Browsing by Author "Massawe, F. A."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 30

Awareness and practice of gender responsive pedagogy in higher learning institutions: the case of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
(Journal of Education, Humanities and Sciences, 2017) Kahamba, J. S.; Massawe, F. A.; Kira, E. S.
Tanzania is among Sub-Saharan African countries where teachers are conditioned by male-dominated values in their communities. This has been one of the factors perpetuating gender inequality in various levels of education. With the understanding that gender sensitive teaching aims at equally supporting the learning of male and female students, this disparity calls for the promotion and adoption of gender responsiveness teaching practices in higher learning institutions (HLIs) to correct gender bias in the learning process. The argument here is that the teaching and learning environment in higher learning institutions is not only gender-imbalanced but also it is not well known on whether instructors are aware of gender sensitive teaching techniques, and to what extent do they mainstream gender sensitive teaching practices in their daily teaching practises. Thus, this study had two objectives: (a) to assess the level of awareness in gender responsive pedagogy among university instructors; and (b) to determine the extent to which instructors practice gender responsive pedagogy methods in teaching. The study adopted a cross-section survey research design where the data were collected using a questionnaire from a random sample of 83 academic staff. The study adopted descriptive analysis using SPSS Computer Software to analyse the collected data. The findings show that members of academic staff have a partial awareness of gender sensitive teaching practices. Overall, the findings revealed the degree of gender sensitive pedagogical teaching practices to be very low. The paper recommends that universities should continue with awareness campaign and training workshops to academic staff through gender policy implementation committees
Capabilities of government co-operative supporting organisations in dissemination of innovations to primary co-operative societies in Tanzania
(International Journal of Knowledge / Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2019) Njau, L. S.; Massawe, F. A.; Mahonge, C. P.
Purpose: This paper assesses the capabilities of GCSOs in dissemination of innova- tions to primary co-operative societies (PCSos) in Tanzania. Design/Methodology: The study adopted a case study research design whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using key informants (KIs) interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), documentary review and direct observation. Docu- mented data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software was used in analysing data from KIs and FGDs. Findings: The study revealed that most GCSOs have important resources but were unutilised for innovation activities. There were also lack of incentives to support inno- vation activities amongst GCSOs executives and personnel and lack of formal and comprehensive systems to reward innovation activities. Moreover, the study estab- lished weak innovations progression from lower node of innovation chains to higher ones. This scenario was coupled with neither institutionalised nor user-oriented ap- proaches regarding innovations dissemination. The study recommends that GCSOs executives should work to mobilise more internal resources to enable more innova- tions dissemination activities. They should also work to strengthen their innovation value chains by ensuring resources commitment and work to ensure deliberate inclu- sive efforts in engaging innovations users (PCSos) at all stages of the innovation chain activities. Limitations: The study covered GCSOs only as they have been receiving direct gov- ernment resources to support among other things innovation activities unlike other member-based and private organisations operating in Tanzania. Similarly, the study captured the GCSOs capabilities aspects within the key innovation value chain pro- cesses only. Originality/value: The paper assessed GCSOs capabilities in innovations dissemina- tion and proposes strategic measures necessary to ensure more innovations dissemina- tion to end-users.
Community Participation in Water Resource Projects Management in Iringa District Council, Tanzania.
(Tengeru Community Development Journal, 2018) Massawe, F. A.; Chumbula, J. J.
Community participation in water project management has received international attention to replace top down approaches to development. However, the approach receives critiques regarding the extent to which participation in water project design and implementation is meaningful and really engages communities in the process. This calls for continuous local level research to identify practices that can increase the likelihood of meaningful community participation. A cross sectional research was conducted in Iringa District, Tanzania to assess the practice of community participation on selected community water projects. The study specifically ought to assess participation of stakeholders in different stages of water projects development and to determine the role of community members in maintenance of project infrastructure. Data collection was carried out through household‟s survey, semi-structured interviews with key informants and focus groups discussions. Descriptive analysis was employed to answer key research questions. The study findings show that despite water being one of the essential needs in the respective communities, the initial idea came from donors. Generally, the community participation was low in almost all project phases. The communication mechanism in terms of feedback and information sharing, community capacity to engage into project technical maintenance and women participation in water project governance was found to be weak. The paper concludes that there is less consideration of the principles of community participation in executing water projects at Iringa District Council. It is recommended that the meaningful participation should adhere to the key principals of community engagement in all phases of project design and management.
