Older people plays a key role in Tanzania's economic and social development and are also an important part of the nations' social fabric especially at this time of rapid social, economic and cultural changes. However older people are often likely to be poorer, susceptible to chronic ...Click here to read more

Older people plays a key role in Tanzania's economic and social development and are also an important part of the nations' social fabric especially at this time of rapid social, economic and cultural changes. However older people are often likely to be poorer, susceptible to chronic illness and disability and more likely to experience social exclusion, denial of basic rights, abuse and discrimination. Furthermore, it is important to note that as a result of generalised insecurity and the erosion of traditional coping mechanisms, older people are often forced to work in order to survive. The ILO estimates that 73% of older people in Tanzania remain economically active with most engaged in small scale agriculture (ILO 2008). Old age poverty tends to have significantly negative impacts on the families and households of the older people, particularly children. Households with an older person have a 22.4% higher poverty rate then the national average and a large proportion of households in the poorest income deciles include elderly persons.(HBS 2007). HIV and AIDS has also exacerbated the situation as in Tanzania nearly 2 million orphans are cared for by the older people - mainly grandmothers.

Given the high levels of informal labour in Tanzania, and the high levels of poverty, it is not realistic to expect the contributory pension system alone to achieve income security and reduction of poverty amongst older people and their families. Currently only 6.5% of the work force are registered in all existing social security schemes. From the 2007 house hold survey 34% of Tanzanians (12.9 millions) were below the basic need poverty line which was Tsh 13,998 ( 2007 price). 17% of Tanzanians were also below the food poverty line Tsh 10,219 ( 2007 price). The same household budget survey indicated that the mean expenditure per capita was Tsh 20,212 while the household income per capita was Tsh 39,362.( average 4.8 people per household). All this indicates the challenges Tanzania will face, if it will choose to rely on contributory pension alone to address poverty in old age for its citizens. Currently, only 4% of older people have access to pension. 96 % of all older people are not covered at all which is not in line with Article 11(1) of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania which states categorically the right to social security in old age and other forms of incapacities.

Most African countries that have implemented universal or near-universal pension schemes have recognised its effectiveness (in terms of achieving poverty reduction and wider development objectives), administrative simplicity and affordability. This move has also made universal social pension to be politically popular and the single most successful social protection instrument in Africa. The absence of income security for older people together with their higher poverty levels serves to undermine the effectiveness of other social protection policy levels such as uptake of healthcare exemptions and access to healthcare for poor older people and their dependants as well as of uptake of livelihood promotion services and other public services due to income constraints. The 2010 Tanzania Pension Feasibility Study by HelpAge in Collaboration with Ministry of Labour and Employment has found that the introduction of the universal social pension would address a number of these challenges.

In line with the above context :

1. What do you think will be the impact of introducing Universal pesion in Tanzania?
2. Do you think Tanzania can afford to provide this service to all the its senior citizens?
3. What should be done to accelerate this process?

Soon (in fact next week) our country will embark onto a historic move to collecting views of the people for the new constitution. We do hope the new constitution will continue to embrace matters beneficial to majority and pertinent for the wellbeing of the present and future generation. For it to embed/capture adequately matters of social protection, it is high time for stakeholders to start of thinking positively the best way to root social protection right especially for the most vulnerable groups of the population into our constitution. In particular, priority for the elderly is vital. With current demographic projections, ageing is alarming. Towards addressing vulnerability and massive poverty, it is evident that the cost of social protection doesn’t out way the cost of doing nothing. Elsewhere in the world, comprehensive social protection system has been a key to enhancing economic growth, social cohesion and poverty reduction. If the will is there, yes we can

A number of us have been having discussions on the subject of social protection for the aged in Tanzania, with some of showing keen interest in and knowledge of the subject. I am forwarding this message to you just in case some of you may be interested in pursuing research on the subject.

Regards,

Gelase Mutahaba.

Professor of Public Administration,

Department of Political Science and Public Administration,

University of Dar-es-Salaam,

Dear Members of the MRPP Steering Committee,

PASGR is pleased to announce that it has put out a call for concept notes for research on non-state social protect. We believe that one or some institutions at your esteemed university may be interested in responding to the call. We shall be happy to have as many of our MRPP partner universities in this competition. In case you know of any other institution or experts interested in this area, please feel free to share with them this information. In case it is possible please draw it to the attention of the University IT specialist so that the information can also be posted on your university website. For further and other details on the call please go to the link indicated below. Thanks.

http://www.pasgr.org/social-protection/.

