School committees hold a central role in decision making on various issues about the development and delivery of primary education, including the monitoring of school projects. This study examined the participation of school committees in monitoring primary school projects in selected schools in Nyang’hwale District in the Geita Region. Specifically, the study determined the extent of school committee members’ participation in monitoring school projects and examined factors influencing the school committee’s participation in monitoring primary school projects. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 17 primary schools and 136 school committee members and key informants involved in the study. Data were collected through structured interviews using a structured questionnaire, key informant interviews and documentary review, and were analyzed for descriptive statistics, chi-square test and binary logistic regression. Results showed that most of the school committee members participated in project identification and planning, but less in budgeting activities. The main factors that influenced the participation of school committees were their perceived ability to speak up in meetings, their willingness to participate and their source of information. It was concluded that school committees’ participation in monitoring school projects was limited and constrained by gender imbalance. Thus, there is a need for capacity building for school committees to enhance their capacity for their roles and responsibilities.

This study investigated the relationship between utilization of social media and performance of SMEs in Dodoma City, Tanzania. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of effect of social media on SMEs performance, and the relationship between social media use and innovation and branding in SMEs. Data were collected from 336 systematic randomly selected SMEs using a structured questionnaire. Data analysis involved the use bivariate correlation analysis, structural equation model and confirmatory factory analysis. It was found that use of social media has significant effect on SMEs performance as it contributes to cost effectiveness, customer satisfaction and market performances. Similarly, use of social media also positively affects innovation and branding of SMEs. Thus, SMEs should be encouraged to fully exploit and use various available and affordable social media networks for marketing and networking purposes to rapidly increase performance and their growth.

Most developing countries worldwide are striving to provide universal access to quality and affordable health care services. In turn, health insurance has been promoted as one of the ways to ensure universal coverage and financial protection. This study analyzed households' ability to afford health insurance packages in Tanzania. The study used the recent 2017/18 Household Budget Survey income data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics and premiums for health insurance packages provided by the National Health Insurance Fund. Households were categorized into four quartiles based on their income, ranging from households with the lowest income to those with the highest income. The study adopted the SDGs indicator 3.8.2 which suggests that health spending should not go beyond 10% percent of household income as the threshold to examine household ability to afford the insurance packages. It was found that most of the households with low to moderate incomes, which account for three quarters of all households, are required to spend more than the recommended 10% threshold of their incomes in purchasing health insurance packages. This is unlikely to be affordable, thus, subjecting them to catastrophic health spending. Although most of the households in the fourth quartile spend less than 10% of their incomes on insurance packages, this is a relatively small group accounting for only 25% of the households. Thus, health insurance coverage is likely to remain low, especially among poor households. It is recommended that the government should provide subsidies to health insurance schemes in order to extend coverage to the poor who cannot afford health insurance packages to enhance financial protection and health coverage.

The private sector is a key development partner, thus, its participation in government development planning and budgeting processes is crucial. This study investigated private sector participation in planning and budgeting processes in local government authorities in Makete and Njombe District Councils in Njombe Region. The specific objectives of the study were to examine spaces for private sector participation, and establish factors influencing private sector participation in LGAs’ development planning and budgeting processes. The study involved 40 purposively selected private sector organizations’ officials and 15 LGAs officials. Data were collected through structured interviews, key informant interviews and documentary reviews. The descriptive analysis technique was used for data analysis. Qualitative data were analysed for qualitative content analysis. The study found that the main spaces for private sector participation in LGA’s planning and budgeting processes were the submission of annual plans and budgets to LGAs, attending LGAs’ annual planning and budgeting meetings, and inviting LGAs officials to attend private sector planning and budgeting processes. The main factors influencing the private sector’s participation in LGAs planning and budgeting processes were: the policies of the private organisations, the need for transparency and accountability, the need for government support, the organization’s scope of operation and fora for lobbying and advocacy. It was concluded that the existing mechanisms were generally ‘closed’ or ‘invited’ spaces, which offered limited participation space for the private sector. Thus, there is a need for the government to widen participation spaces for the public sector, including by putting in place clear modalities for involving the private sector in LGA’s development planning and budgeting processes.