Tanzanian Data Research Articles

Assessment of Independence of Regulatory Structures Governing Data Protection and Privacy in East Africa: A Case Study of Kenya and Tanzania

In an era of widespread digital information exchange, protecting personal data and privacy has become crucial. East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania have implemented regulatory structures to address these concerns. However, the effectiveness and independence of these structures raise questions, necessitating a comprehensive assessment. Therefore, this study investigates the question of the independence of data protection authorities in East Africa with a particular focus on Kenya and Tanzania. This study was guided by three questions, namely, do the structures of data protection authorities in Kenya and Tanzania affect their independence? Are the data protection authorities in Kenya and Tanzania sufficiently funded to run their duties? And are the tenures of Commissioners of data protection authorities in Kenya and Tanzania secured? The study engaged two approaches: doctrinal legal research methodology, which analyses law in the form of legislation, case law, and international instruments, as well as comparative legal research methodology, which involves comparative analysis of identified criteria from Kenya and Tanzania. It was observed that the Kenyan data protection authority is more independent than the Tanzanian data protection authority.

Digital diagnostics from Tanzania: Beyond mere technological fixing?

Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being put in minimal, 'technological fixes' driven by the market for problems that have intractable social determinants. This article focusses on a group of apparent technological fixers, Tanzanian data and computer scientists designing and building various forms of digital diagnostics. It argues that these diagnostics, and the social forms they are creating, need to be understood differently than as purely attenuated, market-driven technological solutions for specific problems. Instead, they represent ambitious efforts to create new and superior healthcare futures from Tanzania, that speak to broader systems as much as abstract and narrow technical processes, and to the public good as much as the private.

English, national and local linguae francae in the language ecologies of Uganda and Tanzania

With regard to eastern Africa, English is usually discussed as a language of urban metropolises, connected to global capital and high education. However, globalisation has created pockets away from these urban centres, where English is an important part of local linguistic practices, coexisting with rather local linguae francae. This study presents two examples of such places from Uganda and Tanzania, discusses the role English and local languages have there, and the attitudes people hold towards them. The Ugandan data stem from Gulu, a medium-sized city, and show English as an essential element of everyday interaction not only in interethnic communication or business encounters, but also in interactions among ethnic Acholi. This importance is reflected in the attitudes held towards English. The Tanzanian data were collected in Arusha, another medium-sized city. They show an equally favourable attitude towards English instrumentally, despite Kiswahili being more frequently used in everyday communication. It is especially this use of Kiswahili that divides these two language ecologies and questions the notion of the ‘heartland’ of East Africa based on sociolinguistic similarities. The examples show the importance of recognising the dynamics of language locally (Pennycook, 2010) in its concrete ecologies when assessing the role of languages in Africa.

Organizational Commitment Scale Validation in Tanzanian Context

The study was designed to investigate Constructs Independence; Normality; Reliability and Validity of Allen and Meyer’s Questionnaire (1990) three constructs namely Affective, Normative and Continuous Commitment in Tanzanian data. It was purposively planned and conducted in two separate phases (Study 1 and 2). In study 1; Tanzanian data were tested if Allen and Meyer’s Questionnaire (1990) yielded independent constructs. In study 2; tests for validity, reliability and normality levels were primary to the study. All tests came following solid theoretical background pertaining to how Hofstede (2001) cultural dimensions determine response styles, response bias and questionnaire response across cultures. A total of total of 104 and 214 respondents from Tanzanian Councils were involved in study 1 and study 2 respectively. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicated Meyers and Allen three scales were component of common constructs. Specified PCA models on the three scales showed significant results indicated by p< .05; and KMO greater than 0.6. and no loading variable was worse than 0.90. Similarly; Normality Analysis suggested data collected yielded normality; as combined graph produced Skewness (.265); Kurtosis (-1.427) and skewness value range between -.5 and +.5. Also; Cronbach Alpha Analyses indicated; data collected had Cronbach Alpha better than .70 the reliability minimum requirement scores in all three questionnaire constructs. Further; Confirmatory Factors Analysis revealed that Meyers and Allen Questionnaire yielded significant validity using fit indices RMR (Root Mean Square Residual), GFI (Goodness Fit Index), TLI (Tucker-Lewis Index), CFI (Comparative Fit Index) and RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation). Thus, it was concluded that Meyers and Allen Questionnaire is reliable and valid for organizational commitment studies in Tanzanian context. Recommendations for reducing or eliminating questionnaire response bias to have better statistical analyses and estimations were included. Keywords: Organizational Commitment; Cultural Dimension; Response Styles; Councils; Tanzania DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-22-09 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Agricultural production diversity, dietary diversity and nutritional status: Panel data evidence from Tanzania