First we  need to reconstruct,redefine and restructure the concept "pension"Tanzania social security policy of 2003 as well as the existing act recognizes pension as a right to only employees working in formal sectors.This comes on since these employees are embedded in our established shemes such as NSSF,PPF and PSPF thats to say our regulations consider only contributory schemes,non contributors have nothing to benefit.Therefore the way foward should be formulating policies that will include all citizens regardless of their occupational sectors,the way a peasant contributes indirectly through his/her farm is the same as to the medical doctor,teacher and so on. We cannot have revenues to employees if no collection from various sources including people working in informal sectors but when it cames to benefit and social protection we exclued them why? Perhaps policy that will define pension a right to all Tanzanians should come first and later universal benefit follows.

I really like this idea. Let us all support it because it is true that our elderly fathers, mothers and relatives are suffering as there are no visible efforts to provide them with basics for life. We should actually keep in mind that these elderly people are the ones who made our world to be the way we see it today, and they are the ones who initiated the development strategies we build on them now for better Tanzania. let us also remember that, the plans we put now for ederly people will also be for us all as we are all going there. My sincere thanks to those who initiated this idea, and it should be put in implementation for better life of our seniors.  

Universal pension has already been adopted in MKUKUTA II (Cluster II Improvement of Quality of Life and Social Well-being; Goal 6 - page 81 and page 162). However, the message of Theresia Minja needs to be taken up agitatively. I recall Helpage had organized a workshop and the PM as guest of honour in his keynote address had stated that the Government is committed to implementing universal pension. It is a matter of kupanga ni kuchagua now! Prof. A. Mbelle

Dear colleagues
I'm in a position to support the proposed universal social pension  to older age people. In my opinion most of these older age Tanzanians have worked and  supported our country economy in their early days and therefore we indeed need to support their daily life. The only doubt is that,the current abundant resources have not been properly utilized and so the incoming of another compulsory social scheme might turn into a new richmond!

CONSTANTINE JOHN KANYASU-MBA,BCOM,DIP-COMPUTER,FISH TECHNOLOGIST.
P.O.BOX 10294
TEL 0282540050-OFFICE
0732/0767/0715/0784643322
MWANZA-TANZANIA.

The world would be a better place to live in with great minds like Mr Kitundu.

Nec

Dear all,

I recommend for Scholars and stakeholders to emphasise the importance of Universal Pension in Public debates! This should be strongly supported as there is a need for ensuring Universal Pension as it is in Primary education. This is only the solution to fight agaisnt poverty and dependence!  Jimmyton

Dear Taknet members,

I have been silent since the beginning of this dialogue just as a means of digesting what my colleagues have come up with. To be frank, the ideas presented so far are superior and could be beneficial to the senior citizens here in Tanzania. However, as a voluntary advocate of these ignored people, I would like to bring to you the following.

We should bear in mind that all of us, one day, we would grow old and would need helping hands from the able ones at a time when we are helpless – unable to work, to earn a living and so forth.

 ·        Tanzania should now value OLD AGE as other countries in the world do. In Tanzania, old age or older people are associated with annoyance, bother, irritant, nuisance…and the like   a fact which troubles me so much!.

·        In the US and other western world, the aged are regarded as a treasure as they have seen much, done much, gone through much and are trusted even when it comes to teaching in higher learning institutions, Professors are never young they are old.

·        The government (authorities) and all players should push for the putting in place of a legislation that would press for the honouring for the social protection of the old citizens.

·        There should be a strong campaign that would put pressure for the execution of all those who are responsible with the killings of the old people for allegations of witchcraft the way people with albinism are protected.

·        Health personnel should now be penalized: It is no wonder to hear an old person being told by medical personnel, when he or she is seeking medical attention that “YOU ARE NOT SEEK, YOU ARE JUST OLD…GO HOME this is very embarrassing.  

