Tanzania

We Effect has been working in Tanzania for more than 50 years. The organization focuses on supporting agricultural livelihoods, addressing food insecurity, and advancing gender equality. Through partnerships, we strengthen farmers’ organizations, helping smallholder farmers organize, advocate for their rights, adapt to climate change, and improve food production and access to markets. A key focus is placed on supporting women and youth, ensuring they are active in agribusiness and leadership roles, promoting gender equality throughout all activities.

Right to Food: Together with our partners, we work to strengthen the ability of farmers’ organisations to defend the right of smallholder farmers. We support smallholder farmers in getting organised. We promote and practice gender equality, advocate for their rights, adapt to climate change and improve food production and access to markets. A special focus lays on women and youth being organised in agribusiness and given equal roles in activities and leadership.

Adequate housing: In Tanzania, we work to give people living in poverty the opportunity to build decent houses for themselves. A job that involves mobilising the grassroots but also influencing decision-makers at all levels.

Financial Inclusion: Our work focuses on supporting people living in poverty to access financial services such as loans, saving and insurance at reasonable prices.

Rights Bases Approach: An important part of our human rights advocacy work in the country is our participation in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), where the UN Human Rights Council examines countries’ human rights records.

Read more about our Partners and Programmes in Eastern Africa.

Tanzania, with a population of 61.3 million, faces significant challenges related to food insecurity, malnutrition, and housing. Between November 2023 and April 2024, approximately 900,000 people experienced acute food insecurity due to erratic rainfall, crop pests, and livestock diseases. These conditions have reduced crop production, limiting food availability and affecting the income of casual laborers.

Malnutrition remains a concern, with 31.8% of children under five affected by stunting, although Tanzania is making progress towards some maternal and child nutrition targets. The country also faces a housing deficit of 3 million units, particularly in urban areas like Dar es Salaam, where many families live in substandard conditions due to limited access to affordable housing.

In response to climate risks, Tanzania’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) aims to reduce emissions by 30-35% by 2030, while prioritizing adaptation measures such as clean water access and climate-smart rural electrification. Gender inequality persists, with women holding 36.7% of parliamentary seats, but issues like early marriage, domestic violence, and disparities in unpaid care work and reproductive health services remain pressing concerns.

Results in East Africa

• The total number of people reached by the partner organisations in East Africa stood at 62,634 in 2023
• A total of 39 partner organizations (POs), 15 in Kenya, 12 in Tanzania and 12 in Uganda are involved in the implementation of the programme. Although all partners are member based , 25 are majorly cooperatives and are the core partners.
• Through the Leadership for Change (LFC) program a total of 80 staff and board members of cooperative organizations were equipped with organizational development and governance skills.
• Women in leadership positions in East Africa increased from 42.2% in 2022 to 48.75% by end of 2023
• 55 gender champions, key opinion leaders, and duty bearers received capacity development trainings on Gender equality awareness equipping them with knowledge on gender issues, transformative approaches, and addressing sexual and gender-based violence to integrate gender equality within their organizations, 22 clergy members on preventing SGBV and promoting gender justice, and 132 duty bearers (65 females, 67 males) on SGBV prevention and response.
• To enhance resilience and minimize climate risk, the program in East Africa trained partner organizations on microinsurance and linked them to insurance service providers. The number of individuals with various forms of insurance coverage increased from 1,6357 (11,534M: 4,823F) in 2022 to 1,004,538 (752,379M; 252,159F) by end of 2023.
• Ninety-five percent (95%) of core partners in East Africa carried out simplified Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) – The ESIA findings showed that the established partners’ projects do not pose serious/critical environmental and gender concerns. ESIA, however, identified medium environmental and gender concerns that projects should address during the implementation phase. Several cases of gender inequalities, such as low participation in leadership and decision-making by women, harmful patriarchal attitudes, norms, and beliefs, heavy women workloads, unequal power relations, and vulnerability, limited access to land and other productive resources, low-income level, and Gender-based violence (GBVs) were cited.
• The membership of housing cooperatives we work with in East Africa increased from 1,224 to 19,095. This is because of the great interest members in VSLAs have shown in joining housing cooperatives as well.
• The number of houses constructed with the support of the East Africa Partner Organizations in housing cooperatives increased from 306 in 2022 to 674 units.
• Advancement towards the right to adequate housing was made through the construction and improvements of 674 houses whereby 599 were build/ improved in Tanzania; 378 by the Tanzania Home Economics (TAHEA) and 221 houses by the Mwanza Rural Housing Programme (MRHP) and the rest in Uganda-by-Uganda Housing Cooperative Union Limited.
• Noteworthy is that some of the improvements involved changing the roofing from grass to iron sheets, water harvesting from the roofs, plastering completed houses, building ferrocement water tanks, or supplying plastic water tanks among other actions.