Promoting inclusivity in Tanzania’s dairy sectors

While women constitute 70 percent of the dairy sector labor force in East Africa, women's participation in other parts of the value chain is limited at best, with most benefits directed towards men. Women have difficulties accessing finance and business services to grow their small businesses and are oftentimes neglected by extension and input service providers. Youth experience high unemployment rates, and the educational and financial infrastructure to support social entrepreneurship is limited. Small businesses particularly struggle to access low-income customers and smallholder farmers with efficient marketing, collection, and distribution mechanisms. Dairy Nourishes Africa - Building Inclusive Livelihoods through Dairy (DNA-BILD), funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), is transforming Tanzania's dairy industry by creating vibrant ecosystems of farmer-allied and environmentally sustainable enterprises that improve nutrition, enhance livelihoods, and stimulate inclusive economic growth. DNA-BILD expands upon early successes of a pilot program and is intentionally designed to complement and leverage DNA's participation in the Tanzania Inclusive Processor-Producer Partnerships in Dairy (TI3P) project by extending DNA's impact to reach resource-poor, opportunity-constrained stakeholders across the dairy value chain that would otherwise not be engaged by TI3P, particularly women and youth, to enable inclusive, climate-smart economic development in the dairy sector.