Browsing by Author "Mbirigenda, Shukrani"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Community Development through Corporate Social Responsibility: Some Issues from Selected Companies in Tanzania
    (2015) Mbirigenda, Shukrani; Msoka, Colman T.
    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is said to be of mutual benefit for both corporations and the local communities. However, local communities in Tanzania are either reluctant to cooperate or outright reject CSR programs. This study interrogated the CSR management systems that are in place in Tanzania to see whether they provide opportunities for the development of local communities or challenge it, and if these management systems have relationship to reception or rejection of the CSR projects. The study was purely qualitative, that used interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and observations to understand the relationship between firms and communities, how the two relate and co-exist and how that relationship could be improved by CSR. The study found that, among other things, there are no common CSR management systems put in place by companies in Tanzania, there is no common definition of CSR, and communities are involved only at the later stage of implementation and not in the initial decision making of CSR formulation process. The study also revealed that CSR offers an opportunity to be used for community development but it also partly tends to make local communities dependent on the corporations. The study thus concluded that there is a clear link between lack of community involvement and CSR project acceptance or rejection by local communities. The study thus recommends the following: companies should share power to define CSR, as CSR offers opportunity for community development if communities are involved; there should be state mechanism to regulate funds used on CSR by companies and consider this fund as cost rather than profit; effort should be made to avoid CSR dependence for community development by Local Government Authority (LGA) collecting taxes instead of waiting on the good will of the companies in their areas. Lastly the study recommends that countries such as those of SADEC or EAC should come together to form CSR policies so as to have common definition and also gain power to enforce regulations on companies.
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    Corporate Social Responsibility in Tanzania: Experience of Misconception, Misuse and Malpractices
    (2015) Mbirigenda, Shukrani
    Corporations enormously influence our lives in a myriad of ways. Corporations especially embark on organising tasks in our economic life (Lindblom and Woodhouse 1993), and their role in society has always been a battleground of political debate and ideological affectation. As Chatterji (2011: 13) said “when selfish means of earning profit is practised by the business world, then society becomes the victim of domination, exploitation and oppression.” Despite our multicultural world, there are certain values that are universally upheld and are acceptable as such; these are collectively known as ‘human rights’. In such a cross-cultural world of business, issues have to be prioritised, keeping always the aspects of human compassion and justice at the forefront. Thus, every age in history has tried to find the symbiotic relationship between the economic man and the social man (Chatterji 2011). Today, one of the prominent attempts of dealing with this dilemma is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
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    Education for Self and National Reliance: The Challenge of Access, Equity and Quality in Private Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania
    (ST. MARY'S UNIVERSITY, 2015) Mbirigenda, Shukrani
    Quality education is an important factor for a nation to make a leap forward in globalization. For sometimes in Tanzania, education has been a right of every citizen, but now is a commodity to be bought by those who can afford it. The introduction of Private Higher Education (PHE) institutions has brought back what the Arusha Declaration tried to avoid in Tanzania; the challenge of access, quality and equity. PHE institutions in the era of liberalization have made education a product for sale without care for access, equity and quality. Owing to the poverty of the general population, though PHE institutions in Tanzania outnumber public ones by far, they enrol only 21.5 % of the total number of students in a year. This paper looks at the history of education in Tanzania from colonial time, independence time (with Arusha declaration as a landmark) which introduced education for self and national reliance to the present time of quasi-capitalism. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of higher education during the time of Ujamaa vis a vis present time of mushrooming of PHE institutions focusing on access, quality and equity. The paper uses different documents, books, journal papers and conference papers to analyse higher education in Tanzania.
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    The Pharmaceutical Industry and Access to Essential Medicines in Tanzania
    (2010-07) Mhamba, Robert M.; Mbirigenda, Shukrani
    This paper outlines the flows of private capital that lie behind the growth of the for-profit pharmaceutical sector in Tanzania, and analyses the policy, access and equity challenges posed by the shift to increasing private sector participation in medicine provision. The study was implemented within the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET) by the Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, in a regional programme co-ordinated by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, South Africa.