Tanzanian food producers, vendors and traders need direct relief measures in the face of the Covid-19

This policy brief is based on research conducted among food traders in nine key markets in three regions of Tanzania. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of regional and international trade frameworks and the critical need for top-level diplomatic and political solutions. Women and youth constitute the majority of food system actors, including in the production and trade of food, and were disproportionately harmed by the disruption of the system. When neighboring countries instituted border restrictions, food producers found themselves unable to trade. Disruption to international trade systems undermined the health of the broader economy at community and national levels

Tanzanian food producers, vendors and traders need direct relief measures in the face of the Covid-19

Key messages • Tanzania’s responses to Covid-19 pandemic have shifted over time. An initial ambiguous position refrained from imposing hard lockdown restrictions measures and focused on local remedies. In the second year of the pandemic, and under new political leadership, this has given way to the promotion of a national vaccination programme. • Despite the absence of any significant hard lockdown measures in the country, Tanzania’s food producers, vendors and traders faced disrupted domestic food markets and were locked out of the regional market. As a result, these food-system actors incurred significant business losses during the two first waves of the pandemic. • Although food producers, vendors and traders play a central role in sustaining national food security their interests have not been properly considered in the development and implementation of official Covid-19 relief measures. • Women and youth constitute the majority of food system actors, including in the production and trade of food, and were thus disproportionately harmed by the disruption of the system. • The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of regional and international trade frameworks and the critical need for top-level diplomatic and political solutions to strengthen national and African food systems and the livelihoods of food system actors in Tanzania and the continent more broadly.IDR

PETTY TRADING IN MARKETPLACES: Space Generation, Use and Management at Temeke Stereo Marketplace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Petty trading is a prevailing socioeconomic activity serving a multitude of the low-income population in rapidly urbanising developing countries. Petty trading marketplaces thus, have an important role to play in urban development processes. However, knowledge on the spatial processes connected to generating and sustaining petty trading in the marketplaces is limited. Hence, this study aims at exploring processes of generation, use and management of petty trading spaces in order to establish preconditions for adequate spatial provision of petty trading marketplaces in the Tanzanian context. In this study, an understanding of evolution of marketplaces in the global perspective sets premises for conceptualising the marketplaces in Dar es Salaam, using the Institutional Theory and Social Capital Theory to illuminate the empirical findings. The case study research strategy is adopted whereby the Temeke Stereo Marketplace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is selected through a purposeful sampling. The findings of the study show that petty trading spaces are produced and reproduced in response to conceptions, actions and reactions of varying actors within prevailing social and institutional structures. Social norms and regulatory mechanisms coupled with traders’ hidden knowledge and skills are decisive factors in the fluid spatial reality in the marketplace. This phenomenon challenges the conventional practice in architecture and planning with regard to petty trading marketplaces. A combination of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches in developing adequate environments for petty trading is thus proposed

PETTY TRADING IN MARKETPLACES: Space Generation, Use and Management at Temeke Stereo Marketplace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Petty trading is a prevailing socioeconomic activity serving a multitude of the low-income population in rapidly urbanising developing countries. Petty trading marketplaces thus, have an important role to play in urban development processes. However, knowledge on the spatial processes connected to generating and sustaining petty trading in the marketplaces is limited. Hence, this study aims at exploring processes of generation, use and management of petty trading spaces in order to establish preconditions for adequate spatial provision of petty trading marketplaces in the Tanzanian context. In this study, an understanding of evolution of marketplaces in the global perspective sets premises for conceptualising the marketplaces in Dar es Salaam, using the Institutional Theory and Social Capital Theory to illuminate the empirical findings. The case study research strategy is adopted whereby the Temeke Stereo Marketplace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is selected through a purposeful sampling. The findings of the study show that petty trading spaces are produced and reproduced in response to conceptions, actions and reactions of varying actors within prevailing social and institutional structures. Social norms and regulatory mechanisms coupled with traders’ hidden knowledge and skills are decisive factors in the fluid spatial reality in the marketplace. This phenomenon challenges the conventional practice in architecture and planning with regard to petty trading marketplaces. A combination of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches in developing adequate environments for petty trading is thus proposed

Petty Trading Processes in Marketplaces in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Petty trading is a prevailing socioeconomic activity serving the multitude of low-income population in the rapidly urbanising developing countries. Marketplaces in which the growing petty trading activities take place have, therefore, important role to play in sustaining both urbanisation and urban development processes. However, there has been limited knowledge on the spatialisation processes, in especially operations and procedures that generate and sustain petty trading in the marketplaces. Subsequently, there has been inadequate planning and architectural design responses and options for the same. The aim of this paper is to present and analyse the spatial processes that surround the petty trading daily operations in marketplaces. Reference is made to Temeke Stereo Marketplace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where empirical studies were carried out using case study research methodology. The paper examines spatial processes from formal design of the marketplace to traders’ informal transformation or designation and appropriations of the spaces. The paper argues that petty trading spatial processes in marketplaces reflect the interplay between formal and informal structures and norms that are entrenched in context specific social and institutional settings. The petty trading spaces are constantly being produced and reproduced as a result of conceptions, actions, compromises and reactions of defined and legitimate power structures at the marketplaces. The paper finally attempts to position the roles of professionals such as architects and planners in guiding the provision of functioning environments for petty trading at the marketplaces