Easing Pressure on refugee hosting areas through Youth and Women Economic Empowerment: The Case of Kigoma Region, Tanzania

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Description

Intro

In 2017 the UN system in Tanzania entered into an area-based joint programme in the North Western border region of Kigoma. The people of Kigoma are some of the most vulnerable and furthest left behind in the country, and their challenges are compounded by the region’s geographical location and its hosting of some 300,000 refugees from neighboring countries. 
The decision to move forward with a joint area-based programme was taken to ensure more significant impact and effectiveness of the UNDAP for Tanzania in a region where most international support is geared towards the humanitarian needs of refugee populations.

Objective of the practice

Focusing on the region of Kigoma is in line with the principle of leaving no-one behind; according to the latest national household survey from 2012, it is the poorest in the country with a poverty rate of 49%. It is also, together with the Tanga region, the only region that has experienced increased poverty rates since the 2001 household survey. Its geographical location in a fragile region increases puts additional pressure on its vulnerability. All three refugee camps in Tanzania are in the region. 
 
Like many other parts of the country, poverty in the region is disproportionally concentrated within various vulnerable groups, especially for rural women who despite playing a substantial role in the economy have been unable to fully share in Tanzania’s increasing wealth. This is largely due to the unequal distribution and access to productive resources, such as land, physical capital and, financial services. Other exacerbating factors include restrictive social and cultural norms and values which limit women’s access to adequate and quality education, formal employment and decent work, social protection and ICT among others. 
 
Consequently, youth and women’s economic empowerment (YWEE) is one of six priority areas of the joint programme. Other themes are: Sustainable Energy and Environment, Ending Violence Against Women and Children, Education with a focus to adolescence girls, Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) and Agriculture with focus on smallholder farmers. 
 
With the joint programme, the UN Country Management Team (UNCMT) seeks to situate the ongoing humanitarian support to refugees in Kigoma within a robust and comprehensive development programme aimed at host communities. Programmatically this creates direct linkages between refugee and host populations and effectively bridges the gap between humanitarian and development efforts. The interventions under youth and women economic empowerment theme, therefore, contribute to the attainment of SDGs 1, 5, 8 and 10.

Partners

i) UN Agencies: UNHCR, UNDP, ILO, ITC, UNCDF and UNWOMEN
II) Central Government: President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government Authorities and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation;
III) Kigoma Regional Secretariat;
IV) Local Government Authorities: Kasulu Town Council, Kasulu District Council, Kibondo District Council and Kakonko District Council;
V) Development Partners: Norway and Sweden (main donors of the component)
VI) Local host and refugee Communities.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

Each agency ensures all its interventions link up closely with the relevant national and LGA plans in respective field. In tracking the implementation of annual work plans agencies planning meetings at least quarterly in which they review activities implemented in the previous quarter and agree on the activities of the following quarter. The plans are shared to explore synergies and by doing this the activities are aligned in such a way that they can be carried out jointly especially where the targeted beneficiaries are the same. This allows the agencies to use less resources, reach higher targets and make optimal use of time. In such cases the beneficiaries are also able to benefit from different agencies at the same time.

At the regional and LGA level, the Government has appointed Regional Focal Person for the programme who works under Planning and Coordination Department. Each District has also designated a focal person for the programme in addition to the respective experts leading implementation of specific programme activities in the Districts. Their major responsibilities include leading implementation of activities of the programme in the region and LGAs, ensuring programme activities are presented to the District Councils and included in various Government reposts and ensuring programme activities do not overlap or duplicate activities of other partners in the region.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

The youth and women economic empowerment theme of the programme has leveraged the following key value propositions of participating agencies: UNCDF, UNWOMEN, UNHCR, UNDP, ILO and ITC.
Through a participatory and inclusive process, participating agencies in collaboration with local stakeholders have successfully implemented the following programmatic components at the macro, meso and micro level:

At Macro Level
Completed a gender-sensitive mapping and local economic assessment of target localities to identify the key entry points for interventions. The collected information has provided an analysis of the local socio-economic situation of women as well as the state of the local government system. With this, the stakeholders have begun to implement inclusive and equitable projects and programs that are both needed and feasible, and that will be sustainable over time.
Also, created an enabling environment for inclusive and equitable local economic development by strengthening local governance capacities and public expenditure frameworks including building the capacity of local government authorities, as well as operationalising legal and regulatory frameworks for SMEs. With the provision of training and capacity-building to local government officials and leaders, the four Local Government Authorities where the programme is being implemented align their plans and budgets with some SDG targets.
At Meso Level
Increased public and private sector investment for gender responsive investments by further developing innovative financing tools to support the local government and private sector to identify, plan, develop and mobilize domestic financial resources toward gender- responsive investments in Kigoma. The programme has provided technical and financial support to the Local Government Authorities and Private Sector, which has allowed their investments to be bankable such that they may access resources from financial institutions. The support includes construction of two cross border markets at the border with Burundi, with three more in the pipeline. The markets will benefit about more than 1,000,000 people including farmers living in the programme districts.

