UNITED NATIONS CAPITAL

DEVELOPMENT FUND
Tanzania

Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy

Tanzania Country Assessment Dissemination Workshop

October 26, 2017

The DoubleTree Hotel, Dar Es Salaam
Background

To build on UNCDF Tanzania’s commitment to and ongoing work on women’s financial inclusion and economic
empowerment, UNCDF held a workshop on 26 October 2017 at the DoubleTree Hotel to share the data and insights
from a Tanzania country assessment on the access and agency of women and girls to financial services contributing
to their economic empowerment (see agenda in Annex 1). Over 50 participants representing government (Central
Bank, Ministry of Gender and Youth, Ministry of Finance, etc.), private sector financial services providers (banks,
mobile network operators, microfinance institutions, etc.), civil society organizations (women’s associations,
training organizations), development partners (NGOs, UN agencies, bilateral aid agencies, foreign affairs/diplomatic
missions) participated (see list of participants in Annex 2).
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has developed a global strategy on women’s economic
empowerment, the Participation of Women in the Economy Realized (PoWER) and a comprehensive country
assessment toolkit to support the implementation of the strategy, with the support of Dalberg Global Development
Advisors and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a planning grant. Tanzania was one of
five countries—along with Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Senegal—where the new UNCDF toolkit to assess
the country context for women’s access and usage of and control of benefits from financial services was piloted.
The aim of this workshop was to share and validate the Tanzania country assessment findings and insights on the
key constraints and enablers of women and girls’ access, usage and control of finance across the supply, demand and
the enabling environment key spheres of influence and the cross-cutting socio-cultural context. In addition,
participants were invited to consider the key recommendations emanating from the assessment and to discuss
complementarities with other activities underway and potential partnerships to translate the insights from the
country assessment into reality. Based on the results of the Tanzania country assessment and with the additional
inputs from workshop participants and supplementary consultations with relevant external stakeholders and potential
partners, an implementation plan for Tanzania is being developed that includes convening, research, advocacy,
capacity building and innovation funding to address the priority constraints and build on the enablers to enhance
women’s economic empowerment in Tanzania.

Opening remarks

Ms. Ivana Damjanov, UNCDF Tanzania’s Financial Inclusion Specialist, delivered the opening address, noting the
hugely important role that women play in driving growth and prosperity at both the individual and macro levels. Ms.
Damjanov recalled her personal experience opening a bank account, navigating the complicated process of money
management, yet finally feeling like part of society.
Ms. Beth Porter, Policy Advisor for Financial Inclusion at UNCDF, introduced the global PoWER strategy.
The PoWER strategy is based on the understanding that we must not only look at access and usage of financial
services but also at agency issues. Moreover, it is critical to understand and address key constraints and enablers of
women’s and girls’ awareness of, access to, usage of, and control over financial products and services over three
spheres: i) demand; ii) supply; and iii) the enabling environment, and to understand the impact of the gendered the
socio-cultural context that cuts across all three. Interventions across these three spheres will contribute to expanding
the financial inclusion of women and girls that ultimately drives their economic empowerment and participation.
She then explained the country assessment toolkit that was developed, as well as the empowerment framework in
Tanzania as they relate to the global theory of change.
The key to UNCDF’s global PoWER strategy is the concept that women and girls transition through various life
cycle stages that have varying effects than on their male counterparts, and moreover that they have distinct
economic roles—and that both of these factors mean that they have different financial constraints and needs, and
therefore require specific products and services in the context of a gender-sensitive enabling legal, policy and
regulatory environment, and that addresses women’s capabilities, voice and demand for finance, and control of
benefits of financial service use.
Following the process of “Diagnose. Develop. Do,” the PoWER strategy is currently in the development stage. After
first diagnosing the constraints (discussed below), UNCDF is developing and honing the strategy for women’s
economic empowerment, with implementation as the next and final step.

