The performance of the manufacturing sector in Tanzania: Challenges and the way forward

Tanzania's industrial sector has evolved through various stages since independence in 1961, from nascent and undiversified to state-led import substitution industrialization, and subsequently to de-industrialization under the structural adjustment programmes and policy reforms. The current development agenda, however, has brought industrial development back to be one of the policy priorities. This paper aims at examining the performance of the manufacturing sector, with particular interest in identifying the emerging manufacturing subsectors, drivers of their success, and challenges for sustained competitiveness. The paper shows that manufacturing growth over the last ten years has helped to sustain GDP growth. The growth in manufacturing notwithstanding, it remains largely undiversified, and vulnerable to variations in agricultural production and commodity prices. The most dynamic subsectors in terms of output growth, export growth, production innovation and product diversity are food products, plastic and rubber, chemicals, basic metal work, and non-metallic mineral products. Nevertheless, the domestic value addition is limited by the dependence of imported intermediate goods, signifying limited inter-industry linkages that are important for promoting domestic manufacturing base and employment. Various technological, financial, policy, and administrative constraints remain unresolved and therefore, limiting faster industrial growth and transformation

Manufacturing for Cancer Care in East Africa: Raising the Ambition

This chapter starts with the paradox of unmet need for cancer supplies in Kenya and Tanzania alongside low yet unmet market demand. An apparent lack of ambition is evidenced within the local industrial/innovation system, including manufacturers, entrepreneurs, regulators and policy makers. Pharmaceutical firms were failing to upgrade, expand product ranges and develop new markets, though that was starting to change before 2020. The chapter identifies market disorganisation and fragmentation as a key constraint on generating more sustainable investment and innovation to improve cancer-related manufacturing and finds scope for institutional change to link industrial incentives to health needs

Oncology Drug Production in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Challenge and Opportunity, with Evidence from India

This chapter focuses on the scope for local production in East Africa of essential oncology medication, drawing on evidence of local clinical need; on Indian data on markets for generic oncology medication; and on industrial and regulatory experience. Import-dependence in oncology is almost complete across Sub-Saharan Africa, while India is a key exporter. The chapter documents competition failures in generic oncology markets and demonstrates the huge affordability impact of effective procurement of these medicines within India. Challenges for local oncology manufacturing are identified. The chapter argues that active health-industrial research linkages can build a local African oncology industry

Upgrading under globalization in health-related industries in Tanzania: the case for dynamic industrial deepening

Globalization of markets and production networks has made it progressively harder for low income countries to industrialize. This article addresses a conundrum facing industrial firms and industrial policy in a low-income African country: how to achieve upgrading necessary for sustained competitiveness. Using data from a study of manufacturers of health products in Tanzania, we document the double ‘squeeze’ on firms’ profits exerted by sharp price competition alongside competitive pressure for rising product quality within globalized markets. Drawing on Sutton’s model of competing on capabilities, and the sectoral systems of innovation and production framework, we argue that ‘dynamic industrial deepening’, strengthening domestic inter-firm linkages, is a key requirement for sustainable development of these health industries. We present evidence that sectoral industrial support for the health industries can promote sustainable technological upgrading, and reflect on the challenge of building developmental linkages where external investment to support upgrading is transforming existing business structures

Health-industry linkages for local health: reframing policies for African health system strengthening

The benefits of local production of pharmaceuticals in Africa for local access to medicines and to effective treatment remain contested. There is scepticism among health systems experts internationally that production of pharmaceuticals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can provide competitive prices, quality and reliability of supply. Meanwhile low-income African populations continue to suffer poor access to a broad range of medicines, despite major international funding efforts. A current wave of pharmaceutical industry investment in SSA is associated with active African government promotion of pharmaceuticals as a key sector in industrialization strategies. We present evidence from interviews in 2013–15 and 2017 in East Africa that health system actors perceive these investments in local production as an opportunity to improve access to medicines and supplies. We then identify key policies that can ensure that local health systems benefit from the investments. We argue for a ‘local health’ policy perspective, framed by concepts of proximity and positionality, which works with local priorities and distinct policy time scales and identifies scope for incentive alignment to generate mutually beneficial health–industry linkages and strengthening of both sectors. We argue that this local health perspective represents a distinctive shift in policy framing: it is not necessarily in conflict with ‘global health’ frameworks but poses a challenge to some of its underlying assumptions

Strategic issues in economic development: an African perspective

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 8

Industrial development in Tanzania : some critical issues

This study deals with some aspects of industrial development in Tanzania in the two last decades which the authors consider to be especially important. They adress mainly three groups of issues. First, choice and transfer of technology, technology policy, and the problems and implications of economies of scale. Second, the effects of foreign aid on industrial development in Tanzania. And third, the role of agriculture in industrial development. There is also a historical analysis of industrial development since independence and a critical assessment of the basic industry strategy (BIS) which was adopted as Tanzania's official industrialization strategy in 1975.Contents: PART 1: Historical background and strategies -- 1. Historical analysis of industrial development in Tanzania since independence -- 2. The basic industry strategy: presentation and interpretation -- PART 2: The basic industry strategy: problems and limitations -- 3. Choice of technology, transfer of technology and technology policy -- 4. Problems of economics of scale in industrial development -- 5. On the issue of linkages and sequencing in the basic industries strategy -- PART 3: Development through foreign aid or through internal mechanisms? -- 6. Foreign aid and economic growth in the 1970s with special reference to the manufacturing sector -- 7. The role of agriculture in industrial development -- 8. Summary and conclusions </p

Labour and poverty in rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and rural development in the United Republic of Tanzania

Assesses Tanzania's experience in rural development. Analysis is based on the results of the household and village survey conducted by the International Labour Office and the Department of Economics at Dar es Salaam University in 1980, covering a randomly chosen sample of 600 households in 20 villages in 8 regions. Begins with a review of rural development issues and policies and identifies and measures inequality, showing its extent both within and among villages. Describes the household and village surveys, presents a profile of the village household and the village community, and discusses peasant differentiation. Investigates the impact of government programs such as cooperative farms, land reform, education, and health services. Concludes that reform of the agrarian economy is the key to coping with the present development problems. Collier is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University; Radwan is Senior Economist with the International Labour Organization's World Employment Programme; and Wangwe is Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Index