Abstract Household agricultural production for self-consumption is often highlighted by nutritionists as the main route to increasing household food security and nutritional status, especially for the poor in developing countries. At the same time, the income gains from specializing in fewer crops and selling the surplus product could be an alternate route to improved nutritional status. We use Tanzanian data to study linkages between the diversity and market orientation of a household’s agricultural production, the quality and diversity of their diets, and the nutritional status of their children. We find that diversifying a household’s agricultural production significantly increases diversity in that household’s diet, but the positive nutritional effects are small. We also find that market orientation has no clear effect on dietary diversity. At the same time, however, the nutritional status of children is not found to be linked clearly to general dietary diversity. On the other hand, factors such as education and overall income have strong and significant effects on both household dietary diversity and child nutrition. Thus, policies for increasing the quality of children’s diets, improving children’s nutritional status and enhancing the overall dietary diversity of farm households should incorporate those factors.

The distribution of ocular Chlamydia prevalence across Tanzanian communities where trachoma is declining.

BackgroundMathematical models predict an exponential distribution of infection prevalence across communities where a disease is disappearing. Trachoma control programs offer an opportunity to test this hypothesis, as the World Health Organization has targeted trachoma for elimination as a public health concern by the year 2020. Local programs may benefit if a single survey could reveal whether infection was headed towards elimination. Using data from a previously-published 2009 survey, we test the hypothesis that Chlamydia trachomatis prevalence across 75 Tanzanian communities where trachoma had been documented to be disappearing is exponentially distributed.Methods/FindingsWe fit multiple continuous distributions to the Tanzanian data and found the exponential gave the best approximation. Model selection by Akaike Information Criteria (AICc) suggested the exponential distribution had the most parsimonious fit to the data. Those distributions which do not include the exponential as a special or limiting case had much lower likelihoods of fitting the observed data. 95% confidence intervals for shape parameter estimates of those distributions which do include the exponential as a special or limiting case were consistent with the exponential. Lastly, goodness-of-fit testing was unable to reject the hypothesis that the prevalence data came from an exponential distribution.ConclusionsModels correctly predict that infection prevalence across communities where a disease is disappearing is best described by an exponential distribution. In Tanzanian communities where local control efforts had reduced the clinical signs of trachoma by 80% over 10 years, an exponential distribution gave the best fit to prevalence data. An exponential distribution has a relatively heavy tail, thus occasional high-prevalence communities are to be expected even when infection is disappearing. A single cross-sectional survey may be able to reveal whether elimination efforts are on-track.

Understanding the correlations between wealth, poverty and human immunodeficiency virus infection in African countries

To investigate the relationships between the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and underlying structural factors of poverty and wealth in several African countries. A retrospective ecological comparison and trend analysis was conducted by reviewing data from demographic and health surveys, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) indicator surveys and national sero-behavioural surveys in 12 sub-Saharan African countries with different estimated national incomes. Published survey reports were included in the analysis if they contained HIV testing data and wealth quintile rankings. Trends in the relation between gender-specific HIV prevalence and household wealth quintile were determined with the chi(2) test and compared across the 12 countries, and also within one country (the United Republic of Tanzania) at two points in time. The relationship between the prevalence of HIV infection and household wealth quintile did not show consistent trends in all countries. In particular, rates of HIV infection in higher-income countries did not increase with wealth. Tanzanian data further illustrate that the relationship between wealth and HIV infection can change over time in a given setting, with declining prevalence in wealthy groups occurring simultaneously with increasing prevalence in poorer women. Both wealth and poverty can lead to potentially risky or protective behaviours. To develop better-targeted HIV prevention interventions, the HIV community must recognize the multiple ways in which underlying structural factors can manifest themselves as risk in different settings and at different times. Context-specific risks should be the targets of HIV prevention initiatives tailored to local factors.