 Timothy Kitundu,

Senior Journalist

The Express

Dear all
 Based on the united Nations demographic  estimates, the number of Tanzanians over 60 years is expected to triple between 2020 . As result the government is likely to face escalating pressure to design and implement effective social protection measures to minimize poverty  and deprivation among the elderly. I therefore recommend that the time for social pension for all older people is now. If you wait for tomorrow it will not come. Let us push them together now, with a strong base... they will respond.(the decision makers)

Thanking you all

Elisha

Quite agreeing. Other innovative ways of funding universal pension exist and only Government will is required. Just as skills levy was introduced innovatively so can other ways be explored. It is a human right duty of the Government (just as it has in other aspects such as universal primary education). Mbelle

“Something is ongoing regarding the Universal Social Pension Scheme in Tanzania. I hope the government has the all necessary means (financially) of performing this process. However, it will take time since the whole process has to pass through our parliament.”

Dr.Khamis

Sweden

Dear Colleagues,

I went through some of the contributions, they are very exciting with full of good suggestions. I agree that the universal pension in Tanzania will substantially reduce the poverty not only among elderly household but also will have spread over effect to the community at large especially when the pension recipient  invest in small  Income generating activities (IGAs) owned by group or individuals.  With these little investment, even the community can be sensitized to purchase products produced from elderly IGA as  a way of supporting their initiatives.  The case provided by Kurt is real exciting! Though when scaling up to the national level, we need to think hard on how can it be implemented efficiently and effectively!!

I agree with Sophia, Prof Mwita and others that introduction of Universal pension in Tanzania needs a political will from the government.  I was real looking for the calculation in terms of how much does it cost to have universal  pension for Tanzania, Dr Tausi (using document she provided us)has enlightened us in terms of percent to GDP. Yes, I am convinced it is possible to have universal pension, and we are told that Hon Pinda has also supported this motion. However, there is need of further support from other government executives for universal pension to be introduced; in this case we need more advocacy on the matter!  . When researchers were pushing for having more funds allocated to research activities, they advocated from various government executives(not only one)  inluding MPs  to get the support, and now the government has agreed to allocated 2% of the annual Budget or GDP (not sure whether of GDP or Budget) for the research work . I would argue the same can be done if backed up with data and case studies!

Denis Kigoi Mbaga urgued that  the Universal Social Pension should start with Universal Employment Benefits. I didn’t get it clearly what does he mean? I thought employment benefits covers only to employed people, and therefore elderly from informal sector are not included. And the current topic here seek for universal pension!  . Can Denis make it loud again his point!

Kabuje F.

Thanks Kurt, your account really shows that universal pension is not a blue sky thing. Let us enrich the discussion, come out with a policy brief and put it infront of the Government - "Honourable Prime Minister Pinda, what you had blessed in that Workshop is implementable and this is the experience to scale up"! Of course modesty in implementation should be the key, starting with hard-to-reach district/s (this is Government language which is found in most official Goverment documents such as the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty - MKUKUTA-) or poorest districts - the development grant has ways of assessing poverty and came up with the ranking and formula for distribution). Let the debate go on for a while. Prof. Mbelle

·         Tanzania has various number of income sources, what is needed is to make sure tax collection is well managed  including reducing unnecessary tax exemptions

·         It is cheap to implement universal pension as it will only base on 60+years

According to “a study into feasibility of a universal social pension” launched in June 2010, shows that only 0.26% to 1.28% of National income can suffice to pay Social pension to 2.1 million of the senior Citizens in Tanzania

WAY FORWARD

·         To prepare zonal/National conferences to address the need by involving policy makers and other community members

·         Widening this discussions to all university students and Religious leaders

·         In our new constitution of Tanzania there is a need to have clear articles which clarify the issue of universal Pension

CHALLENGES

·         Most of the senior Citizens are not aware about universal pension

·         Political will is needed for all political parties including the ruling part

·         Poor information sharing altitude from the Central government to the beneficiaries at grass root level despite of good polices and  different research reports concerning older people example: Since the launching of a study into feasibility of universal social pension report done on 30^th June 2010 no special initiative has been taken by the government to share with the  public to date

 AFFORDABILITY

 Tanzania can afford to provide universal pension:

·         Study for this has already been done showing Universal pension in Tanzania is possible

·         Tanzania has various number

Dear TAKNET members,

Social pension is the right of all Tanzanian Senior Citizens. We really appreciate the introduction of this motion. At the moment Tanzanian economy is facing a lot of challenges to poor families especially older people headed households. Introduction of universal social pension will minimizing this challenge.

