Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

Introduction: the Millennium Development Goals in Tanzania The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight (8) international development goals that were adopted at the Millennium Summit in 2000. 189 United Nations (UN) member states signed the Millennium Declaration, which gave rise to one of the most important development frameworks. Critical development challenges received broader scrutiny and the global community worked towards common targets. Issues covered by the MDGs include poverty, education, gender, health, environmental conservation and global cooperation. In Tanzania, the MDGs have been integrated into medium-term programmes, beginning with the first-generation Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) (2000/01-2003/04), to the second-generation National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP I) (2005/06-2009/10) and NSGRP II (2010/11-2014/15). This also included Zanzibars Poverty Reduction Plan (ZPRP) 2007-2010, which was succeeded by the second plan 2010/11-14/15, the Zanzibar Growth and Reduction of Poverty (ZGRP). As the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) convenes, there are just over 600 days before the MDGs expire. While significant progress has been registered across the target matrix, substantial efforts are still needed to address the gaps in the coverage of women and girls. This brief analysis, co-authored by the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) of Tanzania and the United Nations Association (UNA) of Tanzania, looks to analyse the progress Tanzania has made implementing the MDGs, with particular emphasis on how needs and challenges faced by women and girls have been addressed, and what remains to be done. Women and Girls in the MDGs The MDGs framework placed an important focus on the critical challenges that women and girls face in modern times. The challenges include abuse, inequality, inadequate services, health, low income and livelihood. Looking at the framework, we see the spectrum of interventions that were laid out to mitigate these challenges. Under the MDG one (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger the targets have been to achieve decent employment for women, men, and young people. Significant gender gaps in employment rates persist. In particular, women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable forms of employment and have less access to social protection.

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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

MDG two (2) on achieving Universal Primary Education targets to have gender parity in enrolment and completion of primary education for both girls and boys. Reports suggest that Tanzania is set to achieve this goal. However, gender gaps continue to persist in secondary and tertiary education, something MDG three (3) looking at gender equality and women empowerment aims to address. There are several MDGs that all aspire to improve the health outcomes and services for women and girls, and they include MDG four (4), MDG five (5), and MDG six (6), focusing on; Reducing child mortality, Improving Maternal Mortality and Combating HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Other Diseases respectively. The MDG goal on reducing child mortality has under-five and infant (under 1 year old) mortality rates reduction and proportion of one-year-old children immunized against measles as its targets. The Committee on the Status of Women is concerned that there are countries that have not achieved this goal because of having a son-preference mentality when it comes to early childhood care, which leads to more death rate of the girl child. According to the 2010 DHS, 75.8% of boys and 74.5% of girls under two years of age had had all their basic vaccinations. Furthermore, under-five mortality rates were higher for boys than for girls, as were rates of malnutrition. Overall, this is not indicative of the son-preference concern that has been cited across a number of fronts. Under MDG five (5) on improving maternal mortality, the global community set out to reduce the maternal mortality ratio and achieve universal access to reproductive health. Progress on this in Tanzania has been especially slow. There continues to be unacceptably high numbers of maternal deaths, with reports indicating that Tanzania will not be able to meet the 75% reduction in maternal deaths target by 2015. There is also significant unmet need for family planning. The fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases has seen mixed progress across the targets. According to UNAIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a 25% reduction in the HIV prevalence rate, attributed to a change in attitudes among young people. The overall HIV prevalence rate in Tanzania has also seen a decline in recent years, but vulnerabilities among young girls and women continue to exist with the high risk for infection. This is perpetuated by a number of negative practices that include female genital mutilation, early marriages and violence against women. How has implementation focused on young girls and women in Tanzania? Poverty Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger has been a bench mark for the achievement of the MDGs. However, from the observed progress in Tanzania, the country is lagging and is unlikely to achieve goal number one by the 2015 deadline. In halving the proportion of population whose income is less than one dollar per day in the period from 1990 to 2015, the actual proportion based on the national income poverty line has marginally dropped from 39% in 1990, 36% in 2000 and 33.6% in 2007.
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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

However, if this trend continues, the country will not be able to attain the target of reducing the proportion of the population living on less than one dollar per day to 19.5% by 2015. This goes along with achieving the required 10.8 proportion of population living below national food poverty line, where the actual trend was 21.6% in 1990, 19% in 2000 and 16.6% in 2007. During the same period, the number of absolute poor increased to 1.3 million. Despite an impressive report from the government on the national GDP increase, the reality shows that the poverty situation is worsening. The national GDP has been accelerating, from 3.5% in the 90s to 6.9% levels in 2010. But what has been seen on employment targets for women is the persistent feminized poverty and gender gap. Unemployment rates for women continue to be higher than for men. Access to wage paying jobs is also much lower for women than it is for men. More so, the prevailing norm has been that of having women shoulder the family, child and house care and denying them access to employment opportunities. A study on Decent Work in Tanzania by the International Labor Organization (ILO) shows that the quality of employment afforded to women is largely perpetuated by the gender segregation in the labor market, causing most women to pursue lower career ambitions. There are disparities even in the average income between men and women across the types of income sources (income from self or paid employment). This has had a significant impact on other targets pertinent to women in the MDGs, such maternal health, where this is contributing the inability for mothers to better health care. Education Reports suggest that Tanzania is on track and will be able to achieve MDG number two (2) by the 2015 deadline. Tanzania has attained 95.6% of the target through investment in infrastructure, school feeding programmes and ensuring high primary school enrolment rates. In 2009, primary school completion rates were at 72% and this had risen to 95.1% in 2010. But while the country is registering positive gains, challenges in the broader education system continue to pose obstacles in other levels. For example, secondary school completion rates decreased from 70.5% in 2006 to 49.4% in 2009. One of the contributing factors is teenage pregnancies, which causes 8000 drop-outs annually according to a 2010 report by UNICEF. Whilst primary school enrolment rates are high, a large number of students completing primary school education do not know how to read and write. This is due to a myriad of factors, including inadequate teaching facilities, high teacher student ratios, inadequate teaching tools such as books, and drop-outs. Literacy rates for women across the country are also considerably low compared to men. Enrolment in higher education skewed in favour of men. In the year 2008/09, for every 4 people who were enrolled in higher education, only one was female. Approximately 32,000 enrolled that year were female compared to 96,000 male.
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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

