Tanzania has a population of about 40 million people, half of whom are children (herein defined as under the age of 18 years).
Poverty is pervasive, especially in the rural areas where 75 per cent of the population lives. About 36 per cent of Tanzanians live below the basic needs poverty line (2000/1), i.e. well under $1 a day. Nearly 20 per cent (around 4 million children) live below the food poverty line which is 80 per cent of the basic needs poverty line (RAWG 2003). Their income cannot provide enough food to satisfy their basic minimum nutritional requirements.
Despite encouraging trends in GDP growth since 1993, household budget surveys have shown no change in the proportion of rural households who are poor, and the perceptions of the majority of Tanzanians across all income groups, including the least poor, are that their living standards have been stagnant or declining. Income disparities have grown over the last two decades both between rural and urban households and among urban households (RAWG 2007).
Around 7 per cent of Tanzanian adults are living with HIV. The epidemic has an enormous impact in communities in Tanzania (TACAIDS, NBS and ORC Macro 2005). Some households and communities fare better than others, depending on a range of factors to do with their own endowments and the wider social and economic situation in which they find themselves, but in a context of widespread poverty, chronic impoverishing forces and shocks may push the vulnerable to a deeper level of poverty (de Waal et al. 2004).
Rural children are the most vulnerable to shocks and stresses occasioned by poor living conditions, malnutrition, ill-health and HIV/AIDS, particularly in rural areas (Leach 2008). Close to 10 per cent of all children, roughly 2 million children, have lost one or both parents. Projected estimates also suggest that there were over 6.6 million poor children in 2006.
Policies are important to promote child wellbeing. But their importance in affecting actual wellbeing varies – some draw political attention, get translated into programmes, attract resources and are implemented. Others do not. Why is this How is support for children affected by HIV best enabled, given chronic rural poverty and the constraints of scarce resources and often weak institutional structures? Which policies have the best chance of success?
Policies are often analysed statically, on the basis of evidence for the problem, and internal technical logic and argument. But this may explain little about policies’ ability to bring change. To understand what may most effectively bring about change, it may be more instructive to study policy in practice, and the contextual factors that make change more or less effective.
This article analyses three recent policy/programme developments regarding child wellbeing in Tanzania and examines the political ‘drivers of change’ that influence policy and action on child wellbeing. The first part focuses on universal primary education and explores the politics of policymaking, and the respective roles of citizens, government and donors that influenced this policy. Section two provides a historical analysis of processes in place towards the development of a children’s statute in Tanzania and explores the underlying reasons behind why there has been little change despite concerted efforts. The final part addresses the viability of the social protection model that is presently being promoted to protect the most vulnerable children (MVC) in Tanzania.
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This article comes from the IDS Bulletin 39.5 (2008) How Best to Enable Support for
Children Affected by HIV/AIDS? A Policy Case Study in Tanzania