IMPACT OF UNIVERSAL PENSION

Social pension will create employment opportunities in rural areas

·         Growth of agricultural sector, business and income.

·         Growth of economy at community level.

·         Will improve nutrition and education to children under the care of older people

·         Universal Pension will expand services to vulnerable groups including OP, Disabled, PLHA and OVCs.

Pension will improve delivery of community services including health and education

CONTINUATION:

The results of the research with the grandchildren indicated the following substantial changes: 

• Children felt that they had more time to play, study, read and talk to friends.
  

• They were more satisfied after eating and had protein more often. Although the findings were not conclusive due to the small sample there was some indication, however, that the children had an improved nutritional status according to body mass index indicators.
  

• Children in the project groups only ran out of soap in the last week of the month while the control group often stayed away from school because they had no soap at all to wash themselves or their clothes.
  

• Cash transfer has a positive impact on school attendance and progress. The children in the project groups were seldom chased away from school because they did not have school materials and uniforms. The availability of kerosene allowed them to study at night.
  

• Children from homes with pensions scored statistically significant higher scores on a depression scale than the control group.

But the impact goes far beyond the cash support. Most of the older people have formed mutual support groups where they makes small savings (in April the deposited totally TZS 239’200/=), run small income generation activities and care for each other when they are sick. A pilot program with 20 groups explores the potential of the group formation for health improvement – among other through training of two selected health assistants in each group. A similar structure of mutual support groups exists among the grandchildren (called “TatuTano”).

Unfortunately Kwa Wazee has not yet done an assessment of the impact of the pensions on the local economy. But we are sure the monthly injection of about 8.8 Mio. TZS which is spent on the local markets (more than 100 Mio. per year) has a trickle-down effect which benefits not only the direct beneficiaries but the whole community.

“Now if I want to go somewhere I can ask my neighbor. Now they agree because they know that I have something and I can give something back such as mandazi for them. Before they wouldn’t agree to help me because I had nothing” (Pensioner in Nshamba).  

We are very happy that taknet has opened this forum and we would like to thank taknet for this initiative.

We would like to share some experiences of Kwa Wazee with cash transfer to older people. Kwa Wazee is located in Muleba district and has started in 2003 a pension scheme for older people - mainly for those who take care of orphaned grandchildren. (We would like to remember that half of the orphans in Tanzania are cared in so-called “skipped generation households” composed by older people and children without any support from the Government).

End of April 2011 874 older people (mostly grandmothers) and 475 orphaned grandchildren were supported with TZS 9’000/= for each of the older people and with TZS 4’500/= for each supported grandchild below 18 years.

The program has been evaluated 2008 - using control groups. The Executive Summary is also available in English and Kiswahili (“Chumvi, sabuni na viatu kwa ajili ya shule”) from HelpAge Tanzania (or as soft copy from kwawazee@yahoo.com or kurt@repssi.org) . The findings were very convincing and confirmed a remarkable impact on different levels.

• The extra income of the pension and child benefit, which represented 50-80% of their cash income, reduced poverty and prevented the elderly households from falling into extreme poverty.
  
  Pensions reduced the necessity for begging, doing poorly paid day labor and selling assets.
  
  

• Nutrition had improved in terms of quantity and variety.
  
  

• The assessment of health impact was not conclusive, nevertheless the project group described themselves as less often “always sick” compared to the control group.
  
  

• Psychosocial wellbeing is rarely explored in evaluations of cash transfers but this aspect was a particular focus of this research. The project groups showed significantly less stress, less anxiety about the future, and more confidence about how they were coping with the challenges of their lives.
  
  

• Receiving a pension didn’t change the existing supporting network but enjoying a greater financial stability made the elderly headed households more able to participate in the reciprocal relationships that are fundamental to benefiting from a social safety net.
  
  

• Grandparents caring for grandchildren indicated that the increased income from pensions and child benefit considerably increased their ability to provide for their grandchildren’s needs. This in turn improved the relationship between them. The grandchildren felt more loved when their grandmother was able to meet their material needs.
  
  

  CONTINUES

Dear Patrick Ngwila,

I agree with your idea of having a clear article in our constitution for provision of universal pension. In this case therefore, is my hope that all of us (aged activists) will participate fully in making the article appears in the new constitution for the benefit of our senior Citizens and their dependants. We should also bear in mind that, it is the right time for us to make sure Tanzania start  implementing universal pension now before we become oldest where we will find ourselves un able to talk/advocate and support on this.

