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This project aimed to build a research network and explore opportunities for future research projects considering the socio-economic empowerment of women, which is one of the key targets for the Tanzanian National Vision (UN, 2017).
Through building relationships with Universities and NGOs in Tanzania, we will collaborate with academics involved in research around the promotion of gender equality and build a consortium with complementary expertise.
The United Nations has identified the Tanzanian development challenges as three key areas within the empowerment of women:
Our project has established a research network that is examining pathways to women’s socio-economic empowerment. This will support a better understanding of what works in rural Tanzania.
(Women Empowerment through Microfinance Around Tanzania) - Wema means ‘good’ in Swahili.
Through funding from the GCRF, we have gathered together a consortium of academics and NGOs who are dedicated to gender equality and women empowerment in Tanzania. This vastly experienced team will be conducting research into the effectiveness of microfinance on women’s empowerment (through projects such as Maisha Matters, Fig.3.).
The consortium also includes members of the Tanzanian Government and the Tanzanian Office of Statistics, and we are hopeful that we will be able to positively affect policy. This can help to ensure that the research will have a significant and useful impact on the communities that it is trying to affect.
Dr. Abel Kinyondo is a Principal Research Fellow at REPOA and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Dar Es Salaam (DUCE). Previously he worked as a Director of Strategic Research at REPOA and Head of Economics and Geography Department at DUCE. He has also previously worked for the United Nations Development Program. He holds a Ph.D. from Monash University (Australia), a distinction in Master of Art (Economics) Degree from the University of Botswana and a first-class Economics Degree from the University of Namibia. Dr. Kinyondo has over 10 years of researching experience having published in internationally reputable journals such as in the Oxford’s Development Studies and Parliamentary Affairs. He has also led several teams of experts in formulating various socioeconomic policies, regulations and codes of ethics in Tanzania and beyond. Dr. Kinyondo currently investigates issues pertaining to tourism, gender, enterprise development, employment, industrialization, natural resources management as well as governance.
Amy Hathaway founded Forever Angels Baby Home, Mwanza in 2006. It has cared for over 300 babies - reuniting 145 with relatives, and finding adoptive families for 72. Over the years, Amy came to realise that many of the families we support want to care for their own children at home, they just don’t have the financial capacity to do it. Maisha Matters was born as a way to prevent child abandonment and keep babies with their families. Amy now runs Forever Angels and Maisha Matters from the UK, and both projects are continuing to grow under her guidance.
Dr Anne Gongwe has worked as a researcher in Africa dealing with economic development issues since 1994. She initially worked in the Agricultural and Resource Economics department, later transferring to the Economics Department. She teaches principles of economics classes, intermediate macroeconomics and economics of money and banking. Her main interest is on agglomeration economies but she also works on many other areas of economics as well.
Dr. Sr. Chrispina Lekule earned her undergraduate degree in Narobi, Kenya before working as a secondary school teacher and school Principal in Zanzibar. She later earned a master’s degree in Sociology of Social Responsibility from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, United States. After her graduation, Chrispina went on in the same university to pursue further studies in Educational Leadership and Administration. During her Master’s programs, Chrispina worked as; Graduate Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, and was involved in different community outreach programs which aimed at improving the livelihood of the people; especially among minority groups.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-lekule-chrispina-969287142/?originalSubdomain=tz
Dr Jessica Ozan is a Senior Research Associate with the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit. She is currently leading some research activities for the Horizon 2020 project ECDP (European Cohort Development Project), which is building the specification and business case for a European Research Infrastructure that will provide comparative longitudinal survey data on child and young adult well-being. She is also currently involved in the evaluation of pilots aimed at care leavers for the Children’s Social Care Innovation programme (Department for Education). The programme seeks to develop, test and share effective ways of supporting children who need help from children’s social care services.
Kim Heyes is a Research Associate with the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU). Prior to joining PERU, Kim worked as a Lecturer in Abuse Studies and Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cheshire Campus. During this time, she set up the Student Academic Innovations Journal in order to evaluate community cohesion on academic outcomes. She has just completed her PhD on the Community Psychology of Online Mental Health Forums and Social Media, and is currently working on projects focusing on young care leavers.
Amy Hofman works in Resource Mobilization and Marketing at the NGO TGNP & Gender Training Institute (GTI). The goal of the NGO is to facilitate the transformative feminist movement that influences and contributes to gender responsiveness of policy formulation and implementation. They aim to see a Transformed Tanzania society where there is gender equality, equity and social justice through building a transformative feminist movement for social, gender transformation and women empowerment.
Dr Shoba Arun has considerable research experience on international socio-economic inequalities with seminal and key scholarship on gender inequalities (2001; 2002; 2004;2010;2015) and gendered working practices in digital technologies(2006; 2007;2010; forthcoming a,b). A more recent body of scholarship examines the multidimensional nature of poverty and asset accumulation (2011; 2012; 2013;2015). These publications make a direct and significant contritbuion to social and economic prosperity (asset building) national well being (gender and racial equality) and to the expansion and dissemination of wellbeing (based on www.ref.ac.uk). She has managed and participated in projects on gender equality in a range of socio-economic contexts.
Professor Thankom Arun is a Professor of Global Development and Accountability at the Essex Business School. Currently, he is a Professor Extraordinaire at the Stellenbosch business School, South Africa and a Research fellow at IZA, Bonn. He is also chairing an academic steering group on Financial inclusion in the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF). Previously, he was Professor and Director of the Institute of Global Finance and Development (IGFD), at the Lancashire Business School, UCLan; Visiting Professor at the University of Rome and held academic positions at Manchester and Ulster. His research has been a move away from arbitrary disciplinary constraints towards an interdisciplinary learning process to understand the uneven relationships in Finance, Accounting and Development, particularly in developing/emerging country contexts. Over the years, the research carried out aims to understand, theorize and tackle the problems created by the uneven relationships between business, society and economy in an interdisciplinary framework.
Professor Gary Pollock is a Professor of Sociology in the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Most recently, he has been the principal investigator for a European longitudinal study, The European Cohort Development Study (ECDP), and leads a consortium of institutions around Europe. Professor Pollock has a distinguished career in the area of youth led research.