Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
Bet
Caeyers
Research Director / Country Principal Investigator
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Tanzania
Supporting the development of all children to their full potential
Tanzania has made steady progress on markers of child survival and development.
However, more progress is needed to meet the national goal of ensuring that, by 2026, all children aged 0-8 are on track to develop to their full potential. The latest Demographic and Health Services (DHS, 2022) reveals that three out of 10 children Tanzanian children under 5 are stunted and that less than half of children aged 24-59 months are developmentally on track in health, learning and psycho-social wellbeing. The World Bank’s 2020 Human Capital Index (HCI) indicates that a child born in Tanzania in 2020 would be 39% as productive at the age of 18 as they could be if they enjoyed full health and complete education. This is slightly lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa and lower than the average for all low- and middle-income countries.
The launch of the National Multi-sectoral Early Childhood Development Programme (NM-ECDP) in 2021 has signalled that early childhood development is on the political agenda in Tanzania. However, numerous questions remain about how best to pursue this agenda – what investments are needed, how they should be sequenced, and how constraints related to fiscal space, organisational capability and trained manpower can be addressed and gradually alleviated. There is also a lack of clarity about the funds needed to deliver a comprehensive package of early childhood development services at scale and to reasonable quality standards.
The Tanzanian government is working on improving the quality and effectiveness of existing services related to early childhood development, and addressing gaps in service delivery by identifying delivery models that would work at scale.
During the inception phase, the Thrive team held discussions with 49 key stakeholders from 24 organisations in the early childhood development sector.
This initial engagement helped us understand what stakeholders considered as critical evidence for improving early childhood development outcomes in Tanzania. Based on a stocktaking of existing literature and stakeholder perspectives, several areas were identified as important for evidence generation.
This included evidence to support the design, monitoring and quality assurance of contextually appropriate ECD delivery models that are viable and effective at scale, to understand the role the early childhood development workforce could play in delivering services and adhering to quality standards, and to examine how early childhood development financing could work and budget allocations made. Stakeholders also saw a role for Thrive in supporting the collaboration and coordination between key early childhood development stakeholders.
Our work in Tanzania is guided by a National Steering Committee that includes senior government officials and civil society representatives. We seek their input to develop and endorse our research agenda, and we also rely on their guidance for operationalising our research projects. Thrive’s National Steering Committee is co-chaired by the director of TECDEN Mwajuma Rwebangila, and Sebastian Kitiku, who is the director of child development at Ministry of Community Development Gender Women and Special Groups (MoCDGWSGs).
Our Tanzania partners
- IHI
- Stockholm University
- CMI-FAIR
- ECD Measure
- EDI
- EGPAF
- DTREE
Understanding the audience
61.7m
The total population of Tanzania in 2022 was 61.7 million
2022 population census
30%
of the population of Tanzania is aged 0-8 years (18.5 million; 30% of the total population)
2022 population census
