East African States Research Articles

Cross border population movements across three East African states: Implications for disease surveillance and response.

The frequent population movement across the five East African Countries poses risk of disease spread in the region. A clear understanding of population movement patterns is critical for informing cross-border disease control interventions. We assessed population mobility patterns across the borders of the East African states of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. In November 2022, we conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and participatory mapping. Participants were selected using purposive sampling and a topic guide used during interviews. Key informants included border districts (Uganda and Rwanda) and county health officials (Kenya). FGD participants were identified from border communities and travellers and these included truck drivers, commercial motorcyclists, and businesspersons. During KIIs and FGDs, we conducted participatory mapping using Population Connectivity Across Borders toolkits. Data were analysed using thematic analysis approach using Atlas ti 7 software. Different age groups travelled across borders for various reasons. Younger age groups travelled across the border for education, trade, social reasons, employment opportunities, agriculture and mining. While older age groups mainly travelled for healthcare and social reasons. Other common reasons for crossing the borders included religious and cultural matters. Respondents reported seasonal variations in the volume of travellers. Respondents reported using both official (4 Kenya-Uganda, 5 Rwanda-Uganda borders) and unofficial Points of Entry (PoEs) (14 Kenya-Uganda, 20 Uganda-Rwanda) for exit and entry movements on borders. Unofficial PoEs were preferred because they had fewer restrictions like the absence of health screening, and immigration and customs checks. Key destination points (points of interest) included: markets, health facilities, places of worship, education institutions, recreational facilities and business towns. Twenty-eight health facilities (10- Lwakhakha, Uganda, 10- Lwakhakha, Kenya, and 8- Cyanika, Uganda) along the borders were the most commonly visited by the travellers and border communities. Complex population movement and connectivity patterns were identified along the borders. These were used to guide cross-border disease surveillance and other border health strategies in the three countries. Findings were used to revise district response and preparedness plans by strengthening community-based surveillance in border communities.

Spatial prediction of armed conflicts from the perspective of political geography using bivariate frequency ratio method (FR) in East African States

Armed conflicts, as significant human phenomena, profoundly impact populations and reflect a state's capacity to fulfill its responsibilities. These conflicts arise from various causes, necessitating robust predictive models to understand their spatial distribution. This study employs the Bivariate Frequency Ratio (FR) method to spatially predict the occurrence of armed conflicts across the East African States, drawing on 42 political geography-related criteria. The development of the predictive model involved classifying the region into five conflict-prone categories influenced by critical political geography factors. Geospatial datasets, curated in a GIS environment, were sourced from approved online portals. The findings indicate that Burundi exhibits the highest vulnerability to armed conflict, followed closely by Rwanda, Uganda, and Somalia. Ethiopia and South Sudan show a moderate risk, while predictions for Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique suggest lower likelihoods of conflict. The model's accuracy was validated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, demonstrating its effectiveness. Furthermore, the model's applicability extends to other regions, offering a valuable tool for global conflict prediction.

Financial technology and economic growth nexus in the East African community states

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the causation linking financial technology to economic growth in the East African Community states from 1997 to 2019.Design/methodology/approachAutoregressive distributed lag is used. Gross domestic product per capita proxies economic growth, automated teller machines, point of sale, debit card ownership and mobile banking measure financial technology.FindingsThe results unveil a significant relationship between financial technology and economic growth. The findings show bidirectional causality between automated teller machine and economic growth, with unidirectional causation from economic growth to point of sales and internet banking, mobile banking and government effectiveness to economic growth. The error correction term is negatively significant, demonstrating a long-term convergence between Fintech measures and economic growth.Research limitations/implicationsThe governments should effectively enact and implement policies that protect investments in financial technologies to boost economic growth in the East African Community countries. The government should reduce taxes on financial technology equipment and related services. The use of automated teller machine, debit card ownership and internet banking should be encouraged through cashless transactions. Financial institutions should adopt cashless operation policies to encourage the use of financial technologies.Originality/valueResearch results on the bond between financial technology and economic growth are not conclusive. These studies demonstrate that technological innovations are double edged-swords, with both positive and negative sides. The results are conflicting; some reveal positive relationships, while others show negative links. Hence, research is required to fill the lacuna.

