TANZANIA has made a number of strides in empowering women economically and promotion of equal access to productive resources as part of its commitment to the ambitions of the 1995 Beijing Platform on equality.

Riziki Pembe Juma, the Social Welfare Development, Elderly, Gender and Children minister for Zanzibar made this assessment here late last week presenting a report on the issue at the 68th annual meeting on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68).

Tanzania recently launched a revised National Gender and Women’s Development Policy (2023) envisaging gender equality measures that give women opportunities to showcase their talents in society, plus specific allocations to realise these objectives.

The conference was focused on global trends in accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective, officials noted.

The minister affirmed that the government has allocated more resources to address gender inequalities in various sectors, especially those that directly affect girls and women's wellbeing.

An illustration is a move by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to further promote the private sector with a $400m loan arrangement to banks and other financial institutions where 35 percent of loaned funds are allocated for women agriculture, animal husbandry, beekeeping and seaweed cultivation.

The loan arrangement intended for on-lending to the private sector is provided to banks and financial institutions at three percent interest charge per annum with banks required to charge at a rate not exceeding 10 percent per annum.

Onward lending for private sector loans is intended to increase liquidity within banks and reduce lending rates to small and medium producers, she explained.

The central bank initiative at the behest of the Treasury has increased funding in the agricultural sector where 50.3 percent of women work for their living.

The government also implements the free education and post-dropout re-entry policies to further ensure that access to education is improved especially for girls, she stated.

Tanzania has also initiated social protection programmes aimed reducing poverty and promotion of equal access to basic needs as an aspect of human rights, she stated.

The Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), supporting poor families, hands monthly stipends and facilitates training for prerequisite entrepreneurship skills, enabling income-earning opportunities in small-scale activities for poverty alleviation, she stated.

Since its commencement in 2000, the TASAF programme has made significant contributions to the reduction of poverty among poor households, the minister added.