Projects

Wekeza Project

Funder: International Rescue Committee and United States Department of Labor
This two-fold effort includes identifying children and youth involved or at risk of child labor so that Wekeza can enlist them in a project designed to keep children in school rather than engaged in hazardous work. The second stage is to develop a baseline that provides greater insight on the causes of child labor and also to evaluate the project’s outcomes.

 

Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS Testing and Counseling and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education into Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Tanzania

Funder: USAID/PEPFAR
Dates: September 2009 to June 2011
Savannas Forever created a village-level comparative analysis based on household surveys (70 per village) on socioeconomics, knowledge, attitudes and practices of HIV/AIDS, food security and nutrition, anthropometric measures of children under five, natural resource use, family shocks, agricultural production and household demographics in 56 villages. SFTZ used these data to create an evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention education and testing program. The program covered villages in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Shinyanga, Singida, Mara, Dodoma and Mwanza regions of Tanzania. Qualitative methods included Participative Rural Assessments of institutional importance and effectiveness, women’s and men’s focus groups, farmer group discussion, and key informant interviews of teachers, health officers and village leaders.

HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Planning and Development in Wildlife Management Areas

Funder: African Wildlife Foundation
Dates: March-June 2011
Baseline survey in eight villages in Wildlife Management areas included interdisciplinary baseline household surveys covering the same disciplines as the USAID/PEPFAR baseline. Savannas Forever also surveyed over 500 youth to determine attitudes, behaviors, practices towards HIV/AIDS; and hopes, dreams, aspirations and role models. Savannas Forever utilized the information collected to conduct village-level strategic planning sessions, and provide African Wildlife Foundation with recommendations and next steps for designing and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention education programming in the target villages.

 

Behavioral Segmentation of Rural Youth for targeting HIV/AIDS communication program

Funder: African Wildlife Foundation and USAID
Dates: 2012.
Tanzania is home to over 100 tribal groupings, ranging from hunter-gatherers (Hadzabe), pastoralists (Maasai), agro-pastoralists (Sukuma) to agriculturalists (varying proportions of Bantu ethnicities). This diversity in culture, livelihood strategies, and language creates significant challenges in the design and implementation of effective behavior-change strategies. Although significant donor funding for youth-targeted HIV/AIDS training and education throughout Tanzania has contributed to a high level of HIV/AIDS awareness among youth, this awareness has not resulted in the behavioral changes required to stem the spread of the disease.

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and USAID commissioned Savannas Forever Tanzania (SFTZ) to conduct a psychographic study of rural youth to identify behavioral segments that AWF could use to design targeted messages more likely to reduce high-risk sexual behavior among youth and thereby reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS.¹

The study assessed youth 12- 24 years old in eight villages in or near Enduimet and Burunge Wildlife Management Area (WMA).

The study objectives were:

  1. To develop behavioral segmentation and/or accurate profiles of rural village youth based on motivations, aspirations, role models, lifestyle choices, and personal preferences;
  2. To provide AWF with baseline data for high-risk youth in the targeted villages; and
  3. To recommend strategies for incorporating findings into village-level strategic plans for youth HIV/AIDS prevention education.

The survey findings reveal significant demographic variations in youth among villages and identify four psychographic youth segments based on attitudes, behaviors, activities, and aspirations. The psychographic youth segments are: Entrepreneurs, Socialites, Traditionalists, and Disenfranchised Moderns. The names of the segments reflect the pattern or theme of the answers given by youth within the group.

Entrepreneurs are more likely to be male, slightly older, and less educated than the other youth segments. They are ready to settle down, marry, have children and open a business. They aspire to do well financially, value external appearances and want to be known for their bravery and athleticism and for being the best hunter, farmer or livestock keeper. Entrepreneurs are much less social: they work independently and do not participate in religious services or informal sports;. They place high value on being leaders, good friends and loyal.

Socialites skew slightly younger and are more likely to be male. Like Entrepreneurs, Socialites have high aspirations and value outward appearances and physical prowess. They are differentiated from the other groups primarily through their frequent engagement in social activities and in their interest in further education. As their name implies, Socialites join friends in informal sports, church, choir, studying, walking, talking, and work activities. They are better educated than the Entrepreneurs and Traditionalists: over 40% have attended secondary school. However, if Socialites had money to spend, they would invest in practical goods like food and clothing rather than education.

Traditionalists are similar in age to Entrepreneurs. Although the majority is female (57%), there are enough males to preclude this segment from solely being due to gender.  These youth mention no aspirations for the future and are not likely to belong to a formal group. They generally have very little education and lack interest in further education or in any particular livelihood activity. They have rarely traveled outside their village and rarely participate in social activities. The least important characteristics to them are being a leader, a good friend, or loyal), physical prowess, and education. They also are most likely to spend money on essential items.

Disenfranchised Moderns tend to be slightly younger and over 70% female. Like Traditionalists, Disenfranchised Moderns have low aspirations. They do not want to be farmers or pastoralists or to get married and settle down, perhaps reflecting the relative youth of this segment.  Although they do not list education as a goal, they are the most likely to say that they would invest in education, perhaps seeing education as a way to a new life outside the village. Like Socialites, they attend church, play sports, and study and participate in other activities with their friends

¹Psychographic research originated as a consumer-marketing tool used to identify behavior and values-based segments that can be targeted to try or buy a new product.  Once segments are identified, they can be reached with messages that have been tailored to appeal to each segment’s values, behaviors, and decision-making processes and delivered through the specific media that each segment is exposed to most often. Although a commonly used technique in Western countries, psychographic segmentation has not been previously used in rural Tanzania.

See also Whole Village Project