caribbean,
such as:
Hemorrhage, Sepsis/Infection, Hypertensive Disorders,
Complications from Abortion, and Obstructed Labor

15. These similar causes have their roots in lack of access to
adequate medical care, which must be addressed in paving a
way forward, including:
♀ Lack of knowledge about, and the cultural acceptance of, what
adequate medical care during pregnancy and childbirth means
♀ Lack of adequately trained health professionals
♀ Lack of nearby medical centers equipped to deal with childbirth
complications, or lack of reasonable access to transportation to reach
such centers
♀ Early childhood marriage, female genital mutilation, and other
traditional practices that cause childbirth complications
♀ Lack of adequate ante-natal care

17. “(In Tanzania), there is no law against domestic
violence, specifically.” – USAID
The major forms of GBV in Tanzania are:
♀ Domestic and intimate partner violence
♀ Sexual violence
♀ Female genital mutilation
♀ Trafficking

18. ♀ The major form of violence practiced against women in
Tanzania is domestic and intimate partner violence.
♀ According to a study by Tanzanian NGO, Kivulini, Tanzania
is “among the 50 countries in the world with (a) high
percentage of domestic violence against women.”
♀ Domestic violence statistics in Tanzania demonstrate
highly localized areas of intense, rampant violence against
women. This same study reported that “82 per cent of
women in the Lake zone and Singida Region are subjected
to domestic violence.”

19. ♀ "Domestic violence is ♀ "I was beaten by a man with
rampant for various whom I was living and had a
reasons, including child with…He used a stick
patriarchal and cultural to beat me and broke my
beliefs as well as practices kneecap. I had to undergo
that degrade women. A an operation to insert a plate
man can do anything in my knee. I have never
against a woman simply recovered because the
because he had paid injured left leg is now
dowry." shorter. The man was never
- Ananilea Nkya, executive director of taken to court.”
Tanzania Media Women's Association
- Halima Mikidadi, Dar es Salaam

20. “According to Tanzania health statistics, FGM affects 18 per cent
of the country’s female population. Despite the fact that the
government criminalized FGM in 1998, this traditional cultural
practice still exists.” - UNESCO
The Maternal and Neonatal Program Effort Index reports that
female genital mutilation contributes to childbirth
complications, including bleeding, tearing, and infection.

21. ♀ The major forms of violence against children in
Tanzania are:
– Child labor
– Early child marriage
– Child trafficking
The following video clip offers one experience of child
marriage, from the child herself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZAqqxlz5Tg

22. ♀ Adequate laws to protect women and children from
violence must be put in place and enforced.
♀ Education on the unacceptability of gender-based violence
is key: with messages tailored to audiences of men,
women, and children.
♀ Opinion shapers have a duty to speak out against GBV,
rather than ignore it or claim it is acceptable and
something to be endured.
This video clip demonstrates the positive effect educational
campaigns focused on men can have:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHizM1ifUxk

24. The key environmental challenges Tanzania
currently faces include:
♀ Access to potable water
♀ Soil degradation
♀ Deforestation
♀ Desertification
♀ Recent droughts affecting marginal agriculture

25. ♀ There are significant impacts on both women and children
with regard to water.
♀ Limited access requires people (in Tanzania, the role
primarily belongs to women and girls) to walk long
distances to fetch safe water, which results in gender-
based violence and lack of schooling for girls.
♀ According to the paper, Diverting the Flow: A Resource
Guide to Gender, Rights and Water Privatization, “Every
day, many women and girls walk or travel long distances to
bring water to their families, often at the expense of
education, income generating activities, cultural and
political involvement, and rest and recreation.”

26. The following music video gives you a sense of the water
giver’s burden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4GvfDIYUA

27. ♀ Land degradation leaves soil in such poor condition it is
either difficult or impossible to use for agricultural
cultivation, which leads to a greater workload and level of
input in order to try to coax some yield from the land to put
food on the table.
♀ According to the UN, “This added burden usually falls
disproportionately on women (except for land clearing
work), because they are predominantly involved in food
crop cultivation and activities connected with livestock.”

28. Ideas to improve soil and water conservation:
♀ Work with communities to build and maintain community water
sources
♀ Educate communities on farming techniques to improve soil
quality
♀ Harvest rain water
♀ Promote environmentally sustainable practices at all levels:
individual, private/corporate, public
It is also critical to ensure the safety of women and girls
as they travel to obtain water.

30. ♀ A Woman’s VOICE can be a powerful tool in society –
whether in family life, community affairs, the political
arena, journalism, academia, or the arts.
♀ Although there are some example of this in Tanzania,
there is a long way to go in providing a safe space and
opportunities for women to voice their concerns and
ideas.

