FAO in Tanzania

Programmes and projects

FAO's Country Programming Framework (CPF) 2022-2027, which is derived from FAO's Strategic Framework 2022-31 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2027, outlines FAO's collective response in support of Tanzania's national priorities and path to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It symbolizes the spirit of collaboration to leverage strength and generate transformational change, fulfilling our collective commitment to leave no one behind. FAO's programme is structured around three priority areas: People, Prosperity, and Planet.

People

Micronutrient deficiencies are the major problem in Tanzania, contributing significantly to the burden of malnutrition. Anemia is estimated to affect 45 percent of women of child-bearing age (15-49 years) and 58 percent of children (under 5 years) accounting for 7.8 percent of maternal deaths.

Under this priority, FAO Tanzania aims to ensure that by 2027, people in Tanzania, particularly the most vulnerable, are increasingly utilizing quality gender transformative, inclusive, and integrated nutrition services.

In Tanzania, FAO's work focuses on governance innovation for the sustainable and gender-responsive development of food security and food systems, nutrition sensitive value chains, nutrition information, nutrition security, analysis, and decision making, and building food and nutrition resilience, sustainability, and transformation.

Prosperity

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), primarily comprised of women and youth, currently account for 35 percent of the GDP. In Tanzania, most mini and micro enterprises are in the informal sector, with women running 54.3 percent of MSMEs.

MSMEs, on the other hand, have a survival rate of less than 40 percent in the first five years, with many owners citing access to productive resources (including land and credit), the availability of needs-based technical and business skills development services, complex formalization processes, and insufficient coverage of essential infrastructure (including electricity, connectivity, and transportation) as major challenges.

FAO’s work under the prosperity priority ensures that by 2027, people working in MSMEs and small-scale agriculture in Tanzania, particularly the most vulnerable, will have achieved more sustainable productivity and incomes, as well as more equitable access to productive resources. 

Under the prosperity priority, FAO is implementing the following initiatives:

  • Support the review of gender-responsive national frameworks, policies, strategies, and plans for agriculture, fisheries and livestock.
  • Build capacity to generate gender, sex, and age statistics, as well as improve gender-responsive, market-driven, and MSMEs-focused transformation.
  • Build government capacity for plant inspection services.
  • Strengthen national capacities for preventing, detecting, and responding to animal disease threats such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
  • Promote food and economic security by expanding conservation agriculture.
  • Implement economic empowerment programmes for women.
  • Develop sustainable and resilient small-scale fisheries and aquaculture value chains for gender equitable and climate resilient food systems and livelihoods.
  • Support in the development of long-term value chains for job creation, as well as food and nutrition security for young men and women.

Planet

Tanzania's vast, unique, and irreplaceable natural resources account for more than 70 percent of the country's GDP and the majority of people's livelihoods. Natural habitats and ecosystems vary across the country, but climate change disproportionately affects lower-income groups (the majority of whom are women), particularly in rural and remote areas, due to rising degradation of the natural resource base and unsustainable practices.

Rapid population growth and the expansion of unplanned human settlements as a result of a large number of rural-urban migrants seeking lucrative employment opportunities have both contributed significantly to land degradation. Other factors include a high reliance on charcoal for household energy needs, the expansion of agricultural land (in lieu of increased productivity), overgrazing, overfishing, and pollution due to agrochemical misuse, a weak regulatory framework, and poor land management practices.

Under the planet priority, FAO aims to ensure that by 2027, people in Tanzania, particularly the most vulnerable, contribute to and benefit from more inclusive and gender-responsive natural resource management, climate change resilience, disaster risk reduction, and increased use of efficient renewable energy.

FAO will respond in the following ways:

  • Strengthening gender-responsive national policies that support integrated approaches to the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, as well as responsible chemical and antibiotic management in livestock, forests, and fisheries.
  • Expanding the role of community Forest Management Groups and Forest and Farm Producer Organizations (FFPOS) as primary change agents for resilient and sustainable Social Ecological Landscapes.
  • Providing financial and technical support to government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and local government authorities (LGAs) to halt and reverse negative trends in land degradation and biodiversity loss in degraded areas through an integrated landscape management approach.
  • Integrating gender equality and women's empowerment principles, increasing access to and utilisation of climate services, climate smart agricultural resilient practices, productive production systems, restoration of degraded lands, including conservation-based irrigation and water harvesting, and integrating gender equality and women's empowerment principles.
  • Improving decision-makers' implementation of national plans and strategies at the national and sub-regional levels by using up-to-date forest and ecosystem services information/data through the National Forest Resource Monitoring and Assessment.