Browsing by Author "Sesabo, Jennifer K."

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Climate change, food security, and diarrhoea prevalence nexus in Tanzania
    (humanities and social sciences communications, 2024) Kitole, Felician A.; Mbukwa, Justine N.; Tibamanya, Felister Y.; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    The impact of climate change on food security and public health has hindered poverty reduction efforts in developing nations, including Tanzania, resulting in the impoverishment of millions and compromising both health and food production. To unravel these complex interactions, rigorous scientific research is indispensable. Leveraging three waves of the Agriculture Sample Census (2002/03, 2007/08, 2019/20), this study meticulously examines the interplay between climate change, food security, and diarrhoea prevalence in Tanzania. Employing Instrumental Variable Probit and Control Function Approach models to address endogeneity and heterogeneity, temperature anomalies serve as instrumental variables. The findings reveal a substantial impact of climate change on both food security (−0.331142, p < 0.01) and diarrhoea incidence (0.214602, p < 0.01). These results signify that climate change places significant stress on food security, rendering households more susceptible to insecurities, and heightens health concerns through increased diarrhoea prevalence. This underscores the urgency of prioritizing public health and well-being through an agricultural lens in climate change mitigation. A comprehensive strategy is imperative, entailing a synergy of sustainable agricultural practices, robust public health interventions, and targeted policies to fortify the adaptive capacity of communities. Special emphasis should be placed on cultivating climate-resilient agricultural systems, ensuring food security, and implementing health programs tailored to address the unique challenges posed by climate-induced factors. Moreover, community engagement and awareness initiatives play a pivotal role in fostering a collective understanding and commitment to sustainable practices, contributing to the overall resilience of societies amidst the challenges of climate change.
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    Cooking energy choices in urban areas and its implications on poverty reduction
    (International Journal of Sustainable Energy Volume 42, 2023 - Issue 1, 2024) Kitole Felician A.; Tibamanya, Felister Y.; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Developing nations face higher stakes in the race towards a cleaner energy future, where it's a matter of life, wealth, and basic human needs. Using Tanzania Panel Survey data, this study examined urban households' cooking energy choices and their impact on reducing poverty. Employing advanced statistical models, it found that traditional energy sources still dominate cooking methods, and households relying on them are more likely to be trapped in poverty. Clean energy sources, on the other hand, reduce poverty prevalence. Education and income diversification programs can facilitate an immediate shift towards clean energy and achieve Sustainable Development Goals. This study highlights the urgency of the situation and the need for decisive action towards a cleaner, equitable world for all.
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    Deciphering the drivers of food security in Tanzania: Non-experimental research design
    (SCIENCE MUNDI, 2024) Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Food security is a pressing global concern, particularly in developing countries such as Tanzania, where rural areas, predominantly inhabited by smallholder farmers, bear the brunt of its adverse effects. This study looks into the determinants of food security among smallholder farmers in Tanzania, utilizing data from the agriculture sample census survey of 2019/20 conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Employing a Non-experimental research design, the study used a probit regression model to estimate key factors influencing food security. The results underscore the significance of factors such as irrigation (-0.906, p<0.01), extension services (-0.040, p<0.05), crop storage (-1.473, p<0.01), land ownership (-0.070, p<0.01), and female land ownership (-0.909, p<0.01) as crucial determinants of food security in Tanzania. The study advocates prioritizing community-based irrigation for reliable water sources, expanding targeted extension programs, investing in modern crop storage, ensuring secure land tenure, implementing comprehensive seed subsidies, and adopting a holistic approach to soil fertility management. Policymakers are urged to support these measures to enhance food security among smallholder farmers in Tanzania, promoting resilience, productivity, and sustainability.