Voluntary National Reviews on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Key Lessons from East African Member States

Regular, inclusive, and country-driven Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of sustainable development goals (SDGs) are being conducted by many countries across the globe in the quest to realign development priorities toward Agenda 2030. However, there are limited studies on the progress of the implementation of SDGs. This paper used literature review and document content analysis to review the VNRs from East Africa for the first time in order to explore their reporting practices and document the progress of SDG implementation. Results substantiate that Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan are committed to achieving a high quality of life for their people through periodic VNR reporting. To augment, these positive efforts, countries have established a favorable multi-stakeholder legal and policy environment for SDG implementation. Moreover, remarkable impacts have been witnessed, including; reduced poverty, improved access to basic services, enhanced environmental protection, improved economic growth, improved gender equality, and improved stakeholder participation in sustainable development. Additionally, global best practices on SDG implementation are emerging from the region, especially through the tendency to formulate national strategies and policies targeting specific development sectors and resources. However, results also show that there are numerous social-political, economic, and environmental barriers to achieving the SDGs. As such, this paper recommends increasing SDGs awareness, building technical capacity, leveraging technology, fostering transparency and accountability, encouraging collaboration, addressing cultural barriers, and supporting political stability. Implementing these interventions can help to promote sustainable development in the region.

Trade Liberalization and Female Employment in the East African Community

The United Nations reported that just 47 per cent of women of working age participated in the labour market in 2020, compared to 74 per cent of men. Although there have been significant changes in the Gross Domestic Product and trade structure, structural changes in employment have been negligible in Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in The East African Community. Despite being above the Sub-Saharan Africa average female Employment to Population, all the East African Community member states that are the focus of this study have had a declining Employment to employment-to-population ratio. The primary goal of this study is to look into the impact of trade integration on gender outcomes in the East African Community. This was achieved by combining the Phillips and Okuns law to link the relationship between unemployment and its direct and indirect variables. Annual panel data between 2000 to 2021 was utilised. The results show that trade openness has a depressing effect on the share of women employed in the agricultural sector and a positive effect on the share of female employment in the services sector. This trend could be explained by the closeness of the sectors, meaning that female workers do not need new skills to move between the agricultural and services sectors. For women to take advantage of job opportunities in the services sector that improve inequality there is a need to reskill women so that they can take advantage of higher-level job opportunities in the services sector.

The African growth and opportunity act (AGOA) and export performance: a case study of the united republic of Tanzania in relation to its east African partner states

This study assesses the effectiveness of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) on the export performance of Sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) countries. Tanzania’s export performance in relation to that of the other three East Africa Community (EAC) partner states, namely, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, is investigated. The study employs a traditional trade model based on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) procedure, covering the pre-and post-AGOA period from 1990 to 2020, 11 years before the signing of AGOA and 20 years after it. The main differences between this study and previous studies assessing the impact of AGOA preference include a longer sample period, the techniques of treating the model in the empirical analysis, and the number of countries assessed that allows to observe what differentiates the AGOA’s impact on SSA countries. A panel model showing the overall impact of AGOA, and individual country regressions are estimated. The panel results show no impact of AGOA on the export performance of the EAC partner states, while to the individual country findings indicate that AGOA has a significant impact only on the total exports of Kenya, to the country of interest that is Tanzania is insignificant. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Physicochemical and Microbial Quality of Water from the Ugandan Stretch of the Kagera Transboundary River

Increasing global pollution of water resources undermines the efforts invested in the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals. In developing countries, for example, water pollution is exacerbated by poor regulatory structures and improper waste disposal. This study, for the first time, investigated the physicochemical and microbial parameters of surface water from the Ugandan stretch of the Kagera transboundary river. Surface water (n = 135) from downstream, midstream and upstream of the river was sampled between February 2021 and June 2021, and analysed following standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. Further, the samples were analysed using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy for the presence of heavy metals: nickel, lead, chromium, cadmium and copper. The obtained results showed that turbidity (24.77 ± 5.5–43.99 ± 6.87 mg/L), colour (118 ± 8.90–145.2 ± 30.58 Pt-co units), Escherichia coli (4.96 ± 7.01 CFU/100 mL), lead (23.0 ± 11.0–43.0 ± 12.0 µg/L) and cadmium (3.3 ± 1.0–10.1 ± 10.0 µg/L) were at levels that surpassed their permissible limits as per World Health Organization guidelines for potable water. These results are lower than previously reported for the Rwandese stretch of this river, but still present potential health risks to the population whose livelihoods depend on the river. Measures should therefore be instituted by the East African Community member states to mitigate riverine pollution and ensure sustainable use of the Kagera transboundary river.

