Governments, development partners (DPs), and implementers spend millions of dollars every year collecting data on results. The post-2015 development agenda calls for more results indicators and larger investments in data. At this inflection point, we examine a critical question: how do we make these investments most effective?
Development Gateway (DG), with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is studying how results data are collected, shared, and used across the health and agriculture sectors in three countries: Ghana, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka. This report synthesizes our findings from mainland Tanzania.
Purpose
We aim to shed new light, both locally and internationally, on how results data is collected, shared, and used. We also seek to understand what can be done to improve the quality and use of results data in Tanzania, at the national and local levels. Our study explores results data primarily from the government perspective, while incorporating valuable views from DPs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
We recognize that the Government of Tanzania (GoT) and its DPs are actively engaged in improving the use of data for decision-making in both health and agriculture. Rapid scale-up of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria responses—with the support of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund), and others—have brought technical and financial resources to bear on health data issues.
Similarly, GoT’s Agricultural Sector Development Programme II2 (ASDP II) has recognized the “weak agricultural statistical system” and an Agricultural Statistical Strategy Plan (ASSP) is being implemented. The importance of accurate agriculture results data for Tanzania has recently been reinforced by GoT. Concerns about agricultural productivity and resource management remain at the forefront of public thinking:
The point is for political leaders and the rest of the populace to come up with a new way of managing agriculture and we should change the matrix of development
Our report seeks to add value to Tanzania’s efforts to improve results-based management by highlighting, in particular, the perspectives and needs of district level managers in health and agriculture when it comes to collecting, sharing, and using data on results.
We hope these insights inform future investments in results-based management in Tanzania, as well as influence international efforts to promote the role of data and results in making development efforts more effective.
