This article is a product of a study that deployed a qualitative research approach to examine what motivates students in Tanzania to undertake postgraduate studies, and the causes of late completion of such studies. A total of 47 participants were involved in this study through focused group discussions and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed five distinct reasons why postgraduate students enter a doctoral or master’s degree course: employment prospects, better salary, career progression or change, personal development, and prestige or self-actualization. Moreover, it was found that the determinants of late completion were both institutional and personal. Institutional factors included a non-supportive learning and research environment, cumbersome thesis and examination process, heavy supervisors’ workload, supervisors’ lack of motivation, and low entry qualifications by candidates. On the other hand, personal factors were poor educational background, social and financial problems, lack of good communication skills, research incompetence, low commitment, and partial study leave. The study concludes that efforts to improve the quality of postgraduate training should address the potential systemic, institutional and individual barriers. In the light of this, it is recommended that the institutional conditions and policies should be re-examined to ensure that supervisors and those they supervise are effectively facilitated in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities, so that postgraduate research produces good and timely quality results.

This paper presents the recent temperature and rainfall characteristics in Dodoma region, central Tanzania. The study used archival temperature and rainfall data for the past 53 years (1961 – 2013). Simple linear trend analysis and Mann-Kendall test were used to establish and test for rainfall and temperature trends through Microsoft Excel (2010) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20). Results for both minimum and maximum temperature indicate a significant increased trend (p=0.000, p=0.001) respectively at 0.05 significance level. Conversely, non-significant decreasing and increasing rainfall trends were noted for Bahi, Mpwapwa and Dodoma (p=0.532, p=0.473, p=0.629) respectively, at 0.05 significance level. Results further indicate that rainfall variability in the study area is influenced by local, regional and global variations. From the results, it is noted that temperature and rainfall have both significant and insignificant changes. It is recommended that the observed increased temperature and declined rainfall requires more adaptation strategies than usual to reduce adverse effects as climate variability is expected to further increase in the near future.

This study is an attempt to examine the patterns of sexual behaviours and the underlying factors among young people in East Africa aged between 10 and 24 years from four countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The study reviewed 60 relevant pieces of literature from electronic databases that have examined the objective understudy from different regions. Out of 60 studies reviewed, 31 had specific information from four selected countries in East Africa. The studies were published in English and peer-reviewed journals covering from 2010 through 2021. The current study followed a five-stage methodological framework and the reviewed studies were grouped according to the specific objectives of the current study. The findings that emerged from the review were classified into five main themes which are age at first sex, forms of sexual practices, number of sexual partners and condom use during pre-marital partnerships. The reviewed studies revealed that initiation of sexual debut among young people in East Africa occurs at younger and slightly different ages. Studies have depicted that young people in the region are involved in a wider range of sexual practices ranging from non-coital to coital. Moreover, the reviewed studies have also documented a high level of knowledge about condom availability with low and inconsistent use among adolescents in the region. Furthermore, the reviewed studies have depicted that many adolescents in these countries are engaging in multiple sexual partnerships. A multitude of factors has been reported to influence the prevalence of observed sexual behaviours among adolescents. The study concludes that young East African adolescents are engaging in risky sexual behaviours. Given their numerical strength and indeed the understanding that they are the future of the nations, it is recommended that countries in the region have to invest fully in their education and health by providing comprehensive sexual health education. This should be accompanied by supplying effective reproductive health services at their disposal. Failure on that, many young people in this region will continue to be predisposed to several sexual and reproductive health problems that would negatively shutter not only their dreams but also cripple the family well being and the nation’s development.

This study examined the vulnerability and responses of smallholder farmers to climate change effects in Semiarid Areas of Bahi and Kongwa Districts. A total of 366 household heads were involved in this study. The study employed questionnaire, interviews and documentary review as data collection techniques. Archival data for temperature, rainfall and crop yields were collected for trend analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data, content analysis was employed to analyse qualitative data. Simple linear trend analysis and Mann Kendall were used to establish trends. The findings indicate that smallholder farmers in the study area have noted reduced rainfall, increased temperature and reduced production as indicators of climate change. Results from archival data indicate insignificant decline of rainfall, significant increase of temperature and insignificant decline of crop yields at 5% significance level. As a response to these changes, smallholder farmers reported to use improved crop varieties, change planting dates, use intercropping, out-migrating and change land use practices. Several challenges were reported to hinder effective adaptation including inadequate capital, limited soft loans, limited weather information and deficient extension services.  It is concluded that the climate is changing in the study area calling for strengthening farmers’ adaptive capacity. Keywords: Adaptive strategies, climate change effects, challenges, semiarid area, Tanzania.