Effects of Public Debt on Interest Rates in Selected East African Community Member States

East African Community member states have embarked on various strategies to reduce interest rates in the region to boost investment so as to accelerate economic growth. However, despite the many reforms, the interest rates are far higher than in other countries in Africa, which are more developed. In an attempt to bolster investment, these states have increased public debt rapidly, exceeding the debt ratio of 50 per cent of Gross Domestic Product as provided in their treaty. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of public debt on interest rates in selected East African Community member states. The study was anchored on the loanable fund model and used a descriptive panel research design. The dataset was drawn from World Development Indicators and Penn World Tables for the period 1980 to 2020. The dataset was drawn from secondary sources: World Bank's World Development Indicators, Penn World Tables, Economic Surveys and Statistical Abstracts for the period 1980 to 2020. The Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag method was used to analyse the study. The study found that public debt had a positive effect on the long-term interest rate in the five countries combined. Therefore, these governments need to take effective measures to pursue fiscal discipline. Additionally, EAC states can use concessional loans, which have more favourable terms like lower interest rates, deferred repayments, and income-contingent repayments

Region‐centric infrastructure policies and the regional politics surrounding Chinese railway projects: Insights from the East Africa region

AbstractThe African Union and regional economic communities have identified infrastructure development, not least the enhancement of railway systems, as a key priority to advance regional and continental integration policy. The keen interest of Chinese actors in Africa's railway sector is largely welcomed as conducive to increasing infrastructural connectivity within and between Africa's sub‐regions. This article argues that regional railway projects must be assessed against regional political contexts, which crucially co‐determine the degree of coordination and cooperation in the context of region‐centric infrastructure policies. Competing national political agendas, exacerbated mostly by China's bilateral engagement with East African Community member states, has intensified East Africa's infrastructure race. This has resulted in a poorly coordinated standard‐gauge railway project along the East African Northern Corridor; consequently, its economic viability is in doubt.Related ArticlesIkeanyibe, Okechukwu Marcellus. 2018. “Bureaucratic Politics and the Implementation of Liberalization Reforms in Nigeria: A Study of the Unbundling and Reorganization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.” Politics & Policy 46(2): 263–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12249.Iwuoha, Victor Chidubem, Nneka Ifeoma Okafor, and Emmanuel Ifeadike. 2022. “State Regulation of Nigeria's Maritime Ports: Exploring the Impact of Port Concession on Both the Regulator and the Operators.” Politics & Policy 50(5): 1032–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12495.McNamara, Madeleine W., John C. Morris, and Martin Mayer. 2014. “Expanding the Universe of Multi‐Organizational Arrangements: Contingent Coordination and the Deepwater Horizon Transportation Challenges.” Politics & Policy 42(3): 346–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12073.

Productivity Factors and the Growth of the Manufacturing Sector among the East African Community Members States: Testing the Adequacy of the Endogenous Growth Hypothesis

Purpose: It is well documented that the manufacturing industry plays a vital role in a country's economic growth and progress. This study benchmarks the endogenous growth paradigm in order to assess the productivity drivers that may affect the output growth of the manufacturing sector in East African Community member states. The empirical model covering the years 2000–2020 was constructed using panel data.
 Methodology: The study adopts a longitudinal research design and tables used to present summary estimates. Analysis has been achieved using stata statistical package version 17.0. A D-GMM estimator was employed to estimate the underlying empirical model.
 Findings: Foreign direct investments, inflation, trade openness, and lending interest rates were shown to be the most influential variables in the rise of manufacturing sector production among EAC member states out of a large sample of productivity indicators analyzed in the study.
 Recommendations: The results show that EAC countries can boost their manufacturing output by attracting more FDI, keeping inflation low, boosting cross-border trade, and enacting policies to lower the costs associated with credit access. Unique in this study is the analysis, first of its kind, of the productivity drivers of the growth in manufacturing sector output in the East African Community member states within the general framework of endogenous growth theory. 