Presentation of Country Assessment Findings

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Ms. Naoko Koyama, Consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, presented the Tanzania Country
Assessment findings. She noted that in Tanzania, the gender gap in financial inclusion remains at 9%, mostly due to
strides in the mobile money market. While this figure is slightly behind that of Kenya and its other East African
neighbours, it is better than that of the other assessment countries. In Tanzania, women have a huge role in the
labour force, offering an untapped market for financial service providers (FSPs).
Ms. Koyama highlighted the importance of considering women and girls not as homogeneous group, but
recognizing their specific economic roles and attendant financial needs. PoWER identified five clear economic
roles: i) in-school girls; ii) out of school girls; iii) employees; iv) MSME entrepreneurs; and v) farmers. Women and
girls in each of these roles face simultaneously face different financial challenges at various stages in their lifecycle.
In Tanzania, the key stages and/or transitions identified were: i) school transitions; ii) employment; iii) childbirth;
and iv) building a family. Consequently, adaptive financial services are needed to ensure that the needs of women
and girls in their different economic roles and at their different stages in their lifecycle are addressed.
The two main barriers that prevent women and girls from being included in the formal financial sector were
discussed. First, the lack of access points represents a significant obstacle for women - densities of MFI branches,
ATMs, bank branches and mobile money agents remain loan. Moreover, digital literacy and financial awareness
remain a key barrier. In Tanzania, there is a strong perception that banks are for the “wealthy”, and many women do
not have the skills or confidence to open a bank account. Mobile money could address some of these constraints.
While mobile phone penetration is increasing rapidly—including smartphones—there is a growing gender gap in
phone ownership and digital literacy is an issue, especially for women. Second, the stringent requirements of formal
FSPs constitute a serious barrier, particularly for access to credit. Banks, for example, require applicants to show
one or more forms of identification. In addition, banks often provide loans only if backed by collateral, since
unbacked loans can be ineffective and riskier because they lack verifiable identity. This is a major access barrier
since women are less likely to hold land titles under their name than men. Women have also reported harassment,
with men requiring bribes or sexual favours as payment for authorization.
In terms of product usage (see below charts), a majority of women utilise informal savings channels and/or mobile
money. Particularly in rural areas, women continue to stash money under their mattresses. Women primarily use
loans for domestic expenses and productive assets, but turn to their friends and neighbours rather than formal
financial institutions or mobile money lenders. Low uptake of insurance is also a central risk, since death of family
members or drought and harvest failures can be devastating for rural women.
In regard to agency issues, the assessment found that while women may retain control over smaller, predictable
expenses, larger expenses were made exclusively or in tandem with men.

Question and Answer Discussion Session

A number of ideas and questions were raised following the presentation, which can be considered moving forward
in planning:

 A participant from UN Women asked how the strategy defines labour force participation.
 Another participant inquired about how representative the survey sample was of the general population.
Dalberg responded that the financial inclusion data was from Intermedia and the World Bank, who made
the sample representative of the population, particularly regarding the urban/rural divide.
 The group also discussed population segmentation on the supply side. Whereas out of school girls want
mobile loans, others would not.
 Additionally, women with children need bigger loans, and are more likely to want to go to the bank than
their younger counterparts.

Interactive Activity #1: Prioritisation of Constraints

In order to prioritized the importance of the constraints identified in the country assessment report, workshop
participants were given nine stickers (‘votes’) and asked to identify the three top constraints to women’s financial
access they thought were most severe across the three spheres of enabling environment, supply, and demand. The
most severe constraints for each sphere are presented in the following chart.

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DEMAND
Financial literacy of women is low. Digital literacy is a challenge for women
with many women unaware on processes required for downloading and using
Financial and digital literacy
new applications on smart phones.

Evidence of limited mobility for women, especially in rural areas. Familial

Family responsibilities obligation and a lack of affordable childcare contribute to time poverty.

Even in matrilineal systems, control over and usage of land is limited. Only
Land ownership, and
15% of Tanzanian women own land.
control/usage of land

SUPPLY
Physical financial service access
points and agent network are
limited/ inappropriate and do not Access points across delivery channels are extremely limited in Tanzania.
cater to time and mobility
constraints

While few women are included in the formal financial sector, savings groups
Lack of coordinated effort to scale
networks are thriving. However, there has yet to be a coordinate effort for these
VSLA of SG network
networks to effectively reach scale.

Credit scoring processes not Because women and girls often have limited credit histories due to their lack of
properly adapted access to collateral, credit scoring processes are not properly adapted to them.

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations place a heavy burden on opening and
KYC regulations managing accounts for women and girls in particular. Potentially exposing
them to extortion or harassment.

Consumer production regulations Consumer protection regulations are underdeveloped.

Laws hinder (married) women’s ability to: travel outside the home, obtain a
Restrictive laws and customs
national ID card, sign a contract, open and/or a bank account.

Interactive Activity #2: Prioritisation and Discussion of Identified Recommendations

Building on the key constraints identified for each of the three spheres, Ms. Porter explained that UNCDF developed
a number of recommendations to address each of these constraints. Participants were divided in seven (7) groups
and asked to reflect on the recommended actions—and complement or add to them as needed, and prioritize the
proposed recommendations. One participant from each group was then invited to present the results of the
discussions to the audience. The main findings of the plenary discussion are listed below.

DEMAND SIDE

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  Focus on land ownerships and control, create awareness for both women and men; conduct behavioural
research to understand and then change men’s behaviours, to see what incentives will drive them to co-own
these resources with women.
 Responsibilities and lack of confidence, risk averse: complex because change of norms. Important to
incentive women to use their mobile financial services as well as savings groups as short-term solutions
rather than focusing on banks.
 Engage with government and civil society education actors on incorporating a specific financial literacy
and small business management component into secondary school curricula. Important to target young girls
and boys to make the gap as small as possible from a young age, moreover, youth is more resilient to
digital products and services. Also target out-of-school boys and girls.

