Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.8, No.5, 2018 64 Gendered Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects of the Dairy Value Chain in Tanzania Anna N Sikira 1 * Elizabeth M Waithanji 1,3 Allesandra Galie 2 Isabel Baltenweck 2 1. Department of Development Studies under the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Sokoine University of Agriculture. P.O.BOX 3024, Chuo Kikuu Morogoro, Tanzania 2 International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), P.O. Box 30709 – 00100, Nairobi. 3. Independent consultant, Box 51834 – 00200, Nairobi Abstract This paper discusses the gender gaps in the dairy value chain in Tanzania and the challenges and opportunities for addressing them. A desk review was conducted to study various interventions carried out in Tanzania from colonial period to-date. Results show that there was no gender consideration during colonial period and soon after independence. Interventions by Heifer Project International from 1980s were the first to consider gender issues in the Tanzanian dairy value chain. Gender gaps such as high workload for women, lack of market information on milk and other dairy products and lack of capacity to control resources emanating from the dairy value chain were identified. Other challenges identified include lack of skills for improving dairy management owing to their limited access to training and other technologies. Further, data used for planning, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of the interventions was not sex disaggregated; and there was a lack of political will to integrate gender issues by the project leaders.Opportunities available for bridging the gender gaps include availability of friendly technologies to women such as preservation of feeds for use in the dry season when the price of milk is high and use of mobile phones to access market information. The study concludes that proper integration of gender in the project cycle will help to narrow the gender gaps. The study recommends project leaders to integrate / mainstream gender in projects by engaging gender specialists to guide project staff on how to systematically integrate gender as well as develop or enhance the capacity of employees on gender; and to demonstrate, with examples, the economic benefits of integrating gender in projects. Keywords: Gender, Opportunity, constraints, prospects, dairy value chain 1.0 Introduction Value chain analysis has been widely used by various development actors to understand the varying needs, interests and constraints of dairy value chain actors. Little attention has been paid to gender aspects of the dairy value chain during its analysis. This paper presents the findings of a gender analysis of published and gray literature on the dairy value chain in Tanzania the period just before independence (1961) to the current. For instance, in the dairy industry in Tanzania, women perform more work, but receive fewer benefits than men. Generally, gender roles and norms vary across regions and by age (Njuki et al., 2011). Men are the main decision makers in livestock related matters, they are in charge of the general herd management, and oversee watering of the animals among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. They dip animals and sometimes supervise the spraying of animals for disease control (Maeda Machangu et al., 1995). They also inspect the health of, and count, animals returning from grazing in the evening (Sikira et al., 2013). Men also perform minor veterinary procedures such as castration, which they learn from veterinary officers. With slight contextual variations; women perform significant roles in the daily management of the livestock at the household level. For example, women perform almost 75% of the livestock management activities in the intensive production system of Asia (FAO, 2010). Maasai women in the East African region retain their primary role of dairy related activities as they are responsible for milking, simple processing of milk such as fermentation and marketing of surplus milk and dairy products. In the extensive management system, majority of women sell milk at the farm gate because they are constrained in terms of mobility (Mutua et al., 2014; Waithanji et al., 2013; 2015), time, finance and means of transport and communication (Waithanji et al., 2013; 2015). This is true in the informal market which is characterized by seasonality. In a study on gendered participation in livestock markets, Waithanji et al. (2013:40) underscored that, “when the market of milk is formalized, men tend to take over”. For example, in Tanga Region, Tanzania, a milk processing plant that guarantees a reliable milk outlet exists and has led to an increased engagement of young men in the milk value chain. The young men collect the milk and deliver it to the collection centre with coolers before it can be transferred to the processing plant in the city of Tanga (Nombo and Sikira 2012; Sikira et al 2013). Men appear to take over control of agricultural commodities from women once technologies are used to enhance production (Njuki et al 2014); markets are relocated from near home requiring transportation of produce and when marketing activities compete for time with reproductive roles (Waithanji et al 2013; Quisumbing et al 2013). Additionally, the culture of seclusion of women, whereby the women themselves and other community members consider it inappropriate for women to leave their homes to brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals