This report from the UK Department for International Development is based on a study whose overall aim was to create a context-relevant knowledge base of the implications for education and training policy of globalisation in two low-income sub-Saharan African countries, namely, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Tanzanians have been urged to use their power of influence through mass protests and other available avenues to stop corrupt leaders from using government resources for their personal interests. The call was made by participants in a two-day Social Watch Country Forum 2003 organised by Women’s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) at Arts and Crafts Centre in Dar es salaam this week.

In Tanzania, IRC has been serving refugees in Kigoma Region and host communities in Kigoma and Kagera Regions since December 1993. Currently, IRC Tanzania provides health, educational, social, and economic assistance to over 130,000 refugees, mostly Burundian, and approximately 300,000 nationals.

Women in various professions including the ministry responsible for women have strongly criticised a Dar es Salaam-based political analyst French Manoni's comments that African women are unfit to lead or rule.

As he walks across the dusty tracks of his sunburnt village, Abdallah Nyinga looks much like any other teenager. But this thoughtful, softly-spoken 16-year-old is really quite different from the rest - single-handedly, he’s gradually changing the way his community thinks. The change started four years ago, when he was at primary school. As part of a WWF environmental education programme which runs throughout Tanzania, one of Abdallah’s lessons concerned the importance of trees.

What are the links between HIV, poverty, education and gender inequality? How have structural adjustment and cost-sharing affected vulnerable children in Tanzania? Are policy-makers able to address the serious inequalities and vulnerabilities faced by the growing number of children working the country’s streets? A paper from the University of Hull presents findings from ethnographic research in northern Tanzania. With almost a million people who have died from AIDS and an estimated million more cases, the disease is compounding Tanzania’s economic problems and placing an enormous burden on the surviving, economically active young people.

This article addresses women's health care in Tanzania through various factors, including maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, women's workload, number of births per woman, and female genital mutilation. The authors suggest that, to improve the health of women in Tanzania, health and health-related sectors should cooperate and collaborate in order to empower women in the areas of education, social status, and technology. Policies must also address poverty, nutrition, adolescent health, and violence and sexual abuse.

Working children are common in developing countries. The cluster of young street vendors seen at traffic lights belies the largely invisible mass of working children. They are at home cleaning, cooking and caring and provide the household's fuel and water. They are busy tending crops and livestock and, sometimes, they are paid for their labour. But how long do they spend on these responsibilities? How does their work affect their capacity to participate in the schooling offered to them?

Donor organisations and the Tanzanian government have started making contingency plans following several warnings of an imminent food shortage for some two million people.

he oil business does not run smoothly - or cleanly – anywhere in Africa. So what kind of trouble will the oil companies cause when they start drilling off the coast of Tanzania next year? If there is to be a reconciliation between economics and conservation, the ecology of the whole coastline needs to be considered. This process will involve understanding that money and ecology must work in concert.

The lack of women's voices and limited portrayal of their roles in the media may soon change if a new plan to correct those anomalies is implemented in Tanzania. "If the two-year plan is fully implemented, on time, I am optimistic that a lot of positive changes will occur," says Rose Haji, director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Tanzania Chapter. The plan, says Haji, will involve media watchdogs monitoring how both women and men make news to promote gender equality in, and through, the media.

Tanzanian authorities expelled on Tuesday 910 Rwandans who had been living the northwestern region of Kagera, humanitarian workers and government officials told IRIN. The government said on Wednesday that the Rwandans had been screened and refused refugee status, and were therefore in the country illegally. The government said 708 of them had been living in the Lukole refugee camp and 202 in Tanzanian villages.

Women in Africa have to rise up to the challenge of developing positive attitudes as a key factor to advancing themselves, as well as attaining sustainable socio and economic development of the continent. This was the message from the Tanzanian Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, at the Southern African Women's Day celebration held in the Tanzania Commercial city of Dar Es Salaam.

The paper, produced by BRIDGE, argues that women, especially poor women, have been marginalised within the decision-making process of PRSPs at government and civil society level, and gender equality issues have been sidelined. One of the recommendations of the paper is to include the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data in order to enhance the development of gender-sensitive poverty reduction strategies. This should include strengthening the link between gender research and policy interventions.
Related Link:
* Do PRSPS address Gender? A gender audit of 2002 PRSPS
http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000306/P306_PRSP_Gender.pdf

This UNAIDS monograph documents the first large-scale AIDS and STI intervention programme to be implemented during a refugee crisis. It describes the operational aspects of the intervention, the observed impact and the effect this experience had on policies and practices in other refugee situations, among both international and nongovernmental organisations.

Tanzania still has a long way to go in achieving gender equality and cultures in some communities continue to force women to “marry” another woman in order to bear a son for inheritance purposes. This culture exists among the Kurya tribe in the country's North Western region of Mara bordering Kenya.

Radical changes in approach to the youth are needed if Tanzania is to curb the spread of HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections, an official of the international NGO Africa Medical and Relief Foundation told IRIN.

People living in remote areas in Tanzania are due to benefit from a US $5.4 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a public-private partnership formed in 2002 to attract resources to fight the three diseases.

The Tanzanian government is to fund a highly successful initiative to increase the number of women studying science subjects at university. The 'pre-entry programme' - which gives a six-week 'booster' course to women who initially fail to meet the entry requirements of science courses - has increased the proportion of women studying science at the University of Dar es Salaam from three to 28 per cent over the past six years.

This report presents the findings of a rapid assessment study conducted in Arusha, Dar Es Salaam and Mwanza regions to investigate activities performed by working children in the informal sector. Some of the main findings from this study include that there were more male working children in the informal sector activities investigated than females. This disparity is due to the fact that most female children are tracked by society into domestic work as opposed to more male-oriented activities.