At Micro Level
Developed capacity of about 2,900 women and youth entrepreneurs to enhance their entrepreneurial skills, business management, product branding, procurement of appropriate technologies, business formalization, regulatory adherence, networking as well as to access finance and markets.
Also Provided concrete and sustainable benefits to vulnerable people and communities threatened in their survival, livelihood, and dignity by building the capacity of refugees and host communities to tap into socio-economic development opportunities available to them and to become self-reliant while reducing the dependency. The programme built concrete and sustainable three vocational /multipurpose training centres specifically for addressing the existing economic vulnerability, minimize negative coping mechanisms and conflicts over access to limited resources of both youth from refugees’ communities and host communities. The interventions which are being carried at the centres such as training on carpentry, soap making, tailoring, and ICT are helping youth to acquire employment, generate income and improve their livelihood conditions. Targeting this group has not only addressed their existing vulnerability but also minimized negative coping mechanisms and conflicts over access to limited resources.

Enabling factors and constraints

By building on the comparative advantages, complementary competencies and unique perspectives on youth and women economic empowerment, participating agencies have been able to create a holistic and well targeted approach to advance the economic participation of youth and women in Kigoma.

Also; presence of other themes under the programme such as agriculture, ending violence against women and children, education, WASH and Sustainable Energy and Environment have created synergies and complement the initiatives under youth and women economic empowerment.

Furthermore; close cooperation with Kigoma Regional Secretariat and Local Authorities in the programme districts has ensured ownership and enhanced support of the initiative at all levels.

Despite promising preliminary results achieved under this theme, implementation of some activities especially those which involved construction of infrastructure required long preparations before actual implementation could begin. This to some extent led to delayed realization of outcomes and impact within the initial phase of the programme.

Sustainability and replicability

The initiative has demonstrated how coordination between humanitarian and development actors can deliver on collective outcomes particularly in areas affected by protracted crisis. It has allowed the actors to address people’s immediate humanitarian needs while at the same time, reducing risk and vulnerability, and in doing so, help reduce these needs over time and contribute to the longer-term vision embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is evident in the interventions which target both refugee and host Communities such as the vocational Training Centres and Multipurpose Community Centres where youth from both communities are impacted with skills has contributed to reduced tensions and misunderstandings.

Bearing in mind the targeted areas of intervention, the Youth and Women Economic Empowerment (YWEE) component of the Kigoma JP provides an opportunity to scale up partnerships between UN agencies that have a proven commitment and track record in advancing youth and women economic empowerment in Tanzania i.e. UNCDF, UN Women, UNDP, ILO, UNHCR and ITC. The basis of collaboration stems from the anchor partnership between UNCDF, UN Women and UNDP under the Inclusive Equitable Local Development (IELD) program that aims to unlock domestic financing for women economic empowerment in Tanzania. The inclusion of ITC, UNHCR and ILO increases the depth and breadth of the programme by targeting additional humanitarian and development interventions in refugee camps and host communities. Specifically, supporting youth (with a focus on young girls) to access entrepreneurship training, employment opportunities, micro finance in addition to global and regional markets.

Also; the fact that most of the interventions are being carried out in cooperation with the Kigoma Regional Secretariat, Local Government Authorities and aim to contribute to the local community needs, there are no doubts about the sustainability of the interventions. In addition; the stakeholders involved in implementation of the programme have developed a sustainability strategy which informs how each intervention will be sustained.

Finally, based on lessons learned, Zanzibar Joint Programme was launched in August 2018 to address specific challenges which the Island is facing. The same approach can be applied to other regions of Tanzania and developing countries.

Conclusions

The initiative has provided the UN in Tanzania with a unique opportunity to bring Delivering as One to the sub-national level in a region where, due to ongoing humanitarian response, UN already has a strong presence and multiple interventions. Furthermore, the joint programme has allowed the UN in Tanzania to strengthen the nexus between humanitarian and development, by situating the humanitarian response within a development context, and ensuring linkages in programming for both host and refugee populations. By focusing on a specific geographical area, the Agencies have been able to measure their contribution to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals amidst shrinking share of financial resources in the Official Development Assistance.

Other sources of information

http://tz.one.un.org/;
http://www.kigoma.go.tz/
http://www.tamisemi.go.tz/

SDGS & Targets