Women Entrepreneurs in East Africa: How Women Integration can boost Entrepreneurial Solutions to Sustainable Development. A Review of Literature

Women’s contributions to sustainable development and trade development are recognized at the national level in the East African community nation’s Frameworks for financial development and trade policy. This paper focuses on examining how women’s Integration can boost Entrepreneurial Solutions to Sustainable Development in the East African Community member states of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The researcher employed secondary data to conduct a thorough literature search. On how Women’s Integration can boost Entrepreneurial Solutions to Sustainable Development in the East African community context. The findings indicated that overcoming obstacles including inadequate market access, market competition, Poor business education, inadequate infrastructure, a lack of resources, a lack of access to raw materials, an unreliable electricity supply, and a lack of marketing knowledge, production restrictions, and a lack of storage space. Additionally, having few contacts outside of prejudice and class bias, lack of social acceptance, relationships with the workforce, attitudes of other workers, and society’s low opinion of women are the bigger social hurdles for them to choose entrepreneurship in the East African community Fellow Countries. As a result, the report suggests that governments of East African Community Member States improve state subsidies, create welcoming workplaces, and The East African community region as a whole needs to embrace gender and strengthen the position of women in the advancement of culture, society, politics, the economy, and technology. Member Nations should encourage gender equality and women, effective assimilation, engagement in sustainable growth at all levels, especially in the outcome; eradicate discrimination laws and customs; support efficient education awareness programs aimed at changing negative attitudes toward women, and develop or embrace new technology that will ensure the security of occupation and certified success for females.

East Africa after Liberation: Conflict, Security, and the State since the 1980s by Jonathan Fisher

Only a small number of Africa’s many civil wars since independence have ended with rebel victory, and an even smaller number of those victories have seen rebels transition into successful rulers able to create durable political systems that persisted for decades following the ouster of the ancien regime. In East Africa after Liberation, Fisher considers several flagship cases from the 1980s and 1990s—Uganda’s National Resistance Army (nra), the Rwandan Patriotic Front (rpf), the interlinked Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (eplf), Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (eprdf), and Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. With compelling theoretical insight and rich empirical detail, Fisher shows how, after these “post-liberation” insurgencies won their wars, their leaders then renovated regime politics in the states that they captured and became new governing elites. He also shows how they shaped Africa’s regional politics, both in conjunction and, ultimately, at odds with one another.At its heart, this book is about how revolutionary ideologies about state–society relations were refracted through social relationships within and across insurgency movements both during and after victory. It is about how movement leaders sought to invest their liberation mindsets not only into building cohesive rebel organizations but also into the development of pragmatic solutions to the domestic and regional challenges of maintaining their regimes after victory.In the book’s substantive chapters, Fisher develops this story across three periods, which also serve as key conceptual categories. Taking each rebel movement in turn, Chapters 1 and 2 examine the first category of “insurgency,” the initial period when rebel leaders acquired their liberation ideologies and deployed these ideas in building and sustaining their movements during their wartime experiences. This section also shows how leaders developed relationships across movements based on shared characteristics, ultimately leading to the formation of what Fisher describes as a “collective.”In the second category, “Liberation” (Chapters 3–4) refers to how this distinct category of actors—victorious rebels now rulers—consolidated new regimes at home and built their collective affinities into a formidable regional power bloc in East and Central Africa, while continuing to wear strident revolutionary ideology on their sleeves. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the culmination of these events into a regional “crisis,” when these four regimes meddled in the Great Lakes and sparked a complex and protracted regional conflict following their ouster of Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaïre’s dictator. Very soon after this episode, by virtue of shifting priorities of regime security and competitive jockeying for regional dominance, the liberation alliance unraveled and issued into the “wars between brothers”—Rwanda vs. Uganda, and Ethiopia vs. Eritrea—still packaged as ideological battles.The main strength of this book is its effort to take seriously the notion that “ideas matter” and to operationalize it theoretically and empirically. Fisher successfully weaves the cases through time while providing conceptual markers for how the ideological frameworks of East African leaders elided and collided with rebel, regime, and regional governance. Yet although the stories of Uganda, Rwanda, Eritrea, and Ethiopia are important to tell, their convergence into a similar theoretical stream deprives the book of comparative leverage vis-à-vis the stories of political development in other African states. This shortcoming is not, however, a deal breaker by any means.Another core strength of this book is Fisher’s ability to build relationships in the field, establishing credibility with key actors and penetrating networks of elites that often refuse to tell outsiders about the inner workings of their politics. For all its refreshing audacity, however, this methodology also points to potential pitfalls, among them the uncritical reproduction of elite narratives. Although Fisher discusses the challenges that accompany this kind of research, the next step should be a more thorough attention to the distinct caveats involved in talking to Africa’s politico-security elites.East Africa after Liberation makes critical contributions to our understanding of the intersections between domestic and regional politics in four pivotal East African states. Whereas the prevailing literature tends to focus on the instrumental motivations of Africa’s political actors, Fisher’s more sociological approach considers the frames of meaning that guide the behavior of the revolutionary elites who had to govern fragile states within contentious neighborhoods. It also has broader implications regarding political order in Africa more generally. This book is essential reading for the study of contemporary African politics.

