Mechanisms to promote the advancement of women
National Machinery. The Department for Women and Children was established in 1985 in the Ministry of Community Development, Women and Children, on the Mainland, with the mandate to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Women and Development Policy, specifically addressing: ways and means of reducing women's workloads, improving their health and increasing productivity; promoting education and training; identifying strategies for women's economic empowerment; advocating the development of gender-sensitive statistics; and ensuring that women's experiences and concerns are more fully integrated into the planning process and that adequate resources are allocated for such issues.
Women in Decision-making Positions in Ministries and Government Bodies
Source: Women in Management in the Civil Service, July 1992, Draft Report.
The Ministry of State for Women and Children was established in 1992 in the President's Office, Zanzibar.
WID Units or Focal Points in Technical Ministries. The Union Government Ministry of Agriculture WID Focal Point was established in 1985, with the mandate to: liaise with regional focal points and other agencies responsible for women in rural development; participate in training rural women in agricultural credit and enhancing their entrepreneurial capacities; collaborate with other interested institutions in organizing village-based seminars for women's groups; ensure female participation in and benefit from national extension programmes; and encourage female leadership in agricultural sciences.
The Zanzibar Ministry of Agriculture, Unit for Women and Youth, Office of the Commissioner for Research and Farmers Education, was established in 1992 with the mandate to: promote women's and youth agricultural, livestock, fishing and forestry activities; encourage formation of women's and youth groups; impart nutrition education to women so as to eliminate malnutrition among children; raise the economic status of women and youth; and ensure equitable distribution of income based on one's labour contribution.
Accomplishments of the WID Units: While some gender-sensitivity training programmes have been carried out, the main focus has been on activities in the areas of irrigation, food productivity, nutrition, dairy production, and support of credit mobilization, agricultural extension, animal traction and oil processing.
Constraints: Inadequate personnel and finances to carry out substantive analysis and action on agriculture-oriented gender issues; a top-down planning and administrative approach which does not promote innovative initiatives at the grassroots; and heavy dependence on donor funding.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Since 1985, both local and international NGOs have increased support to rural women in agriculture, due especially to the formation of WID Units at NGO headquarters and an increase in community based organizations (CBOs). Under the Tanzania Non-Governmental Organization Umbrella (TANGO), many local NGOs are addressing agriculture, livestock and environmental issues, and a growing number are also emphasizing women's empowerment. Grassroots women's groups are also increasing. For example, in Same District Kilimanjaro Region, between 1980 and 1993, 43 women's groups in agriculture and horticulture were formed, 8 in livestock and poultry, 8 in bee-keeping, 4 in fishing and 10 milling groups.
