Sanitation remains one of the Sustainable Development Goals, with slow progress. Tanzania has been implementing the National Sanitation Campaign through a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach since 2012. Njombe District Council (DC) has been identified to be among the best performing councils in the implementation of the sanitation campaign. A qualitative study was conducted to document how the CLTS was carried out in Njombe DC, assess progress on CLTS implementation and define the success factors for CLTS implementation. Findings show that CLTS intervention has resulted in increased coverage of improved latrines at a household level from 7.5% before the intervention in 2011 to 99.8% in September 2018. In addition, households with functional hand washing facilities have increased from 5.1% before the intervention to 94% in September 2018. Involvement of political leaders and government officials from the council level to the lowest governmental unit offered important support for CLTS implementation. The best mix of sanitation education, regulation and enforcement was instrumental in raising community awareness, changing collective behavior, making people comply with the village sanitation laws, and the overall success in the sanitation campaign.

This study examines the impact of clean energy technologies on environmental sustainability in 29 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries while controlling for income, industrialization and trade from 2002 to 2018. We used the generalized quantile regression,which controls variable endogeneity using lagged instruments. In addition, Bayesian panel regression was used for robustness checks. We used the load capacity factor (LCF) as a broad measure of environmental sustainability that captures both nature's supply and man's demand for the environment. The findings show that clean energy technologies (clean fuels and renewable energy), have positive and statistically significant effects on environmental sustainability for nearly all quantiles in SSA. The findings are still the same after verifying the robustness analysis, showing that the coefficients for clean fuels and renewable energy technologies in quantile regression are within the Bayesian probability credible intervals and all have positive impacts on ensuring environmental sustainability in SSA. Furthermore, the results show that economic growth (income) has asymmetric (both negative and positive) effects on environmental sustainability across different quantile, confirming the Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypothesis in SSA while accounting for clean energy technologies in the model. The findings further indicate that industrialization and trade have heterogeneous impacts on environmental sustainability. Overall, our findings imply that clean energy technologies improve environmental sustainability in SSA. Our main recommendation to policymakers is that sub-Saharan Africa needs to reduce the cost of energy services (i.e., renewable energy and clean fuels for cooking) in order to achieve greater environmental sustainability.

Mobile Phone Technology is increasingly becoming a powerful method of interpersonal communication. This paper documents smallholder rice farmers’ perception of the usefulness of this technology in communicating agricultural production and market information. Data were collected from 282 smallholder farmers selected randomly from rice farmers in Bahi District, Tanzania. The findings revealed that 97.2% of the sampled smallholder farmers owned the phone for more than three years. All phones were able to perform the basic function of sending and receiving short messages and making and receiving calls, with very few (18.8%) capable of accessing the internet. 48% and 78% of the respondents perceived the network coverage and costs of buying and running the technology respectively as moderate, whilst 54.3% perceived the technology as useful in communicating agricultural production and market information. However, only less than 36% of the respondents confirmed to have used the technology to communicate agricultural production and market information, with very few (3.2%) communicating with extension officers. It is recommended that intervention intended to improve farming through mobile phone technology should be configured around the basic functions of mobile phones. More so, extension officers should increase the use of mobile phone technology in advising farmers through automated short message services or a stationed officer on calls.

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This study examines the impact of clean energy technologies on environmental sustainability in 29 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries while controlling for income, industrialization and trade from 2002 to 2018. We used the generalized quantile regression,which controls variable endogeneity using lagged instruments. In addition, Bayesian panel regression was used for robustness checks. We used the load capacity factor (LCF) as a broad measure of environmental sustainability that captures both nature's supply and man's demand for the environment. The ndings show that clean energy technologies (clean fuels and renewable energy), have positive and statistically signi cant effects on environmental sustainability for nearly all quantiles in SSA. The ndings are still the same after verifying the robustness analysis, showing that the coe cients for clean fuels and renewable energy technologies in quantile regression are within the Bayesian probability credible intervals and all have positive impacts on ensuring environmental sustainability in SSA. Furthermore, the results show that economic growth (income) has asymmetric (both negative and positive) effects on environmental sustainability across different quantile, con rming the Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypothesis in SSA while accounting for clean energy technologies in the model. The ndings further indicate that industrialization and trade have heterogeneous impacts on environmental sustainability. Overall, our ndings imply that clean energy technologies improve environmental sustainability in SSA. Our main recommendation to policymakers is that sub-Saharan Africa needs to reduce the cost of energy services (i.e., renewable energy and clean fuels for cooking) in order to achieve greater environmental sustainability.2.1 Empirical literature review