Entrepreneurship Policies through a Gender Lens

Tanzania

By Dina Modestus Nziku, University of the West of Scotland

Cynthia Forson, Lancaster University Ghana

Background

Women currently constitute over 52% of Tanzania’s population (Women Gender and Development Policy, 2000; National Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Although there is no specific policy on women’s entrepreneurship (Nzkiu and Henry, 2020), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Policy of Tanzania (MIT, 2003) together with Women and Gender Development Policy (WGDP, 2000) recognises the key role women-owned enterprises play in both the private and Micro Small and Medium sector in Tanzania (Mori, 2014). According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the proportion of women owned enterprises in Tanzania is around 54.3% (MIT, 2012), and the majority of them are engaged in small-scale businesses, particularly in the informal sector where entry barriers are low and where the struggle for economic and social prosperity is a challenge. Given that the majority of economic activities in Tanzania and other sub-Saharan countries are in the informal sector, many Tanzanian women are working hard to feed their families, and some are providing employment opportunities to their extended families and local communities. Such activities contribute to both the local and national economy. Clearly, not all women entrepreneurs plan to work in the informal sector; rather, they are often “pushed” in this direction due to unemployment, low wages in employment and cultural attitudes

The majority of women-owned businesses (99%) are microenterprises with fewer than five employees, and almost three-quarters have only one employee (Idris, 2018). With regard to agriculture, self-employment is the most common form of work among rural populations, in particular rural women (Idris, 2018). Despite these problems, Tanzanian women are drawn to self-employment, and this is primarily out of necessity; a result of low wages in the formal sector and rising unemployment (Mori, 2014).

Employed women make up only 5.3% of economically active women, while 10.7% is attributed to self-employed women and the rest, 84%, are unpaid helpers (NBS, 2014). The figures for men are only slightly better at 12.8%, 13.8% and 73.8% respectively (Ibis). Disparities in employment also means that it is more difficult for Tanzanian women to access resources to start their own businesses (Idris, 2018).

In a 2014 study, the Food and Agriculture organisation (FAO, 2014) indicated that fewer women own land in Tanzania at a ratio of 27% to 73% men-owned; their plots tend to be smaller and they come into land ownership at a later stage in their careers. Self-employed women in agriculture earn significantly less than men, own less livestock and have less access to credit and other financial services. In the formal employment sector women are significantly more vulnerable than men (89% vs. 78%), and at the higher levels of employment (senior and middle management) women occupy only 17% of positions available (NBS, 2014). As such, the transition from employment or unemployment to self-employment is not an easy one.

Tanzanian women entrepreneurs face issues related to a lack of education, low specific entrepreneurial and business skills, and low levels of financial literacy. Those self-employed in agriculture have more restricted access to new technologies, training, vocational education and extension advice. This contributes to the low productivity, persistent poverty and low social status of women entrepreneurs.

Policy issue: Entrepreneurship training and developing entrepreneurial mindsets

Recognising the potential role that can be played by women through their contribution to the national economy, the Tanzanian government has taken various steps to address gender issues in recent years, introducing several policies and strategies focused on education (Development Vision 2025, 2000). The strategy (section 1.2.4) states that: “Education should be treated as a strategic agent for mindset transformation and for the creation of a well-educated nation to … solve the development challenges which face the nation.” The idea was to restructure and transform the education sector with a focus on promoting creativity and problem solving.

This was preceded by several gender-specific policies including Women in Development (1993), Women and Gender Development (2000) and the National Strategy for Gender Development (NSGD, 2008). These policies all proposed a new system of education geared toward enrolling more girls and establishing co-educational secondary schools to reduce the disparity between the number of girls and boys in secondary schools and higher education institutions.

None of the policies referred to above specifically mentions entrepreneurship education for women to create their own employment opportunities within their areas of specialisation. There has been recognition, however, that entrepreneurship education is crucial to the development of this creativity mindset. In 2005, the African Development bank (AfDB), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Office of the Private Sector Department (OPSD) in Tanzania identified three main ways in which entrepreneurial training can be achieved among women entrepreneurs. Firstly, by exposure through the education system and formal training (Nziku, 2014), secondly in pre-start-up technical training, and finally, intermittent training during the different phases of developing and expanding a business (Stevenson and St-Onge, 2005).

A National Entrepreneurship Training Framework (NETF) was developed to outline strategies and frameworks to guide entrepreneurship education and training at varying levels of the formal and non-formal education systems (URT 2014). In formal education, it provides guidance for embedding entrepreneurship education from pre-primary through to tertiary levels of education, and at the non-formal level, it makes provision for training in business start-up, consolidation and social entrepreneurship. Poor implementation, however, means that the objectives of the NETF have not been realised. A disconnect between the general educational policy and the entrepreneurial educational framework has resulted in a failure in the envisaged integration of the NETF with the formal educational curriculum (Kalimas, 2018). This has resulted in the production of graduates who are ill-equipped to start and grow businesses yet are forced into self-employment through necessity. Girls with higher education qualifications in specialised fields end up having to work in areas unrelated to their expertise, or become self-employed in non-cognate industries.