Community perception on the environmental conservation approach adopted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Northern Diocese, Tanzania
(EAJSSH, 2020-05-22) Mlaki, D. A.; Massawe, F. A.
Abstract: Faith based institutions have the authority and ability to address several issues and being accepted and acted upon by the people of different beliefs, especially by linking with the people’s respective faiths. This could be fully utilized in addressing environmental issues, which is one of the most currently debatable global concerns. Given the environmental degradation challenges facing Kilimanjaro region, the Northern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania started an intervention on tree planting by involving youth enrolled in confirmation classes as a way of promoting environmental conservation behaviour among youths. Since the tree planting programme operate within the community, this study therefore was conducted to explore the way the community perceive this programme, which will determine their participation therein, and success of the programme. A cross-sectional research design was adopted and a random sample of 100 households that had registered their children for confirmation classes in different years from 2003 to 2015 were involved. A Structured questionnaire with Likert scale was used to capture perceptions of households complimented by Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews. The descriptive and content analysis was adopted. The findings revealed that about 85% of the households had positive perception about the innovative approach adopted by the church. Furthermore, the community members see the programme as part of their household responsibilities and a good approach through which the nature can regain its lost form and provide to them what had been lost. The findings confirm the argument under the theory of self-determination of environmental behavior since despite being the church intervention people perform a tree planting behaviour for their own sake and to gain positive results. In this case, youths got involved in the program so as to graduate from confirmation training while avoiding the negative outcomes that is failure to be confirmed.
Consumers' perception on adoption of improved cookstoves: a case of Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania
(Institute of Continuing Education, Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2014) Massawe, F. A.; Bengesi, K. M. K.; Kweka, A. E.
This study was conducted in Kilimanjaro Region to examine consumers' perceptions on adoption of Improved Cookstove (ICS) involving 294 households. The results recorded low prominence of positive perceptions among respondents on ICS relative to traditional stoves. Despite several positive attributes of ICS, the study observed that the majority of non-adopters considered positive attributes to be less important in making a decision to adopt the technology, while negative attributes were considered important in guiding decisions not to reject adoption of ICS. Consistently, the study recorded high association between high adoption levels and the relative advantages and adoption of ICS while the non-adopters weighed on the negative attributes to make their decision. This suggests that promoters of ICS should focus on end users, launching awareness campaigns to understand and address factors perceived by end users to be disadvantages of using ICS. The ICS designers and promoters should capture values of end users and incorporate them in their designs when developing technologies and innovations to foster higher adoption rates.
Contribution of Integrated Urban Agriculture to Household Income: A Case of Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania
(The Journal of Agricultural Sciences - Sri Lanka, 2018-05-01) Victor, K.; Massawe, F. A.; Sikira, A.
Purpose: Urban farmers make efficient utilization of resources by integrating crop-livestock fish sub sectors to maximize accrued benefits. However, types of integration practices adopted and associated income outcome are still undocumented. Thus this study specifically assessed the types of integrated urban agriculture (IUA) mostly practiced by farmers, types of livelihood strategies adopted simultaneously with IUA and its contribution to total household income. Findings: The results show that integrated urban agriculture is the most prioritised livelihood strategy to urban farmers. Majority of urban farmers (98.5%) practising integrated farming concentrated on crop-livestock, while fish-livestock and crop livestock-fish integration adopted only by 0.75% each. This implies that, majority of urban farmers did not practice fish sub-sector. Integrated urban agriculture gives average annual income of 2 295 288 TSH (equivalent to 1093$); which was sufficient for household of six members being above monetary food poverty line per year. Research Limitation: This study focuses on income livelihood indicator; however, farmers can also, benefit from integrated agriculture through food security, social inclusion and ecology to mention some. Originality/Value: This study provides a comprehensive layout adopted by integrated urban farmers to benefit from the sub-sectors and what is missing for improvement of the enterprises for improved livelihood outcome in Tanzania
Determinants of households’ adoption of improved cook stoves in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2019-10-22) Massawe, F. A.; Bengesi, K. M. K.