31. ♀ Tanzania ranks 15 out of 187 countries in terms of
women seated in the lower and upper houses of
national parliaments.
♀ Most of this is due to the provision of “special seat”
quotas, established when the country moved from a
single-party to multi-party system in 1992.
♀ Other categories of special seats were also
established at this time, including those for youth, the
army, and workers.

32. ♀ According to the paper, The Politics of Quotas in Tanzania:
“The idea of special seats was to ensure that the voices of
special categories of citizens were heard in parliament.
The thrust was not to bring about balance, but to
incorporate these voices, which otherwise would have been at
a disadvantage in the ‘normal’ electoral process.”
♀ We can see from the table in the next slide - when comparing
“women’s seats” and “total women” - that few women are
actually popularly elected to these positions.
♀ While quotas can be a step in the right direction if utilized
properly, along with other measures to promote gender
equity, they cannot necessarily be relied on as a true
measure of female voice.

33. Constituencie Women' s
Year s seats Total women Total Seats % total seats
2005 17 75 92 307 29.97
2000 12 48 60 279 21.51
1995 8 37 45 269 16.73
1990 2 19 21 242 8.68
2005 17 75 92 307 29.97
2000 12 48 60 279 21.51
1995 8 37 45 269 16.73

34. In speaking about women being elected to political office in
Tanzania as opposed to receiving appointment due to special
seat quotas, the organization Research and Education for
Democracy in Tanzania (REDET) articulated a number of
barriers:
“There are a multitude of reasons which account for women’s low
participation in electoral politics (in Tanzania)… In a nutshell, some of
the reasons include: low positioning of women in the society due to
social cultural norms and values, lack of economic power, legal and
regulatory environment, lack of political support by existing political
parties, which in turn impact their ability to access electoral
resources, such as media, the type of electoral regime, which
translates in lack of political will to transform the politics of
exclusion.”

35. ♀ Women should be, can be, and are influential in all
walks of life.
♀ Music is the most popular form of expression and
communication in Tanzania. As such, female
musicians can play a role in giving Tanzanian
women a voice in society, as strides are slowly
made in other areas of culture and society.

36. One example of the positive and influential role a
woman’s voice can play in Tanzania is
Nakaaya, a popular musician, who sings about
social issues.
Listen to Nakaaya’s VOICE here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2461HqUizAw

37. ♀ It is clear that, at the base, gender equity must
take root at the basic levels of life in order for
true change to occur.
♀ While political quotas can be helpful, a
woman’s voice must be promoted in all walks
of life.

38. ♀ According to one Tanzanian participant in a UN-sponsored
online discussion on women in leadership roles:
I believe Tanzania is among the leading African countries in
promoting gender equality and giving women leadership
opportunities... However, improved policy making and
gender sensitization cannot easily be measured by having a
woman leader in a ministry, agency or department, and if
this is the case, I do not think it is sustainable. I think
gender sensitivity is a culture that we are breeding, and
although in a disoriented manner, it is slowly being
reflected. We still need to do a lot in different socio-cultural,
economic, political, public and private institutions to nurture
positive gender sensitivity.

39. According to the UN document, Women and Decision-
Making, some strategy areas that have been identified for
increasing the representation of women in politics include:
♀ Setting targets
♀ Affirmative action (which would include quotas)
♀ Review of electoral systems
♀ Public awareness campaign
♀ Encouraging women to join politics
♀ Support for women candidates
♀ Support for women parliamentarians
♀ Support for women in democratization, peace and conflict
resolution

41. Capstone Topic – Preventing Stigma and Violence Toward People
with Albinism in Tanzania
Gender Dimensions:
♀ When Tanzanian women without albinism give birth to children
with albinism, they are often accused of sleeping with a white
man.
♀ The birth of a child with albinism is sometimes viewed as a
curse due to something a woman did wrong during her
pregnancy.
♀ A new belief has arisen – sleeping with a woman with albinism
is a cure for AIDS. Tanzanian women with albinism are now
being raped as a result.

42. ♀ Tanzania is a beautiful country with beautiful people,
but the dangers women and children face are
particularly troublesome problems.
♀ Deeply-rooted traditions, culture, poverty, lack of
access to education and basic health services all
contribute to the perpetuation of these problems.
♀ Progress is being made, but it is slow, and women and
children are suffering and dying in too great numbers.
♀ Hopefully this presentation has offered some insight
into the problems and some ideas for a way forward.