The paradox of Tanzania social progress index

Tanzania’s GDP has grown significantly over the last 11 years, improving prospects for development across the country. Yet despite these strides, this economic growth is not being seen as successfully converted into quality of life improvements as it could be.

And this is a concern for all Tanzanians. According to the Social Progress Imperative (SPI), a nonprofit organisation focused on advancing human wellbeing, economic growth without social progress can result in a lack of inclusion, discontent and social unrest in the country.

At Deloitte we have always believed that business and society are inextricably linked. For business to thrive, it needs to operate in a sustainable and prosperous society and for society to move forward, it needs the products, services and wealth that business creates. Progress in one invariably drives progress in the other.

Therefore, Deloitte has partnered with SPI, who have developed an index that measures the social progress of a country directly, independent of economic development.

Quality of lives

The Imperative defines Social Progress as “the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.”

The Index is providing a view of a country’s social and environmental strengths and weaknesses on the issues that matter most to its citizens.

Through the Index, SPI is opening up the global debate on how to really measure progress. As limiting a country’s measure of development and competitiveness to just economic indicators creates an incomplete picture. The Social Progress Index provides an important tool to guide investment decisions and measure social development progress over time. It allows government to better target investment incentives and policies creating economic growth sectors that will contribute to building a stronger society.

Economic development

Key findings from the Index highlight that economic development alone is not sufficient to explain social progress outcomes. GDP per capita is an incomplete measure of a country’s overall performance as there is a non-linear relationship between Social Progress Index scores and GDP per capita. For example, a resource rich country like Angola is listed as one of the worst performers on the social progress index; whereas an economically poor country like Rwanda achieves modest levels of social progress and performs far better than peers with similar resource constraints.

When we apply the findings from the Social Progress Index to further analyse the rapid spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the pattern that is most prominent in the three countries that have suffered most (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) compared to other countries, are low scores on Shelter, Access to Basic Knowledge and Access to Information and Communications. Challenges in these areas can directly affect efforts of health officials to isolate those with the illness and hamper the spread of information on preventing infection, as well as signaling a general lack of infrastructure.

The 2015 Index reveals that although Tanzania is leading the EAC with respect to providing opportunity for its domestic citizens, the country is struggling to provide the basic human needs for the Tanzanian population compared to its East African peers.

Meeting dietary requirements

According to the UN, approximately one-third of the Tanzania population is still not receiving enough food to meet their dietary energy requirements. Additionally, only 44 per cent of the rural population has access to a safe water source which is a key building block for transforming the lives of poor and marginalised Tanzanians.

These are not easy fixes and thus we see that sometimes government cannot work alone – it must embrace collaboration with other sectors to solve tough challenges.

This is the thinking of Deloitte’s Paul Macmillan and Bill Eggers in their book Solution Revolution. They write that we are already witnessing a step change in how society deals with its own problems – a shift from a government-dominated model to one in which government is just one player among many. The following ‘solutions’ to the challenges highlighted by the Social Progress Index clearly demonstrate this new collaboration model.

Public-private partnership: The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) PPP is an excellent example of how the government of Tanzania, the private sector and international companies have come together to increase agricultural investment and improve agricultural productivity while fostering inclusive growth for small-scale farmers and increasing food security.

Civil society engagement: Catholic Relief Services (CRS), as part of the UKAid-funded Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) programme is piloting the implementation of a revolutionary system in Arusha to improve operational revenue collection for water facilities directly at the point of system, through pre-paid mobile money platforms.

Nensi is an associate director at Deloitte Consulting Limited. The views expressed are hers and not necessarily of the firm. E-mail: [email protected]