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» Tanzania, United Republic of Social security profile

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Background: Tanzania exhibits many demographic similarities with other African countries, by having a youthful population, declining fertility rates, declining infant and under-5 mortality rates, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The latest estimates of core poverty indicators suggest that a high proportion of people live in poverty in Tanzania Mainland.

Demographics: The latest Population and Housing Census (PHC) of 2002 found that the population of Tanzania Mainland was 33,584,607, of which 44 per cent of the population was aged 15 and under, and 4 per cent over 64 years. It is projected that the population will increase by 70% between 2002 and 2020 in Tanzania Mainland.
In 2002 the youth dependency ratio was 0.853 and the elderly dependency ratio was 0.076.

Labour Market: According to the Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) for 2005/2006, 94.1 per cent of people were working in the informal sector: a major challenge to the extension of social protection coverage. Importantly, according to ILFS 2005/2006, the agriculture sector is by far the main sector of employment as it represents 74.2 per cent of total employment. Female labour force participation has increased significantly in recent years.

Overall employment-to-population ratios are high: more than 85 per cent of all of those aged 15 and older were employed, with the ratio being higher in rural areas. Almost 30 per cent of children aged 14 years old and less were recorded in the survey as employed, the majority of them working as unpaid family workers in agriculture or in domestic or other household activities. The effect of the lack of income security in old age is to be seen in the high employment rates for older people: 73 per cent of older people mainly working on their own farms.

Social Protection: Social Security coverage is less than 1 per cent of the entire population, and about 6.5 per cent of the formal working population. Almost the entire informal sector is not covered by any form of social security scheme.

The existing non-contributory programmes are designed to provide assistance to a wide range of poor and vulnerable groups: the disabled, children and the elderly. Social assistance funding from the Government is 0.5 per cent GDP and NGOs account for a further 0.5 per cent GDP. All programmes suffer from limited financial and human resources and therefore cover only a part of the most vulnerable of the population.

The Government is the main provider of health services in Tanzania, which are administered by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the President's Office Regional Administration and local government. The social health system is financed by revenues from taxation, donors and fees for services. Fee-for-service charges do not apply for the treatment of children aged under five and diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, epidemics and leprosy. These elements represent only 2.5 per cent of total health expenditure.

There are two social insurance funds offering health and medical coverage: The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) providing the main access to health services, after the state tax-financed health programmes; and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Coverage by both schemes is low. In 2005, NSSF had 9,000 members of its health fund, just 3.4 per cent of its total active membership. The NHIF had 242,580 active registered members and, including dependents, a total of 1 million people were covered.

In addition, there is the Community Health Fund (CHF), which was established as an alternative for the fee-for-service scheme. Currently, only 29 districts out of 72 have access to this programme and to the matching grants from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Currently, less than 10 per cent of households have joined such schemes, which represent 2 per cent of total spending. There is even scarcer information about the non-public schemes: micro health insurance, private health insurance and indigenous provision. It is reasonable to assume, based on total amount of insurance premiums paid in 2002 that this type of provision accounts for 1 per cent of total expenditure. There is a long history of indigenous associations being active in collecting insurance contributions for funerals and health care expenses.

Way forward: There are a number of opportunities and challenges apparent for Tanzania Mainland, with the projected rapid increase in the population by 2020, and the need to think strategically about how its resources are used effectively to invest in healthcare, education, and other social protection schemes.Currently the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is funding an ILO project - the ILO Global Campaign for Social Protection and Coverage for all: As a means to reducing poverty in Africa and Asia - this is a joint project for Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar, and Zambia. For Tanzania Mainland the Social Protection Expenditure and Performance Review (SPER) and a Social Budget (SB) has been produced.

This work has identified that there is scope to develop an affordable Social Protection system that provides wider coverage to the population, by implementing a universal pension, a child benefit scheme, and some targeted social assistance.

Page updated 2008-11-14

Florence Bonnet

bonnet@ilo.org

Krzysztof Hagemejer

hagemejer@ilo.org

Ross Leach

rosshleach@yahoo.co.uk

Ansgar Mushi

mushi@ilo.org