Numbers in the News — Digest #7

Data Zetu’s seventh 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.

“According to data on HuruMap, a platform that aggregates publicly available data, Tanzania has a population of approximately 44.9 million and the countries manufacturers depend on raw material produced in the rural area where 80% of this total population lives” — Angel Navuri

Media Fellow Rosemary Mirondo notes that healthcare spending has been significantly reduced affecting the availability of contraceptives. The Ministry of Health plans to expand its family planning budget to 17 billion by 2020, but funds over the last few years have not properly been disbursed. With the government cutting the healthcare budget by 19%, these goals by the Ministry of Health do not seem ideal. With Tanzania’s population increasing and the health budget being cut, family planning will take a hard hit.

Data shows that FGM most often occurs before the age of one or at thirteen years, plus.

Although the government has enforced law that female genital mutilation (FGM) may no longer be legally practiced, there are still some districts where it is still embraced. Media fellow Beatrice Philemon quotes the Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children who says there are also social workers working closely to make sure FGM is not being practiced in these districts. One solution is educating young women about the dangers of FGM, along with issues such as poverty, child marriage, early pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS.

The food processing sector, which takes up almost a quarter of all registered manufacturing firms, reports that it has been struggling with over-taxation and over-regulation. Media fellow Angel Navuri analyses how this predicament affects indirect and direct employment in this sector. According to a report by the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, an industry association, up to 360,000 jobs are lost per year because of the amount of procedures and inspections by Tanzania Food and Drug Authority (TFDA) necessary to run a food-processing firm.

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

• More than 87,000 form six students in testing —Nukta
• Tanzania’s 2017/18 budget prioritized infrastructure over agriculture — Kilimo Kwanza
• Has the cholera outbreak in Rukwa been fully contained? — PesaCheck

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).