Coronavirus Counter-Measures, The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community and Domestic Legal Requirements

Abstract This article examines the coronavirus counter-measures adopted by East African states from a legal perspective. The focus is whether the adopted measures infringe on the provisions of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) and domestic legislations, including the countries’ constitutional provisions. The legal recourse for East African citizens in instances where domestic remedies have failed will be examined in light of the role of the judicial organ of the East African Community, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). An examination will be made on protection of human rights under the EAC Treaty and the jurisdiction of the EACJ in adjudicating on allegations of human rights violation. This contribution will proceed to debate on the existing relationship between international law and domestic laws; whether international law is superior to domestic law and whether international bodies can entertain a complaint by an individual or an institution on violation of human rights where redress has not been exhaustively sought through domestic legal systems.

Performance of Vat System in Tanzania Since Enactment of The Vat Act in 2014

The 2014 Value Added Tax (VAT) reforms focused on reduction of the base alterations and broadening the tax base and also dealt with several legal drafting issues to enhance the effectiveness of the new VAT law with hopes of enhancing revenue collection. The objective of this article is to assess the performance of VAT system in Tanzania in terms of tax payer’s registration and collection efficiencies. This study adopted a quantitative paradigm whereby data were analysed quantitatively through descriptive statistics and ratio analysis for efficiency measurement. Only secondary data were used in this study. The sources of data were reports from the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the World Bank (WB), IMF and peer-reviewed journal articles on relevant subject matters. The study revealed a total of 4,575 taxpayers who were eligible to be registered for VAT but who were not captured by the VAT tax system by January 2022. As a result, the government is estimated to have lost about TZS 23,350.09 billion during that period. Furthermore, it was found that the contribution of VAT to GDP is 3.6 per cent which is below the country’s expectation threshold of 6 per cent annually and is below the East African Community member states’ average of 4.4 per cent. Both the VAT Efficiency and C-efficiency ratios were not performing well; their averages were 21.9 and 20.7 per cent respectively, below the EAC regional average of 25 per cent. It is recommended to the government to increase VAT registration threshold and reduce the VAT rate. TRA is urged to decentralize the registration of VAT taxpayers to regions so as to improve compliance and administrative efficiency. The study further recommends to TRA to audit the 4,575 taxpayers whose turnovers are above TZS 100 million but are not yet registered and captured within the VAT tax net.

Covid-19: Morals over empathy in the misuse of public funds. A case of Uganda in comparison with selected east African states

This paper investigates the extent to which public resources, allocated for addressing the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, were misappropriated despite the dire need to combat the effect of the pandemic in Uganda. Using a qualitative approach, it employs a multipronged technique to analyse relevant documentation such as newspaper reports, audit reports, case studies and written sources to examine the different responses and perspectives. Inevitably, the novel coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on Uganda’s economy with unprecedented levels of deterioration in socio-economic systems like healthcare, education, poverty and hunger. However, widespread concerns have emerged citing trends of corruption exemplified by embezzlement and fraudulent practices purportedly orchestrated by relevant government authorities in the form of undermining public procurement processes, under the guise of addressing an emergency.

Paying Attention to The Fiscal Nuances at Play in Negotiating DTAs: Comparative Case Study of the DTAs Between East African States and UAE/Qatar

Paying Attention to The Fiscal Nuances at Play in Negotiating DTAs: Comparative Case Study of the DTAs Between East African States and UAE/Qatar

