Ten research projects awarded grants to tackle poverty

DAR ES SALAAM: Ten research projects in Tanzania have been awarded grants to address major poverty-related challenges in the country.

These research initiatives are designed to generate critical insights and evidence to improve the design and implementation of national strategies, policies and programmes aimed at combating poverty.

The findings from these studies are expected to strengthen efforts to reduce poverty prevalence and its impact on communities, ultimately contributing to more effective poverty reduction initiatives across the nation.

The beneficiaries of the Fund include researchers from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), with two projects; Zanzibar Research Center for Socio-economic Research; Mkwawa University College of Education, with three projects; Open University of Tanzania (OUT); Global Water Partnership Tanzania; Ifakara Health Institute (IHI); and the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF).

The funding for these projects ranges between 5,000 and 50,000 Euros per project.

The selected projects focus on various aspects of poverty reduction in Tanzania, including enhancing social protection and poverty alleviation through a conditional cash transfer programme, examining the moderating effects of financial inclusion and social protection on the relationship between climate change and poverty, and using Open-Source Nexus modeling to analyse water-related indicators and extreme poverty.

Additionally, some projects explore institutional challenges to poverty alleviation, assessing the synergistic impact of land rights extension services, and financial services in Tanzania.
Other projects address topics such as the impacts of shocks, agricultural intensification, self-help groups, and household welfare; the effects of climate variability on agricultural employment, productivity, and poverty among youth; understanding the drivers and influences of household and geographical poverty on health, as well as the demand and supply of healthcare in Tanzania.

Additional research includes studying how school government programs influence young people’s civic duty in Tanzania, exploring the socio-economic impacts of mothers of children with disabilities, and creating a dynamic database to map households living in poverty, along with a community opinion dashboard to improve social service delivery in Zanzibar.

The Senior Consultant and Oxford Policy Management Tanzania Country Manager Ms Pamela Shao told ‘Daily News’ that Tanzania was chosen to be the first focus country for the DEEP Challenge Fund due to both its challenges around severe poverty and a political and policy environment which has a strong focus on poverty alleviation and an openness to new and innovative ways of tackling the issue.

‘It’s wonderful that all ten of the DEEP Challenge Fund grants have now been awarded.

“Tanzania has growing national research resources, with quality researchers in universities and in government ministries, meaning that an expanding bank of good quality poverty analysis data is now available from both traditional surveys and Big Data sources,” Ms Shao stressed.

The Zanzibar Research Centre for Socio-Economic and Policy Analysis (ZRCP) Director of Research and Policy Analysis, Dr Twahir Mohammed Khalfan said they will conduct a feasibility assessment to support the establishment of a digital dynamic poverty registry, which will be populated through the efforts of a volunteer network.

“We want to hear the voices of the citizens regarding community services. Our data will help identify the location of a house or farm as well as enable us to know where a person lives. It will help eliminate the repeated questioning during censuses,” Dr Khalfan stressed.

He mentioned that the information will be organized in such a way that data, when needed, can be collected at a low cost while utilizing emerging technologies.

The Mkwawa University College of Education Lecturer, Department of Economics and Geography, Mr Jaah Mkupete said his study focuses on whether having legal ownership of land helps reduce poverty in rural Tanzania.

He said they will produce a policy brief to translate the research findings into actionable policy recommendations, advocating for integrated approaches that strengthen land tenure security, credit markets, and agricultural knowledge to maximize poverty reduction.

“We are seeing the gap! In Africa, and Tanzania specifically, policies have promoted land certification to enhance household access to credit using land as collateral for improved welfare. However, little effort has been made to strengthen credit markets and expand extension services in rural areas to complement land tenure programmes,” Mr Mkupete emphasised.

The OUT Lecture, Ms Mariana Makuu who is researching on Exploring and elevating the socio-economic impacts of mothers of children with disabilities said that the caregivers of children with disabilities often face emotional and societal challenges that can push them towards or deeper into poverty and impact the developmental outcomes of their children.

“This research looks at whether these challenges can be mitigated when mothers are part of a supportive collective,” she said.