Despite being used in inefficient and unsustainable ways, traditional biomass remains the largest source of cooking energy in Tanzania. Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) have been proved to be among the best ways of efficient utilization of biomass, nonetheless, their adoption has been low. Limited empirical evidence exists on the reasons for low ICS adoption in Tanzania. This paper analyses factors which determine household adoption of ICS in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. A total of 294 households from six villages were randomly selected for the household survey, and qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Results from a binary logistic regression revealed that awareness campaigns about ICS, quality of living house and kitchen room, awareness on the village environmental regulations and by-laws, sources of firewood and household Socio-Economic Status (SES) to be among the factors influencing the adoption of ICS. The study concludes that low adoption is attributed to limited awareness on the benefits of the stoves and a negative myth attached to the quality attributes of the household that can adopt ICS. The study recommends the organization dealing with ICS promotion to continue with comprehensive awareness campaigns and targeted intervention to households perceived to have to limit adoption characteristics.
Energy saving behavior among university students: A case study of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
(International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 2018) Assenga, Emmanuel G; Massawe, Fatihiya A; Assenga, E. G.; Massawe, F. A.
The purpose of this paper was to establish energy saving behaviour and practices among students living within the university hostels. The study followed a case study and descriptive research designs where data were collected from defined population using self-administered questionnaire. The information was descriptively analyzed by SPSS and qualitative methods were used to judge the interaction patterns The findings show that students are not aware of the energy cost incurred by the university. It was also revealed that students feel the accommodation bills they pay to be enough to cater for energy utility bills hence no need to be concerned on energy consumption and saving. Generally, students are not sensitive in practicing energy saving behaviour. This is attributed to inexistence of direct incentives and low awareness on importance of energy saving and also the cost associated with the high energy consumption. The paper provides useful insights on how students behave in terms of energy consumption and whether are concerned on saving energy. The findings are very essential in facilitating university in designing a strategy to optimize energy savings. The understanding of typical energy user’s behavior is one of the input necessary to be combined with technical energy consumption aspect to optimize energy saving goal
Factors influencing extractive companies benefits sharing with host communities in Kilwa district, Tanzania
(2018-05-05) Mwakyambiki, S. E.; Sikira, A. N.; Massawe, F. A.
The effects of stakeholder influential attributes in benefits sharing fromextractive companies have not beenmuch emphasized.Extractive companies feels that , it is the role of the Government to provide social services to her citizens because campaniespaid statutory taxes they are obligated to pay. However, communities surrounding extraction activities have theright to share benefits because they are exposed to different risks. The paper analysed factors influencing extractive companies sharing benefits with host communities in Tanzania. Specifically, this paper examined; respondents’ characteristics, stakeholder expectations, the perceived benefits sharing and factors influencing extractive companies to share benefits with host communities. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect quantitative data from 373 respondents. Binary logistic regression was used to determine factors influencing benefit sharing. It was found that the stakeholder had higher expectation of benefit sharing however; they perceived low level of benefits sharing from extractive companies. The binary logistic analysis confirmed that distance, education and legitimacy influenced benefit sharing from extractive companies. It is recommended that extractive companies and the Government should take into consideration the stakeholder’ expectations as a starting point to improve benefits sharing from extractive companies. It is also recommended that extractive industry should improve communication channels with the host communities to allow local people to understand opportunuties available from extraction busines companies.
Gender integration in Local Water Resource Governance Institutions: A Case Study of Community Owned Water Supply Organisations (COWOSOs) in Gairo District, Tanzania
(IJRDO, 2020) Haule, A.; Massawe, F. A.
