This paper examines effectiveness of groundwater governance structures and institutions in Mbarali District, Mbeya Region. The paper adopts exploratory sequential research design to collect quantitative and qualitative data. A random sample of 90 groundwater users with 50% women was involved in the survey. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare the differences in responses between groups, while qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The results show that the Village Councils and Community Water Supply Organizations (COWSOs) were effective in governing groundwater. The results also show statistical significant difference on the overall extent of effectiveness of the Village Councils in governing groundwater between villages (P = 0.0001), yet there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between male and female responses on the effectiveness of Village Councils, village water committees and COWSOs. The Mann-Whitney U test showed statistical significant difference between male and female responses on effectiveness of formal and informal institutions (P = 0.0001), such that informal institutions were effective relative to formal institutions. The Kruskal-Wallis H test also showed statistical significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) on the extent of effectiveness of formal institutions, norms and values between low, medium and high categories. The paper concludes that COWSOs were more effective in governing groundwater than other groundwater governance structures. Similarly, norms and values were more effective than formal institutions. The paper recommends sensitization and awareness creation on formal institutions so that they can influence water users' behaviour to govern groundwater.

Water governance is becoming imperative because of increasing water shortage for different uses in the world. However, the concept is not explored sufficiently in developing countries like Tanzania. This paper examines water governance in the lines of governance structures and institutions in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania. The paper adopted descriptive cross-sectional research design to make sense of the existing situation. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative methods. A sample size of 270 water users was involved in the survey. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Quantitative data were summarized using SPSS while qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The results showed presence of weak water governance structures and institutions that cannot influence water users' behaviour. The basin level was unable to control and monitor water quality because of lacking human resource and adequate funding. The formal and informal institutions were interlinked in their operations. However, village governments and village water committees were unable to resolve water conflicts because of being colluded by those who breached the rules. Therefore, concerted efforts are needed to build capacity of the governance structures to enforce institutions in governing water resource.

This paper examines land governance in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor in Rukwa andKatavi regions in Tanzania. The four districts involved include Sumbawanga, Kalambo, Nkasi and Mpanda. Land governance and the management of related conflicts were assessed in views of the roles of local government and the challenges posed by policy and legal frameworks. Using a sample size of 270 smallholder farmers, a household survey was used to collect quantitative data, while qualitative data were collected from 74 Focus Group Discussions' participants. The results confirmed the 'legal dualism' that embraces colonial policy and laws on land issues at local level despite the land reforms that have had taken place in Tanzania. In addition, land conflict was a common phenomenon. The results also show that the efforts of local governments, and other stakeholders, to manage land conflicts were hampered by serious challenges. The challenges include incapacitation of the local government with regard to legal issues, lack of education and unawareness of the policies and legal framework on the part of the citizenry. These resulted into ineffective implementation of informal and formal arrangements governing land issues. Ineffective land governance, in turn, stem from inadequate capacity to resolve land conflicts. This justifies poor land governance. To that effect, concerted efforts are needed to correct the situation.

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Since the 2000, Tanzania is striving to eliminate gender inequality in the education system. As such, the gender gap in enrolment is closing in primary education. Yet, gendered performance remains a challenge. Using data from Primary School Leaving Examination results for the period between 2007 and 2011, and from qualitative methods, this paper examined trends and factors for poor performance in Mathematics and Science subjects with a gender perspective. Two schools from rural and two from urban areas were involved in the study. The results did not show a clear trend in Mathematics performance in rural relative to urban schools, which showed a clear decreasing trend. On the other hand, performance in science was decreasing in rural schools and in one of the urban schools. There was also lower girls' performance in both subjects with some few unique cases. Secondly, the gender inequality was more prominent in rural relative to urban schools because of a number of overlapping factors including lack of female teachers role models and lack of an appropriate school environment for girls. Therefore, to tackle gender inequality in performance, rigorous efforts need to consider multiple, but interlocking factors with a gender lens, while considering rural-urban differences.