Numbers in the News — Digest #6

Data Zetu’s sixth digest of data-driven Tanzanian media stories

This blog post was published as part of the Data Zetu project. Data Zetu is now an initiative of the Tanzania dLab, a local NGO that promotes innovation and data literacy through a premier center of excellence. For more information about the dLab, visit www.dlab.or.tz. For more information about the Data Zetu project, visit www.irex.org.

Numbers in the News is a recurring post highlighting data journalism in Tanzania. Learn more in our first Digest here.

Mother to child mortality has had high numbers over the last few years. There have been efforts to encourage more births in healthcare facilities by educating women and improvement of the currently available healthcare facilities. Media fellow Esther Mngodo takes a look at the worst places to give birth, based on how many women give birth at home rather than in a hospital. The top five regions for home delivery is led by Mara and followed by Kagera, Simiyu, Dar es Salaam, and Mbeya.

Data Zetu Media Fellows, working with established media outlets, often use tools like Hurumap, a digital platform that displays publicly available data on health and education, including from sources like PEPFAR.

According to data found on HuruMap by media fellow Angel Navuri, agriculture takes up about a quarter of the GDP while providing 95% of food requirement in Tanzania. At the 2017 African Grain Trade Summit (AGTS), the topic in discussion was the need to farm more grains according to consumer consumption, and providing support for smallholder farmers to find a market. Other factors such as price-shifts and unpredictable weather changes affect farmers when they harvest. Such shortcomings are some of the reasons for poverty.

In just 3 months this year, the national debt has increased by 12 billion Tanzanian Shillings (TSh) totaling a sum of around TSh 60 trillion. This number is lead by foreign debt, mostly from non-profits followed by domestic debt. However, the ratio of GDP to debt shows that the government is still within the bracket which shows they still have the ability to pay their debt. However, the government has been paying its debts, particularly in the month of March and this increase is mostly due to new loans as the shilling has declined against the dollar.

Data from World Economic Forum, 2017 shows that men in Africa make 51% more than women.

Media fellow Anne Kidmose published a similar story on International Women’s Day analyzing the reasons behind the disparity between men and women’s pay. Kidmose shares how pay negotiations differ between men and women, suggesting that women need confidence to secure their salaries. Executive Director of Tanzania Women Lawyer Association says poor job selection also contributes to low wages for women.

Below are more data-driven stories that emphasize Data Zetu’s priority sectors (health, economic growth, and gender equality):

• Secondary schools in Mbeya are lacking laboratories — Nukta
• TZ Universities have twice as many male as female students — The Citizen
• Top-rated schools in Mbeya have now lost their ranking — Nukta

Data Zetu is a coalition of Tanzanian civic innovation organisations that aim to empower communities to make better, evidence-based decisions to improve their lives.

The coalition consists of Sahara Sparks (SS), Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team (HOT), and Tanzania Bora Initiative (TBI), with global expertise from SBC4D and IREX. Code for Tanzania (CfT) is a former member of the Data Zetu coalition. Data Zetu is funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Data Zetu operates as part of the $21.8 million Data Collaboratives for Local Impact (DCLI) programme administered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).