Regards

Dear Julie
Warm greetings,
Thank you for your contribution. what we are actually advocating for, is cash transfers to older people. WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY ASKING FOR A NEW SYSTEM OF FORMAL OR INFORMAL SYSTEMS. It is good to learn from other countries what they have done. It takes one or two people to go to any of the African countries providing social pension. This was recommended in one of the stakeholders meeting last year and the responsible Ministry was represented. But to date they have not done any step forward. They need to be pushed from outside as it seems working from within no one is read to act.

Thanking you

Elisha Sibale mwamkinga

It would be important to first know and understand the formal and informal systems which already support the livelihoods of the elderly in both rural and urban settings. To identify the positive and negative trends in the way these systems function, and prioritize areas for action. Starting up another system (pensions) may not be what is needed by some, and may adversely influence what is already working.

Dear all

Angela is right, social pension is non contribution type of pension, usually paid by the government from the consolidated funds. It does not only reduce the burden of older people carers of Most Vulnerable Children , but also bust the economy as older people use the money wisely and do reinvest in different income generation activities.  And as the increase the power of purchase the SMEs tend to grow where a number of older people get such pension. 
Let us push the government to start such a good program very soon.

Elisha Sibale

I would advise you guys to read a book....which is quite a research on this subject..."the dilemma of the rural elderly and the development of socio-economic security in Tanzania: Protecting whom against what.

The book provides some insights on the pitfalls of social security arrangements in Tanzania and proposes ways that can help ameliorate the problem socio-economic insecurities in the rural setting.

Universal social pensions are indeed one but not the only panacea to the problem socio-economic insecurities. It is important to understand the problem within the general socio-economic structures governing our body politic and the entitlement failures resulting from it.
 

John E.Kitoka,
Management Consultant,
INNOVEX Development Consulting Ltd,
19 Kilimani Road,
Ada Estate Kinondoni,
(Near French Embassy),
P.O.Box 75297,
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania.
website: www.innovexdc.com
e-mail:john.kitoka@innovexdc.com

To me I found illogical to ask or to design a mechanism where all Tanzanias would contribute to a social security fund. Consider for Tanzanians who are unable to feed their families or to get even one meal a day, where would they get money to contribute for social security fund. I conducted a study in one of the villages in western Bagamoyo, a Maasai village and found that most families eat only once a day. The reason is that families dont have a resource to enable them to eat more than one in a day. What would you say about this people when you introduce the issue of contributing in Social Security Fund. People are not homogenous interm of resources.

Emmanuel Patroba Mhache,
OSSREA,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dear All;
 
This will be a nice step ahead towards the implementation of the so called MKUKUTA. Everyone of us knows the songs and the loud voice used in singing of those songs of cluster one up to .... but at the end Tanzanians are still poor, and worse enough the poverty is increasing at increasing rate. The Universal Social Pension according to my understanding should start with Universal Employment Benefits 
 
Denis Kigoi Mbaga 

I have been impressed with the contribution on the pension Topic. This is the high time for the Tanzanians especially older people all over the country to join hands and demand for universal pension. Our country have been blessed with a lot of resources and it can afford to support around 5% of the population which is older people.

There are different ways which can be used by the government to raise its revenues why not dedicate some of its revenue to support older people?

It is possible and we can afford to pay pension to older people. What needed most was a political will which was shown clearly on different national policies such as MKUKUKA II and NSPF.

There is a link to pension-watch site (www.pension-watch.net). Here you can be offered to calculate the cost of a pension using various ages of eligibility and levels of benefit (in USD or Tanzanian shillings) through this site. Hopefully this could give an idea of the cost of a pension as something determined by these decisions. The calculator is here http://www.pension-watch.net/pensions/about-social-pensions/about-social-pensions/pensions-calculator/?country=Tanzania, United Republic of

in addition, there is a feasibility study conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Collaboration with HelpAge which can be linked to here http://www.pension-watch.net/knowledge-centre/?guid=4cd9c14151bb5&order=n

I think there are two issues involved: 1. targeting and 2. Sources of funds for those eligible but had never been salaried employees. Prof. Mbelle