Analysis of Tanzania’s Digitalization Policy Landscape

The aim was to look at the policies and programs central to Tanzania's digitalization journey, including the analysis of broader geopolitics of technology governance within the country, focusing mainly on the mainland. Specifically, through analyzing policies, programs and stakeholders active in the digital landscape, the work endeavored to understand why certain decisions and investments have been made. This was gauged against the 9 principles of digital governance, especially that of users’ needs and demand for social and economic development – accompanied by 8 remaining, i.e., open standards, open source, open markets, open government, connectivity, digital skills, and confidence, assisted digital and commitment to share and learn. The project sought deviations from key principles, including power dynamics between different groups. It also mapped the external partners such as funders and foreign direct investments and their role in keeping the principles or deviations from them. All these were gauged against policy design and implementation. The results enabled us to point out areas that need further interventions and where different stakeholders can chip in to strengthen the overall ecosystem so that everybody can be included especially the underserved part of the population.

We conducted a literature review, including ex-ante policy analysis, reviews of existing programs, and projects, and analysis of the activities of the actors in the digital innovation ecosystem. The knowledge gaps were addressed through primary data collection, largely raised and answered related research questions, especially focused on broader project themes such as ideologies and values, international engagement, ownership and financing of infrastructure, and systems dynamics.