With regard to the pre-start-up phase, these services are usually provided by business development providers, which include NGOs. The Ministry of Industries and Trade has identified that business support services and institutions providing business training, advice and consultancy are weak and fragmented, and that there is a need to design special programmes for women (MIT, 2003; Nziku, 2014). Additionally, training and women’s enterprise development seems to occur at the sectoral level and is focused on developing technical as opposed to softer business skills (Stevenson and St-Onge, 2005), although it may include some entrepreneurship training elements. Often the outcome of such training is that the women lack the skills required to start or grow a business, and follow-up support is negligent (Nziku, 2014). The women end up relying on informal networks to build informational and other resources for their businesses (Mgasa, 2014), making networking at the informal level a crucial element of business support mechanisms.

Post-start up, training needs move to the areas of marketing, product quality, financial management and business planning, yet access to this type of support is limited. This is usually due to a lack of awareness of the existence of the limited training available, cost of training and the basic and generic nature of the programmes (Stevenson and St-Onge, 2005). These issues are exacerbated for Tanzanian women who live in rural areas (FAO, 2014). However, for women who successfully complete the required training, they can support their peers (UN Women, 2016), again, pointing to the importance of women’s networks for developing business skills and competences post-start up.

Conclusions and recommendations

The Tanzanian government acknowledges the potential of women’s entrepreneurship to make a significant contribution to local communities as well as to the national economy. However, a lack of education, business and entrepreneurial skills holds women back from starting and/or growing businesses. Although the Tanzanian government has developed policies and support initiatives to address gaps in entrepreneurial education and business training, dissonance between policy and implementation, fragmentation of provision, poor access, and cost and programme limitations undermine women’s ability to develop their human capital to achieve their business objectives. The recommendations below should help policy makers to improve entrepreneurial human capital and education for women entrepreneurs in Tanzania.

Recommendations for Tanzania

• Ensure substantive resources and supports are available to integrate and contextualise the National Entrepreneurship Training Framework into the educational system at all levels to produce entrepreneurially educated women graduates with business skills.

• Ensure business training and support programmes specifically tailored for women are available and accessible regionally and nationally.

• Promote and support the development of women business networks to encourage peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and mentorship among women entrepreneurs.

References

FAO (2014), “Tanzania Mainland country profile: gender inequalities in rural employment in Tanzania Mainland, an overview”, Rome.

Idris, I. (2018), “Mapping women’s economic exclusion in Tanzania”, K4D Helpdesk Report, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, United Kingdom.

Kalimasi, P. (2018), “Assessment of Entrepreneurship Education Trends in the Formal Education System in Tanzania,” Business Management Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 53-65.

Mgasa, D. B. (2014), “Women Entrepreneurship In Tanzania: A Case Study Of Dairy Production And Marketing In Babati,” Thesis Submitted For The Partial Fulfilment of the MSc International Development Wageningen University; Netherlands, https://edepot.wur.nl/312965 (accessed 24 June 2020).

MIT (2003), “Small and Medium Enterprises Development Policy,” Ministry of Industries and Trade, United Republic of Tanzania, https://www.mit.go.tz/uploads/documents/en/1455890063-SME-Development-Policy.pdf (accessed 24 June 2020).

Mori, N. (2014), “Women’s entrepreneurship development in Tanzania: Insights and recommendations”, International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO.

NBS (2014), “Tanzania United Republic of – Integrated Labour Force Survey 2014: Analytical Report”, National Bureau of Statistics, Tanzania.

Nziku, D.M. and C. Henry, (2020), “Policies for supporting women entrepreneurs in developing countries: The case of Tanzania”, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 38-58.

Nziku, D. (2014), “Tanzania Female Entrepreneurship: Strategies for Sustainability and Growth” Doctoral Thesis, Southampton Solent University (SSU), United Kingdom.

OECD/EU (2018), "Policy Brief on Women’s Entrepreneurship", OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Papers, No. 8, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/dd2d79e7-en.

Stevenson, L. and A. St-Onge (2005), “Support Growth-Oriented Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania”, International Labour Organisation (ILO): Geneva – Switzerland.

The United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2008), “National Strategy for Gender Development (NSGD)”, Ministry of Community Development Gender and Children.

The United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2000), “Tanzania Development Vision 2025”.

The United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2000), “Women and Gender Development Policy” Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children.

The United Republic of Tanzania (URT) (2014), National Education and Training Policy, Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Dar es Salaam, in Kalimasi, P. (2018) Assessment of Entrepreneurship Education Trends in the Formal Education System in Tanzania, Business Management Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 53-65.

United Nations Women (2016), “Empowering Young Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania”, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2016/8/empowering-young-women-entrepreneurs-in-tanzania (accessed on 3 March 2019).