While the push is to get more students into the system, the concerns for them to receive a quality education, with appropriate investments made in the facilities, human resource and, learning and teaching tools need to also receive adequate priority. Health Tanzania registered significant reductions in under-five mortality rates by 27.7% and infant mortality rate by 25% (per 1, 000 live births), compared to 2008. Although it was not reported in previous years, the proportion of children vaccinated against measles in 2010 was at 85%. With significant reductions in under-five mortality rates and infant mortality rate, Tanzania is likely to deliver on the MDG target of reducing child mortality. Under-five infant mortality was at 81 per 1, 000 live births and infant mortality was at 51 per 1, 000 live births in 2010. The target is to reach 64 and 38 per 1000 live births for under-five and infant mortality rates respectively, and 90% measles vaccination. Tanzania also reported reduction in the maternal mortality ratio and the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel reduced in 2010 compared to previous years. But even with the progress registered, Tanzania is unlikely to reach the MDG targets of improving maternal health by reducing the maternal mortality ratio to 133 per 100,000 as this was at 454 in 2010. The proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel was 50.5% in 2010, but the expected target is for this to be at 90%. While women continue to be at risk from contracting HIV due to a numerous dynamics (such as negative practices, inadequate sexual and reproductive health services and violence against women), Tanzania has made significant gains in the fight against HIV. Prevalence rates are considerably low across 15-24 and 15-49 age brackets (2.5% and 5.7% respectively ~ data from 2008). But while successes can be seen at this level, issues of access to services and medicine, stigma and discrimination, and abuse continue to compound these efforts. Efforts to reach young people with information and education on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues are seeing sexuality issues increasingly discussed in households and communities, but a challenge still remains in having content introduced in school curricula and services. The need for greater investment targeting girls and women in coming frameworks Reporting is critical if we are to have a common understanding on the progress the country is making. With the most recent country MDGs report being 2010, there is a significant gap in analysis that is important to bridge. This would help shape, to a great extent, the countrys position in the final consultations in developing a new development framework, post 2015. What has been seen is that inequalities, especially in income, livelihood, opportunities to build skills, access to services and education continue to persist, with women and girls existing at the margins of convention. According to DFID, women do 66% of the work globally but earn 10% of the income and own only 1% of the property. The economic and
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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

cost benefit of investing in women cannot be overemphasized here. It clearly shows how much economic impact women can bring if supported to unleash their potential free from abuse, rigid stereotypes and poverty. Tanzania needs a more coordinated and deliberate agenda on women and girls if we are to see appropriate investments addressing the challenges outlined under the MDGs framework. With new commitments being made in the ICPD PoA review and in the development of the Post 2015 agenda, Tanzania must engage to address the challenges girls and women face across all sectors from an informed perspective and commitments must be contextually relevant.

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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals

Authored by: YWCA Tanzania The Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) of Tanzania is a non-profit membership organization which exists to develop the collective leadership of women and girls to achieve peace, dignity, justice and health for all. YWCA of Tanzania is among the 125 National YWCAs of countries that make up World YWCA. The work of YWCA began in 1855 and was formally established as world YWCA in 1894, making YWCA the oldest voluntary ecumenical womens movement in the world. UNA Tanzania The United Nations Association (UNA) of Tanzania is a non-governmental organization, registered in 1964, whose work is devoted entirely to the support of the "purposes and principles of the United Nations in the country and world. Our mission is to carry out capacity building, education, advocacy, lobbying and activism activities to increase stakeholders influence and participation in implementing UN agenda in Tanzania.

References: 1. Tanzania Country Report on the Millennium Development Goals 2008, United Republic of Tanzania, 2009 2. Tanzania Country Report on the Millennium Development Goals 2010, United Republic of Tanzania, 2011 3. Commonwealth Foundation, A civil society review of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in Commonwealth Countries: National Report; Tanzania, 2013 4. Tanzania Profile, African Economic Outlook 5. Poverty and Human Development Report 2011, Ministry of Finance, United Republic of Tanzania, May 2012 6. Tanzania Household Budget Survey, United Republic of Tanzania, 2007 7. MKUKUTA Annual Implementation Report 2010, United Republic of Tanzania, 2011 8. Decent Work Country Profile, International Labor Organization, Tanzania, 2010 9. Core Epidemiology Slides: Global Summary of the AIDS Epidemic; 2012, UNAIDS. 10. Women and Children in Tanzania, UNICEF, Dar es Salaam, 2010 11. Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey 2010, National Bureau of Statistics, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
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Ensuring equity for women and girls in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals