Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities School of Social Sciences Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, August 2017 / This study engages with recent works on entrepreneurship and microfinance in the developing world as it seeks to understand youths’ interactions with microfinance initiatives in a specific African context. Using the case of urban Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, I apply the theory of value to question the notion that ‘entrepreneurship’ can be separated from other aspects of cultural and social lives in the community. By providing business grants and entrepreneurship training, microfinance institutions assume that youth from poor backgrounds will also be able to start their own business, sustain it and succeed financially. However, this relationship is not well established and need to be further explored empirically and ethnographically. Through ethnographic observation of three material sites, namely family, market, and the project that provided a business grant to 52 secondary school graduates, I look at how youth, as potential entrepreneurs in the context of limited access to formal education and employment in urban areas, make choices on the use of money in relation to entrepreneurship investments, daily livelihoods, and future plans. The general framework that informs youth entrepreneurship programs posits that the lack of capital, skills, business knowledge and poor policy framework explains, to a larger extent, why business ventures are not successful among youth living in poverty. However, this research indicates that family dynamics, youth aspirations, belief systems, and nature of interventions programs are factors that influence youth engagements with entrepreneurship and the outcome of their business ventures. / XL2018

The objective of the study was to explore and to describe the extent to which the SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme had empowered participating women microentrepreneurs in the food-processing sector in Tanzania. The research question was: To what extent have SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme-supported women microentrepreneurs in the food-processing sector been empowered? The justification for the study was that most studies on women's empowerment have been on micro credit-based microenterprises and almost none on entrepreneurship-based ones. Furthermore, there is a very scanty coverage of Africa in women's empowerment research. Theoretical perspectives in gender and gender relations in accordance with the feminist empowerment paradigm as it is influenced by the international women's movement and empowerment guided the study. The study used a cross-sectional and causal-comparative research design. The sample comprised 78 women microentrepreneurs: 39 programme-supported and 39 others constituted a control group. Participation in the SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme was the independent variable. Women's empowerment was the outcome of interest with the following indicators as dependent variables: freedom to use own income; contribution to household income; ownership of assets; involvement in business associations; participation in trade fairs; freedom of movement and awareness of injustice. Measurement of women's empowerment was on three dimensions: economic, socio-cultural and psychological in two arenas: individual/household and community. Qualitative and quantitative primary data were collected using in-depth interviews and questionnaires. A constant comparative approach in qualitative data analysis and discussion was adopted. At first level of quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistical procedures involving cross tabulations and frequency distributions were used.Then chi-square tests and bivariate correlation analysis were performed. The findings indicated that WED Programme-supported women had become empowered in almost all indicators. However, they lacked control over their assets like their counterparts in the control group. The findings on women's freedom of movement show that it is an area where traditional ideologies, as structural factors, are resistant to changes normally influenced by women's income. The majority of interviewees from both categories were of the view that husbands and wives should have equal say in decision making and division of labour between husbands and wives should also be equal. / Development Studies / D. Litt et Phil. (Development Studies)

The objective of the study was to explore and to describe the extent to which the SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme had empowered participating women microentrepreneurs in the food-processing sector in Tanzania. The research question was: To what extent have SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme-supported women microentrepreneurs in the food-processing sector been empowered? The justification for the study was that most studies on women's empowerment have been on micro credit-based microenterprises and almost none on entrepreneurship-based ones. Furthermore, there is a very scanty coverage of Africa in women's empowerment research. Theoretical perspectives in gender and gender relations in accordance with the feminist empowerment paradigm as it is influenced by the international women's movement and empowerment guided the study. The study used a cross-sectional and causal-comparative research design. The sample comprised 78 women microentrepreneurs: 39 programme-supported and 39 others constituted a control group. Participation in the SIDO/UNIDO WED Programme was the independent variable. Women's empowerment was the outcome of interest with the following indicators as dependent variables: freedom to use own income; contribution to household income; ownership of assets; involvement in business associations; participation in trade fairs; freedom of movement and awareness of injustice. Measurement of women's empowerment was on three dimensions: economic, socio-cultural and psychological in two arenas: individual/household and community. Qualitative and quantitative primary data were collected using in-depth interviews and questionnaires. A constant comparative approach in qualitative data analysis and discussion was adopted. At first level of quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistical procedures involving cross tabulations and frequency distributions were used.Then chi-square tests and bivariate correlation analysis were performed. The findings indicated that WED Programme-supported women had become empowered in almost all indicators. However, they lacked control over their assets like their counterparts in the control group. The findings on women's freedom of movement show that it is an area where traditional ideologies, as structural factors, are resistant to changes normally influenced by women's income. The majority of interviewees from both categories were of the view that husbands and wives should have equal say in decision making and division of labour between husbands and wives should also be equal. / Development Studies / D. Litt et Phil. (Development Studies)