Elections in Kenya: When All Roads in East Africa Lead to Nairobi

Kenya went to the elections in August 2022. The increasing unpredictable and competitive elections have often down-graded general election trends in the East Africa region where predetermined outcomes and poll fixing are the often norm Kenya was not going to be an exception. However, the case in Kenya was different this time. The era of unquestionable linchpins in Kenyan politics seemed to no longer dictate the tone among Kenyan voters. The voting alliance usually set among ethnic lines appeared to have been a matter of the past. Leading candidates set tone by disowning violence and instead appealed for peace to their supporters during the process of elections. Independent monitoring via parallel vote tabulations and public access of data released by the electoral commission from polling stations kept the public informed of the contest. Before the elections, during and after, anxiety was on the rise within Kenya, among Kenya’s neighbors, the rest of Africa and elsewhere.
 This study examines the 2022 General Election in Kenya as to the maturity of the Kenya electorate against all the odds that has always beset the nation during such particular times. The example set is worth emulation by willing neighboring East African and African states in particular and the world at large. Literature on the elections from reliable daily and weekly tabloids, newsreels, interviews from the mass media, one- to- one debates with political analysts, active participation in panel discussions on the election and discussion groups furnished the necessary information to put something on paper. The general consensus in the discussion groups pitted Kenya to have made a leap forward.
 The conclusion can be drawn that a significant progress has been made in Kenya’s election process since 2007-2008. The process in 2022 has displayed a maturity of democracy worth rivalling.

Institutional mechanisms for resolution of trade remedies disputes under the East African Community Customs Union and by member states

Trade remedies were introduced by the World Trade Organization to address unfair trade practices caused by dumping and prohibited subsidies and to restrict import surges brought about by international trade. Trade remedies take the form of anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures and safeguard measures. Trade remedies have been regulated by the East African Community and member states in almost similar terms as those of the World Trade Organization’s rules on trade remedies. Significant to this paper is how trade remedies disputes are dealt with by the East African Community as a regional economic community established within the realms of the World Trade Organization and by EAC member states, who with the exclusion of South Sudan are members to the World Trade Organization. The East African Community laws and member states’ legislations allow for the creation of institutions to resolve trade remedies disputes. While no trade remedy dispute has been instituted under these two regimes, the existing legal framework forms the basis for discussions in this paper. This paper therefore analyses the institutional mechanism for resolution of trade remedies disputes under the East African Community and domestically, by member states.

Women and adaptive capacity to climate change in East African seascapes – Zanzibar as an example

As the climate crisis persists, there is a crucial need to increase knowledge on adaptive capacity and the underlying factors building it. This is particularly important for disadvantaged groups, such as coastal women in East Africa. Women’s livelihoods in these seascapes are and will be more severely affected by climate change and the capacity of East African states to deal with these challenges is limited in terms of financial and human capital. In this research, we investigated the underlying factors building the adaptive capacity of coastal women in Zanzibar (Unguja Island), Tanzania. Coastal women (N=117) were interviewed in villages around the island to gather information about potential factors supporting adaptive capacity. This was analysed applying Cinner et al (2018) five domains typology for adaptive capacity, i.e. assets, flexibility, organizations, learning and agency. The results show that women had relatively low adaptive capacity, extended poverty and very high dependence on seaweed farming of red algae, a livelihood providing low income and already being seriously affected by climate variability and change. Women’s observations of key variables related to environmental changes corresponded to most scientific findings. It was, however, unclear how that knowledge is useful and enhances adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity was generally low but individual differences were found in which ten women had a high income. The results show that the factors underlying adaptive capacity are complex and interact with each other, being positive, negative and unclear. Many of the identified factors deserve future research. This study adds to the pool of knowledge by addressing women (not only men); coastal ecosystems (as land and freshwater systems are more studied) and the individual level (since most studies focus on national and community levels). The study illustrates that institutional renewal, bridging and cooperation is possible in Zanzibar bringing good news to the region.

Microfinance Institutions as a Vehicle for Poverty Eradication in Developing Countries: Evidence from the East African Community Member States

This paper focuses on examining the link that exists between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and poverty eradication efforts in developing countries, specifically focusing on the East African member states of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The study was driven by the varying interpretations, debates, and opposing opinions in literature on the effects of MFIs on poverty eradication in developing economies, particularly in the East African Community (EAC). The study used a depth literature search using secondary data on the role of MFIs in poverty eradication in the EAC context. The results pointed out that despite the challenges such as high transaction rates, limited funding and others, microfinance credit has played a significant role in poverty eradication among poor/low-income families in the EAC Member States. Therefore, the study recommends that governments of the EAC Member States should increase government support, and conducive working environments should be provided to ensure microfinance institutions reach as many less privileged individuals as possible so as to raise their economic status.