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    Digitalization and agricultural transformation in developing countries: Empirical evidence from Tanzania agriculture sector
    (Smart Agricultural Technology, 2024) Kitole, Felician A.; Mkuna Eliaza; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Agribusiness can potentially increase value for agriculture and the entire value chain, but it is hard to achieve these goals without digitalizing the sector. The transformation reforms modern technology and digital infrastructure adoption to facilitate growth and inclusively. These conditions make the agricultural digitization transformation more appealing. Therefore, using a survey of 400 smallholder farmers in four regions of Rukwa, Ruvuma, Morogoro and Tabora, this study examines the interplay between digitization and agriculture transformation in Tanzania by focusing on the determinants and effects of digitization on smallholder farmers' welfare. The study used the double hurdle model to estimate the determinants and extent of digitization adoption; the Two-stage least square (2SLS) and the Control function approach (CFA) to estimate its effects on smallholder farmers' welfare. The findings revealed that access to credit (0.17428, p < 0.01), extension services (0.52884, p < 0.01), education and government support (0.10922, p < 0.05) are key determinants for agricultural digitization. Moreover, digitization was found to influence smallholder farmers' welfare significantly. The benefits of digitization across smallholder farmers in all regions were observed in enhancing extension services (76.50 %), pest management (71.25 %), and accessibility of the market information (72.25 %), enhance an access to financial services (74.75 %). In sum, to promote digital technology adoption among smallholder farmers, policymakers in Tanzania and developing nations should prioritize financial inclusion through tailored microfinance programs, educational initiatives must integrate digital literacy, enhance extension services, subsidized technology access, and encouraging public-private partnerships to create incentives for sustainable agricultural development.
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    Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
    (BMC Medicine, 2024) Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Aggregate trends can be useful for summarizing large amounts of information, but this can obscure important distributional aspects. Some population subgroups can be worse off even as averages climb, for example. Distributional information can identify health inequalities, which is essential to understanding their drivers and possible remedies. Methods Using publicly available Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 41 sub-Saharan African countries from 1986 to 2019, we analyzed changes in coverage for eight key maternal and child health indicators: first dose of measles vaccine (MCV1); Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT) first dose (DPT1); DPT third dose (DPT3); care-seeking for diarrhea, acute respiratory infections (ARI), or fever; skilled birth attendance (SBA); and having four antenatal care (ANC) visits. To evaluate whether coverage diverged or converged over time across the wealth gradient, we computed several dispersion metrics including the coefficient of variation across wealth quintiles. Slopes and 5-year moving averages were computed to identify overall long-term trends. Results Average coverage increased for all quintiles and indicators, although the range and the speed at which they increased varied widely. There were small changes in the wealth-related gap for SBA, ANC, and fever. The wealth-related gap of vaccination-related indicators (DPT1, DPT3, MCV1) decreased over time. Compared to 2017, the wealth-gap between richest and poorest quintiles in 1995 was 7 percentage points larger for ANC and 17 percentage points larger for measles vaccination. Conclusions Maternal and child health indicators show progress, but the distributional effects show differential evolutions in inequalities. Several reasons may explain why countries had smaller wealth-related gap trends in vaccination-related indicators compared to others. In addition to service delivery differences, we hypothesize that the allocation of development assistance for health, the prioritization of vaccine-preventable diseases on the global agenda, and indirect effects of structural adjustment programs on health system-related indicators might have played a role.
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    External debts as panacea to economic growth challenges in selected eastern African countries: An application of the autoregressive distributed lag mode
    (SCIENCE MUNDI, 2024) Tile, Augustine; Utouh, Harold M.L.; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Foreign aid has significantly influenced medium- and long-term development initiatives in Eastern African countries. Project aid and non-project aid are the two main categories that describe foreign economic assistance (loans, credits, and grants). The primary aim of foreign aid has been to supplement the internal resources needed to quicken the economic development of the nations in Eastern Africa. This study investigated the influence of external debt on the economic growth of Eastern African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania) using the autoregressive distributive lag mode and panel data (1970–2020). The findings revealed that external debt had a significant adverse effect on economic growth. In Burundi, an increase in external debt reduces GDP by 5% in the short run, while in the long run, it reduces GDP by 19%; in Tanzania, it decreases GDP by 22%; and in Kenya, it reduces the GDP by 13%. Conversely, the findings indicated that the increased level of external debt positively influenced Uganda's GDP (0.03%) but was not statistically significant. Therefore, it is recommended that Eastern African countries source their income, apart from more external concessional debt, through bilateral or multilateral arrangements to plug into their budget deficits. Also, it is recommended that East African governments develop their external debt initiatives that offer further profitable investment opportunities to repay their foreign debt gradually. Moreover, strategies in the East African countries must be geared towards strengthening revenue mobilization to provide avenues to balance their external debts. For instance, improving the informal sector in these countries is a viable base for increasing revenue through taxes.
