Pushing for Policy Innovation: the Framing of Social Protection Policies in Tanzania

Abstract

In the early 2000s, there was low elite commitment to social protection on mainland Tanzania. Being a low-income country, Tanzania has high levels of deprivation and high demand for income security, but limited resources to address these issues. However, while a general lack of financial resources and capacity both within government and civil society were compounding factors, a‘lack of political will [also explains the state’s] failure to provide adequate social protection to the poor’(Lerisse et al. 2003; Mchomvu et al. 2002). In fact,as late as 2009, Tanzania only spent 0.29 per cent of GDP on social safety nets, which was much less than any of its neighbouring countries (World Bank2015). Thus, although fiscal constraints are considerable, Tanzania still spent substantially less than other countries on a similar economic level.