Opportunities at The United Nations Development Programme-UNDP

Opportunities at The United Nations Development Programme-UNDP

National Consultancy to develop a Project Document for capacity building of women entrepreneurs in agriculture

Overview :
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania has set industrialization as a key goal in a bid to attain middle-income status by 2025. The agricultural sector is expected to be the driver of economic growth and create more jobs for the Tanzanians (National Five-year Development Plan 2016/17-2020/21). Indeed, in a country where an estimated one million Tanzanians enter the job market every year (World Bank 2016) and a significant proportion of the population lives in rural areas (70.4%, Population and Housing Census 2012), the agricultural sector has the potential to expand and provide better livelihoods for the Tanzanian people. This would also contribute to efforts to lift many Tanzanians out of poverty. In 2012 about 28.2% of the population lived below the poverty line with significant inequalities between rural and urban areas and with more women than men living in poverty (World Bank 2014). Poverty is still a big challenge even in a region like Kilimanjaro which has relatively lower number population living below the basic needs poverty line. There is big variation between districts. According to “Region and District Poverty Estimates for Tanzania, 2012”, Same district has significantly high number 22.6 per cent of the population living below the basic needs poverty line. Unlike other districts in Kilimanjaro region, a big portion of the district is semi-arid with sparse and unreliable rainfall pattern.  In comparison districts in Mtwara region with an exception of Mtwara Municipality, have high percentages of the population below the basic needs poverty line ranging from 26.3 per cent in Mtwara district to 50.7 per cent in Nanyumbu district. This is despite having a relatively good arable agricultural land. In both cases, in Same and Mtwara districts, women are the one most engaged in agriculture and agriculture related off-farm activities as main sources of their livelihoods and income.  In Same district women cultivate ginger and onions while in Mtwara district majority of women are engaged in traditional chicken rearing and sesame cultivation.

The Project will be aligned with the priorities set out in the National Five Year Development Plan II 2016/17-2020/2021 to develop the skills of the youth through promoting employable skills particularly for women in the two districts. The project will contribute towards UNDAP II thematic area of Inclusive Growth, National Five Year Development Plan II 2016/17-2020/2021, The Tanzania Development Vision 2025, Global Sustainable Development Goals. Through the Country Programme Document(CPD) for the United Republic of Tanzania (2016-2021), UNDP will continue to work with the Government towards ensuring that poor rural women and unemployed youth have sustainable livelihoods, decent employment and access to social protection, through support to analytical, policy-oriented research and capacity-building efforts aimed at promoting a more diversified economy and reducing poverty and inequalities in urban and rural areas.

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Individual National Consultant to formulate a Project Document on “E- Agriculture Innovation Platform for Youth Farmers and Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania

Overview :
Tanzania aspires to become a middle income country by 2025, as stated in the Tanzania Development Vision 2015 and outlined in its Five Year Development Plan II. The plan aims to foster economic growth and industrialization through key interventions, such as ICT investment in agriculture. UNDP as a key and trusted partner of the government supports that aspiration. In the quest to contribute towards realization of the stated aspiration, the current UNDP Country programme that runs from 2106 to 2021, has three thematic pillars, these are; Inclusive Growth & Sustainable Livelihoods, Democratic Governance and Environment Sustainability, Resilience and Climate Change. UNDP Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Livelihoods pillar is aligned with the priorities set out in the National Five Year Development Plan II (2016/17-2020/2021), Zanzibar Strategy for Economic and Social Transformation (2016-2020), The Tanzania Development Vision 2025, Global Sustainable Development Goals and United Nations Development Assistance Plan (2016-2021) II.

Generally, Tanzania’s industrialization will be agro-base and therefore a robust agriculture sector will be key. However, for quite some time now the sector has been performing poorly with an average growth rate of no more than 4 percent compared with the Gross Domestic Product which has been posting growth rate of 7 percent on the average for the past decade. One of the key challenges that agriculture sector faces is lack of interest and/or disengagement of youth in agriculture. While advancement in innovation and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) have brought changes and positively impacted on service delivery in a number of sectors in the economy, its application in agriculture sector seems to lag behind.  As result, there is slow transformation of the sector and thus making the sector uninteresting and less attractive employment option for majority of youth in Tanzania. With its experience in the agriculture sector and job creation interventions in Tanzania, UNDP sees the opportunity for collaboration and partnership with key players in the private sector to drive inclusive economic growth in agriculture. Increasing the use of ICT has been identified as a lever to creating access to markets for youth, women and SMEs in agriculture. Therefore, UNDP recognizes that leveraging technology is instrumental not only to achieving job creation for youth in the agriculture sector but also to strengthening value chain therein.


UNDP in collaboration with UNCDF, Microsoft EA, Costech-DTBi and Aga Khan Foundation, intend to support a project that will establish e-agriculture innovation platform so as to entice youth to engage in agriculture and see it as a favourable and dependable employment option. UNDP commissioned a Gap Analysis study which has been completed. It should be a key input in formulation of the project

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Source: The Guardian 6 February 2017