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    Navigating the economic landscape: A comprehensive analysis of government spending, economic growth, and poverty reduction nexus in Tanzania
    (Applied Economics Letters, 2024) Kitole, Felician A.; Msoma, Liberati J.; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    This study delves into the intricate nexus between government expenditure, GDP per capita, and poverty reduction in Tanzania. Employing Granger causality analysis, Vector Autoregressive (VAR) and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) on the World Bank dataset spanning from 1990 to 2022 the study unveils dynamic relationships and crucial insights for policymaking towards poverty free society. The findings underscore significant directional causation between government expenditure and GDP, underscoring their pivotal roles in poverty alleviation. Furthermore, the study reveals that while an increase in gross domestic per capita initially reduces poverty, it exacerbates its prevalence in the long run. Conversely, government spending emerges as a consistent force in reducing poverty across both short and long-run periods. These results emphasize the imperative need for Tanzania and other developing nations to comprehend these interconnected factors, facilitating the formulation of effective strategies that foster inclusive growth and propel the nation towards sustainable development.
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    The dynamics of natural population increase and urbanization in East Africa: Heterogeneous panel data analysis 1960–2020
    (Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2024) Kitole, Felician A.; Mkuna, Eliza; Sesabo, Jennifer K.; Lihawa, Robert M.
    The question of whether urbanization represents a boon or a bane for developing nations has triggered enduring discourse within academic and political spheres. Notwithstanding the persistent deliberations, scant attention has been devoted to examining the influence of natural population augmentation in propelling urbanization. Therefore, this study bridges this gap through a heterogeneous panel data analysis employing the use of Mean Group, Dynamic Fixed Effects and, Pooled Mean Group models, delving into the dynamics linking natural population increase and urbanization across the East African Countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania using data from World Bank spanning from 1960 to 2020. The findings reveal the significant and heterogeneous enduring impact of natural population increase on regional urbanization, intertwined with variables such as fertility rate and population growth. Moreover, findings reveal that migration have a higher influence on urbanization compared to natural population increase in the East African context. However, it is important to note that the extent of this influence varies across countries in the region. Drawing from these findings, the study underscores the imperative for member states to bolster socioeconomic provisions in rural domains, curtailing the influx of natural population increase into urban areas. Concurrently, embracing global population management agendas emerges as a vital stride toward attaining sustainable development and alleviating resource pressures. In sum, this study furnishes invaluable insights into the intricate facets of urbanization within developing realms, accentuating the exigency for bespoke strategies to surmount the distinctive challenges encountered by each sovereign nation.
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    The Heterogeneity of socioeconomic factors affecting poverty reduction in Tanzania: A multidimensional statistical inquiry
    (Society, 2024) Kitole Felician A.; Sesabo, Jennifer K.
    Persistent poverty poses a formidable challenge for the developing world, and Tanzania is no exception. Despite earnest efforts spanning decades to implement poverty reduction strategies, Tanzania grapples with the complexity of poverty within its households. Leveraging data from the Tanzania Household Budget Survey spanning 2011/2012 to 2019/2020, this study employs Probit, first difference generalized method of moment, and diverse poverty measurement techniques to unravel the dimensions, determinants, and socioeconomic intricacies influencing poverty prevalence among Tanzanian households. Key findings underscore the pivotal influence of age, household size, geographical zones, and income-generating activities on poverty. The study notably illuminates the substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty levels across households nationwide. The study acknowledges the heightened vulnerability of women and advocates for the implementation of gender-sensitive programs, and women’s social inclusion for equitable poverty reduction. The study further stresses the importance of prioritizing accessible education and financial inclusion, supported by regional strategies that significantly contribute to poverty alleviation. The establishment of social safety nets is highly imperative to ensure a sustained poverty reduction