Given the growing demand for water resources and its continued scarcity efforts have been in place to change governance mechanisms to ensure its sustainability. The sector transformation focuses on enhancing user’s capacity in developing, managing and sharing water resources efficiently. Women are among the actors that are now recognized as managers than mere users of waterresources given their gender roles. Therefore, policies and water resource management strategies in many countries including Tanzania, demand women involvement in Community Owned Water Supply Organizations (COWSOs). The argument of this paper is that for call women representation in water governance structures might not necessarily transform gender relations among men and women hence making women voices unheard. Therefore, this study presents gender dynamics in COWSOs in various villages of Gairo District, Tanzania by exploring power and leadership positions held by men and women. The findings show that under the support of external actors, women are holding a various leadership position in COWSOs though the strategicpower of making decisions are still held by men. The study concludes that numbers are not enough without capacity building for women to be able to influence decision making process in water resource governance.
Gendered access to indirect benefits from natural gas extraction in Kilwa District, Tanzania
(International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020-01-01) Mwakyambiki, S. E.; Sikira, A. N.; Massawe, F. A.
Natural gas extraction contributes substantially to the economy of many countries around the world were natural gas resource is found. Despite its potential benefits, it is not known to what extent the benefits are equally enjoyed by both men and women in the respective host communities. The existing studies focus more on benefit-sharing at the national level and lack gender analysis. Using a cross-sectional design, a study was conducted to establish gendered access to indirect benefits from natural gas extraction. Quantitative data were collected from 373 households and qualitative data through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and participant observation Findings revealed that about 53% of community members categorized access to indirect benefits to be of high level. The indirect benefits largely cut across investments and support in education, health, water, and employment opportunities. The study concludes that, while investment by Extractive Companies (ECs) has managed to improve health services the shortage of technical staff has remained unsolved. Likewise, while various benefits revealed to exist in education the chronic problem on girls drops out of school remains to be a challenge. Therefore, the study recommends various strategies to be adopted to address the remaining gender-related challenges that limit fully enjoyment from ECs investment among men and women.
Gendered analysis in academic career advancement: fifteen years’ trend at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
(SCIENCEDOMAIN INTERNATIONAL, 2020-03-18) Massawe, F. A.; Sife, A. S.
Aims: Despite notable success in reducing gender disparity in some sectors, the problem still persists in many higher learning institutions in Tanzania. Using fifteen years data of staff employment from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), this study assessed gender disparity in employment and career advancement among academic staff. Study Design: The study adopted the descriptive research design by describing the current situation using SUA as a case study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture between March and May 2017 using data of academic staff. Methodology: The Publish or Perish software was used to retrieve data on scholarly publications of individual academic staff between 1985 to 2017 for cohorts employed between 1985 and 2011. Descriptive analysis was employed to establish gender disparity in staffing and publication productivity.Results: The findings show female academic staff increased from 5.3% to 20.78% only between the academic year 2000/2001 to 2015/2016. Likewise, gender gaps are observed across all academic ranks since the majority of staff are at the lower academic ranks where women were less in each aspect. Age-wise, the university is composed of aging senior academic staff where among 33.22% of all professors almost 15% (13.5% M & 1.1%F) were above 60 years old. On scientific publications, findings reveal female staff to be below the cohort/ group average for almost all years against their counterparts. Conclusion: There is a clear disparity between male and female staff based on age, academic qualifications, ranks and publication productivity that implies the existence of some obstacles.
Host communities' attitude towards benefit sharing from natural gas extraction: insights from Kilwa District, Tanzania
(College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA),, 2020-05-19) Mwakyambiki, S. E.; Sikira, A. N.; Massawe, F. A.