Does Central Bank Intervention Reduce Exchange Rate Volatility? An Empirical Investigation Using Tanzanian Data

Many developing countries including Tanzania have often resorted to intervene in the foreign exchange market to contain the effect of temporary exchange rate shocks on inflation and financial stability. Highly variable exchange rates increase exchange rate risk and are likely to impede long term planning and investment. While these countries have implemented this policy, the overriding question in the literature is, have these interventions really reduced unwarranted short-run exchange rate volatility‘ Mean GARCH models are used to investigate the efficacy of foreign exchange market interventions in Tanzania using daily data for the period 1997 to 2005. It was found that the coefficient of intervention in the forecasted volatility equation is negative and significant, which implies that interventions reduce volatility. It is evident that the effectiveness of these interventions may be constrained by traders’ speculative tendencies to bit the market predominantly against the central bank. Thus, as much as the monetary authority should continue its presence in the foreign exchange market, it should identify the sources of speculative currency trading and address them.

Comparing earnings profiles in urban areas of an LDC: Rural-to-urban migrants vs. native workers

We use Tanzanian data to test a recently proposed hypothesis that rural-to-urban migrants have an incentive to supply greater work effort than native urban workers, because of the migrants' positive probability of returning to the low-wage rural areas. We treat the choice between public- and private-sector employment as endogenous and, for theoretical and empirical reasons, distinguish migrants with access to rural land from those without access. Our results show that migrants in both sectors face lower initial wage offers than native urban workers. But, the wage gap is eliminated within a decade or less, and thereafter, migrants surpass the wage offers of native workers.

Further results on the macroeconomic effects of AIDS: the dualistic, labor-surplus economy.

Analyses by Cuddington in 1993 and forthcoming work from Cuddington and Hancock model the macroeconomic effects of the AIDS epidemic using a modified Solow growth model. This single-sector framework rests upon the assumption that labor and capital are always efficiently allocated throughout the economy with neither market failures nor policy-induced distortions resulting in resource misallocation. Economies in low-income developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, however, are not operating at capacity. Impact models based upon the potential growth path of economies will therefore significantly overstate the effect of an AIDS epidemic. The author thus incorporates the presence of underemployment and dual labor markets to redress the limitations of these earlier impact models. The dual-economy simulations of the economic impact of AIDS using Tanzanian data suggest that the macroeconomic consequences of the epidemic are of the same order of magnitude as those obtained using a single-sector, full-employment model: gross domestic product (GDP) is 15-25% smaller by 2010 than it would have been without AIDS, and per capita GDP is 0-10% smaller. Output lost from AIDS in the dual-economy framework is approximately the same as the output gain achievable through policies designed to increase labor market flexibility. Findings suggest that serious economic reform in economies fraught with AIDS may lessen the negative economic effects of the epidemic.

MIGRATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A DYNAMIC GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS APPLIED TO TANZANIA

IN this paper we present and test an analytic model of the Tanzanian labour market. The results conflict radically with the generally accepted 'Todaro hypothesis' [12] which predicts that urban job creation will increase the size of the urban informal sector. We argue that this is not due to some quirk of Tanzanian experience, but rather that the Harris-Todaro [5] and Todaro [11] models which are used to derive this result are an inadequate and untested framework in which to analyse rural-urban labour market interactions. In Section II we present a dynamic general equilibrium model which incorporates five major changes to the Harris-Todaro framework. Heterogeneity is introduced into both the stock of the unemployed and the flow of migrants. Second, the reservation price of job seekers is treated as a function of the length of job search. Third, existing wage employees are assumed to have priority over new job seekers if they seek alternative wage employment. Fourth, the urban non-wage sector is disaggregated into the activities of casual wage labour, self-employment, and unemployment. Finally, migrants and the unemployed are stratified by age, sex, and educational characteristics. In Section III the model is tested on Tanzanian data for the period 1969-75. The only successful empirical test of the Harris-Todaro model is that done by Barnum and Sabot [1] using Tanzanian data for the period 1955-71. However, important as this work is, it represents only a limited test for it is exclusively focused upon explaining the rate of migration. The level of urban unemployment is used as an exogenous explanatory variable. In contrast the Harris-Todaro model is primarily a theory explaining unemployment, migration being only a temporary occurrence. In testing our alternative model we use the migration function estimated by Barnum and Sabot to predict the changes in urban employment, under-employment and incomes in Tanzania during 1969-75, this being the only empirical test specifically related to urban unemployment known to the author. Having demonstrated that the model successfully predicts these changes, in Section IV we quantify the impact of four major government policies,