SUPPLY SIDE

 Lands and women: establish FI committees, gender responsive, comprehensive program to deliver financial
and non-financial services. Address title, inheritance issues: enable women to have access to land.
 Focus on lack of coordinated effort to scale VSLA and SG networks—The Ministry of Health supports
these groups and understands the risk of theft. Make effort to encourage VSLAs to get registered and open
bank accounts. In practice, only a few are registered. Challenges with ID registration simplification – need
to improve coordination. Enabling women to be able to use the groups as a way to Financial Inclusion and
also as an end in and of itself.
 Advocate to banks to begin developing products, best practices on innovations.

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

 Banks should require one ID, and be flexible about it: avoid the numerous IDs with different information.
 Need more ID centres, and voter registration better organized.
 Standardize ID registration require it for different purchases
 Important to make the link between FSPs and regulators.
 For informal groups: overcome protection issues members have, and work more with regulators

Closing and Next Steps

In closing, the valuable work that all the participants are putting in every day in moving toward solving these issues,
and improving women’s access to and agency over financial services in Tanzania was acknowledged. Furthermore,
participants were thanked for their feedback on the country assessment and their contributions to the design of the
UNCDF strategy in Tanzania and invited to engage further in partnering with UNCDF to advance the economic
empowerment of women and girls in Tanzania through financial inclusion.

The full Tanzania Country Assessment Report will be available upon request to UNCDF, as well as the country
assessment toolkit that served as the basis for the Tanzania country assessment.

UNCDF invites all the participants to engage in ongoing discussions and partnerships to work together on the issues
identified – and incorporate feedback into its strategy. UNCDF welcomes any input and ideas participants wish to
share.

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital
mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources,
especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing
models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals,
households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to
climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through
fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and
private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

For more information, visit our website: www.uncdf.org/tanzania or contact UNCDF

Tanzania’s Financial Inclusion Specialist Ms. Ivana Damjanov at
[email protected]
Annex 1- Agenda

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Time Agenda Item
8:30 am Registration
9:00 am Welcome and overview
Ivana Damjanov, Programme Specialist - Financial Inclusion, UNCDF
9:10 am Introduction to the UNCDF PoWER Strategy
Beth Porter, Policy Advisor - Financial Inclusion, UNCDF
9:30 am Country Assessment findings followed by Q&A
Dalberg Global Advisors
10:30 am Coffee Break

10:45 am Prioritization of constraints to women’s and girls’ financial inclusion

11:45 am Plenary feedback on the results of subgroup discussions

12:15 pm Closing remarks

Beth Porter, Policy Advisor Financial Inclusion, UNCDF
12:30 pm Lunch

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Annex 2- List of Participants

Organization name Contact name Position Contact email

Access Bank Andrea Ottina Head of Business Development [email protected]
Akiba Commercial Bank Israel Chasosa Managing Director [email protected]
Bank M Jaqueline Woiso Deputy CEO [email protected]
BMFF Amy Jerret Gender Team [email protected]
Canada Embassy Stephen Kijazi Senior Officer, Private Sector Development [email protected]
Canada Global Affairs Deidre Yukich Senior Development Officer, Bangladesh [email protected]
CARE Gloria Cheche Deputy Country Director [email protected]
CRDB Rehema Shambwe Manager Women Access to Finance CRDB [email protected]
DFID Gillian Rogers Head of Private Sector Dvlpmt [email protected]
DFID Sarah Bloom Private Sector Development Advisor [email protected]
Equity Bank Joseph Iha CEO [email protected]
EU Rodriguo Romero van Cutsem private sector [email protected]
Good Neighbors Yeo-Ul Lee Managing Director [email protected]
Halopesa Vu Tang Long Head of Business [email protected]
Mercy Corps Paul Kweheria AGRIFIN ACCELERATE TZ Country Director [email protected]
Milvik Bima Berengere Lavisse
Ministry of Finance Dionisia Mjema Principal Economist Fin'l Sector [email protected]
Norwegian Embassy Diana Luteganya
NMB Gladness Deogratias women empowerment champion and head [email protected]
of FX trading
Selcom Farnaz Gulamhussein Business Analyst [email protected]
SIDA Gisela Strand Gender Policy Specialist [email protected]
SNV Emmanuel Chacha advisor - OYE [email protected]
Technoserve Monsiapile Kajimbwe Programs Director [email protected]
UNHCR Trine Lunde CRRF Senior Development Economist [email protected]
UNSW Digital Financial Kateranine Kemp
Services Team
USAID Joyce Mndambi Project Management Specialist - Private [email protected]
Sector Engagement
VICOBA Sustainable Delpmt CEO [email protected]
Agency Devota Likokola
WomensBank Japhet Justine MD [email protected]
WomensBank Janeth Zoya Head of Consumer Business Banking [email protected]
World Bank Valeriya Goffe Finance and Private Sector Development [email protected]
Specialist
World Bank Neema Mwingu Private Sector Specialist [email protected]
Women's World banking Marina Dimova