Tanzania is among the blessed countries in Africa in terms of minerals endowment. However, natural gas extraction is in its infancy stage. The existing studies on natural gas extractions in Tanzania focused more at the national level with limited understanding of the host community’s issues. This study was conducted to examine the host community’s attitude on natural gas extraction in Kilwa District. Specifically, the study assessed: (i) host communities’ attitude towards benefits sharing, and (ii) factors that influence host communities’ attitude towards benefit sharing. A structured questionnaire was administered to 373 respondents. A Likert scale was used to measure the attitude of host community members towards benefit sharing. An Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR) technique was used to examine factors influencing attitudes of communities towards benefits sharing. The findings revealed that overall the respondents had a negative attitude (60%) towards benefits sharing from the extractive industry. Distance from extraction activities, access to electricity, the relationship between the community and extractive companies and sex of respondent were important determinants of attitude (p < 0.05). The study concludes that the high level of negative attitude implies host communities dissatisfaction towards natural gas investment that may translate into resource curse in the country. This calls for immediate practical interventions by policymakers, planners, and extractive companies to address challenges that limit equitable access to various benefits by host communities.
Household Awareness and Knowledge on Improved Cookstoves : A Case of Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
(2015) Massawe, F. A.; Bengesi, K. M. K.; Kweka, A. E.
The initiatives to replace inefficient cooking stoves with improved cookstoves (ICS) in developing countries have not been successful. The available studies have given less attention to consumer’s awareness and knowledge on ICS despite the two variables being essential on the adoption decision. This study was conducted in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania covering 294 households to explore household awareness and knowledge on ICS and establish if awareness and knowledge differ between adopters and non adopters. The findings revealed that there were limited awareness and knowledge on the use ICS and negative opinion on efficient cooking behaviour. The Mann Whitney U test showed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.001) between adopters and non adopters on efficient cooking behaviour. On the other hand, there were no significant differences (p ≥ 0.005) between adopters and non adopters on knowledge and skills of ICS use. The study concludes that the low level of awareness and knowledge on efficient cooking behaviour and on skills in respect of application of ICS might slow down the process of making decision to adopt ICS. Additionally, low knowledge may lead to non adherence to the technical use of ICS hence failing to maximize the recommended ICS efficiency which subsequently affects the perception on ICS.
Household gender relations and adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Njombe District, Tanzania
(College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), 2020-05-05) Massawe, F. A.; Kahamba, J. S.; Jeckoniah, J. N.; Nombo, C. I.
The government of Tanzania initiated the rollout of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) to reduce mortality and morbidity rates and improve the quality of life for people living with Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (PLWHA). The initiative will be successful once the services are widely accessed and register a high level of ART adherence by PLWHA. There are however, limited empirical studies on how gender-related factors affect access to and follow-through treatment for HIV and AIDS hence the need to fill this knowledge gap. The study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect data using a structured questionnaire in Njombe Region, Tanzania. The findings reveal that heterosexual intercourse with a spouse was the leading cause of HIV transmission for women (64.9%), and casual sex outside of marriage was the major cause for men (54.3%). It was revealed that 45.5% of respondents reported women to be responsible for income generation at the household. The study found that 81.4% of women, compared to 42.9% of males walked to the clinic while only 14% of women paid for transport to get to the clinic, compared to 40% of men. It was found that 30% of women and 17% men had no access to a special diet required by the PLWHA. Findings indicate that 96.6% of females and 85.6% of males patients took their medication as prescribed and attended scheduled clinics (97.1% of men and 93.8% of women) as planned. Heavy household workload was reported to constraint women in taking medication on time. Maintaining a good diet was a problem reported by most of the respondents, especially women. The study concludes that as treatment programs are rolled out and scaled up, household gender relations still affects adherence in different ways, therefore considering gender aspect will improve access and adherence to ART for PLWHA.
Household social economic status and adoption of improved cook Stoves: the case of Kilimanjaro region Tanzania
(Roskilde University, Denmark, 2017) Massawe, F. A.; Bengesi, K. M. K.
Low adoption rate of improved cooking stove (ICS) has been a challenge in most devel- oping countries where biomass is a major cooking energy. Low adoption rates have been attributed to several factors but little attention has been given to the role of household Social Economic Status (SES) in the adoption of ICS. This study was conducted in Hai and Rombo Districts in Kili- manjaro Region to investigate the role of household Social Economic Status (SES) in the adoption of ICS. The study employed the Asset Index as a proxy indicator for household SES. Descriptive statistics establish the share of ownership of various assets and housing conditions between adopters and non-adopters while binary logistic regression model was employed to test the influence of SES on the adoption of ICS. The descriptive statistical results have shown that some assets and housing conditions were common for both ICS adopters and non-adopters while differences was observed on ownership of assets such as cars, generators, TV and some quality housing conditions. The binary logistic regression results show that households with higher SES were leading in ownership of ICS. The study concludes that although ICS is a fuel saving technology with multiple benefits includ- ing social, environmental, health and economic benefits, such benefits were not sufficient for the poor households to adopt the stoves. There were other needs that households want to meet including the acquisition of several other valuable assets. Therefore, the study recommends continuing with awareness campaigns to emphasise on the economic, social and environmental values of ICS while at the same time designing a strategy to increase the adoption of ICS for the households of low SES.
How gender affects adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Tanzania
(MEASURE Evaluation, 2017) Kahamba, J. S.; Massawe, F. A.; Nombo, C. N.; Jeckoniah, J. N.
Background: AIDS was first diagnosed in 1983. We know that HIV and AIDS have been in Tanzania for more than three decades. Although efforts to find a cure for AIDS have not yet been fruitful, the Government of Tanzania initiated the rollout of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2004. This intervention has dramatically reduced rates of mortality and morbidity and improved the quality of life for people living with HIV (PLHIV). However, the availability of ART does not guarantee that all PLHIV have equal access to it. Gender can increase a person’s vulnerability to HIV and influence his or her ability to access information about preventive measures, care, support, and treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate how gender-related factors affect access to and follow-through of this important treatment for HIV and AIDS. Methods: We conducted our study in Njombe District of Njombe Region, Tanzania, from October to November 2015. The region has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the country. We used a cross-sectional design to collect data using a structured questionnaire administered at one public permanent care-and-treatment clinic (CTC) and one mobile CTC. The study population consisted of male and female PLHIV who were more than 18 years of age, were registered in an ART program in Njombe District for at least three months, and had consented to participate in the study. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling techniques was used to capture respondents with the desired characteristics. A total of 132 respondents (97 females and 35 males) completed the questionnaire. Five key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted with health workers, nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff, and caretakers at the family level. Two focus group discussions (FGDs) were also conducted; one consisted of eight females, the other had seven males. In addition, secondary data from Njombe District health facilities were collected. Results: Our study found that heterosexual intercourse with a spouse was the leading cause of HIV transmission for more than two-thirds of the women (64.9%), and casual sex outside of marriage was the major cause for more than half of men (54.3%). The main reasons respondents gave for getting tested for HIV were compulsory HIV screening during prenatal visits, HIV awareness campaigns (especially for men), and unhealthy symptoms such as weight loss and frequent diseases. Most PLHIV (86% of men and 80% of women) started on ART within the same year they were diagnosed. Partners did not usually get tested for HIV together; men were typically more reluctant, and they denied the problem, usually asserting their wives were the source of the virus. Women were less likely than men to consult their spouse/partners before getting tested and less likely to get support from their partners after they were tested. Women (especially married women) were more likely to face social problems, including stigma, when disclosing their HIV status to their partners. Some women feared family quarrels and harsh consequences, such as being physically abused and/or divorced. Communication barriers during the early stages of deciding to get tested, and the poor responses women received from their partners when the women consulted them, affected women’s next phase of living with HIV and had a negative impact on ART access and adherence to services. Respondents had a working knowledge of how to adhere to ART and practice safe sex, but they rarely followed safe-sex practices. While nearly all the women (96.9%) took all their medicine, they were less likely than the men to follow the clinic schedule precisely. Women in the FGD said that heavy household workloads made it more difficult for them to take their medications on time. Conclusion: Gender inequity adversely affects adherence to ART in different ways for women and men living with HIV. This study has improved understanding of gender differences in ART access and adherence. We hope this will contribute to the development of more effective gender-based interventions that can potentially enhance ART access and follow-through.
Innovation value chain status of government co-operative supporting organisations in Tanzania
(College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), 2019-10-22) Njau, L. S.; Massawe, F. A.; Mahonge, C. P.
Managing innovation processes is a crucial facet to organisations. Contemporary global competition has necessitated organisations aiming at becoming and remaining vibrant to invest in innovation as a key competitive tool for their survival and growth. For innovation outputs to be realised, organisations need to establish and maintain effective innovation chains or processes by generating ideas, converting and disseminating them to targeted users. The paper assesses the innovation value chain status of government co-operative supporting organisations (GCSOs) in Tanzania. The study adopted a case study research design whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using focus group discussions (FGDs), key informants’ interviews (KIs), documentary review and non-participant observation. Data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software facilitated the analysis of data from FGDs and KIs. Findings show that the innovation value chains of most of the studied GCSOs were weak. Moreover, the innovation value chains of most organisations were poorly linked towards disseminating innovations to primary co- operative societies (PCSOs). It is concluded that given the weak and poorly linked innovation value chains amongst most of the studied GCSOs, few innovations are likely to be disseminated from such organisations to end-users. Therefore, it is recommended that GCSOs need to strengthen the innovation value chains through genuine allocation and prioritisation of resources. Deliberate efforts such as setting innovation units to enhance innovation activities within GCSOs are also recommended.
Innovations dissemination approaches among government co-operative supporting organisations in Tanzania
(Conscientia Beam., 2019) Njau, L. S.; Mahonge, C. P.; Massawe, F. A.
Efficient governments do encourage, support and promote innovations. Such realisation has necessitated some governments to establish strategic organisations to facilitate some of its innovation mandates. Some innovations have been developed by government co-operative supporting organisations (GCSOs) in Tanzania but only a few have been disseminated to end users. This has prompted questioning of the appropriateness of the innovations dissemination approaches used by such GCSOs. Research Method: The case study research design was used whereby five cases were picked. Primary data were collected using key informants‟ (KIs) interviews, focus groups discussion (FGDs) and documentary review. A qualitative research approach was adopted. Data were analysed using content analysis. The Atlas.ti computer software facilitated analysis of the data. The results show that albeit the existence of several innovations dissemination approaches, there were no mechanisms to institutionalise the effective ones. Concurrently, the approaches applied largely left out the primary co-operative societies (PCSos) treating them as submissive receivers of innovations. Moreover, numerous setbacks including perceived unwillingness by GCSOs executives to prioritise and allocate available resources for innovations, inadequate incentives and resources deficit were constraining inclusive innovations dissemination efforts. The study covered GCSOs only as they have been receiving direct government resources to support among other things innovation activities unlike other member-based and private organisations operating in Tanzania.
Integrated urban agriculture: constraints facing livestock keepers in Kinondoni; Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania
(Tengeru Community Development Journal, 2018) Victor, K.; Massawe, F. A.; Sikira, A.
Various researches conducted in Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania show that urban agriculture makes significant contribution to household livelihood. Despite this contribution, the growth of integrated urban agriculture in the urban areas is not convincing. Thus, this study aimed at establishing constrains facing integrated urban agriculture. Specifically, the study assessed livestock management system adopted by integrated urban farmers, and determined type of constraints they are facing.The study adopted a cross-sectional research design whereby both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through household survey and focus group discussions. Random sample of 132 integrated urban farmers was selected to accomplish this study. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS while qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The findings indicate that less than 50% of integrated urban farmers are practising intensive livestock management system. Also, it was shown that, integrated urban agriculture faces a number of constraints including investment capital constrains, technical expertise, incredible hatcheries, water shortage and diseases. From the study findings, the study concludes that, practising semi-intensive and extensive livestock management system which is contrary to the municipality bylaws guiding livestock keeping in urban areas reduce productivity of the sub-sectors in the study area as well as increasing the chance of failure. Therefore, individual farmers’ initiatives, governmental and non-governmental efforts should focus on providing solution to various challenges facing urban farmers.