Traditional agricultural extension services intended to serve agro-pastoralists in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa at large have failed to make significant impacts, due partly to the lack of knowledge-sharing practices to disseminate timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information. A key problem has been inadequate access to information due to weak linkages and interactions between agricultural and livestock research institutions; including, the lack of knowledge and information articulating best practices; and deficiency of relevant research information presented in easy to understand ways and localized to the needs of agro-pastoralists. However, in recent years, there has been growing attention devoted to the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture and livestock-keeping development. The growing ubiquity of mobile phones presents an excellent opportunity to put timely agricultural and livestock-keeping information into the hands of agro-pastoralists through direct linkages with the telecentres services in rural areas. The evidence has linked ICTs to an increase in gross domestic product; it has prompted dedication to the research of the socio-economic benefits and policy implications of ICTs consumption in Africa. Consisting of field case studies and implementation frameworks for telecentres, this paper provides a Tanzanian rural perspective and understanding of the developments in ICTs services for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood. Therefore, the field results indicates that, the extent of the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists in terms of ICTs access as a learning tool shows that more than half, 43.7% (178) and 23.6% (96) out of 407 respondents were interacting; whereby agro-pastoralists access the services provided by the telecentres to improve agro-pastoral livelihood. We conclude that the interaction between the telecentre services and agro-pastoralists has to be transformed; since the potential of ICTs services in rural areas as yet remains untapped and urgent measures are required to derive maximum benefits for sustainable agro-pastoral livelihood.

<p>The main focus of this study was to establish the economic impacts of a single tourism business operated in a rural area on a regional economy in Africa. This paper presents a case study of the regional multiplier effects of Singita Grumeti Reserves’ (SGR) tourism investment in the Mara region, Tanzania. The recursive Keynesian multiplier approach was used to identify significant economic multiplier effects larger than any other multiplier effects we could find published for relevant, comparable studies (Type 1 average 1.57 from 2008-2013, range 1.24 – 1.81). This result was contrary to economic theory that predicts the multiplier effect in this case should be low given the small area of investment in comparison to the much larger regional economy. In addition, these results represent underestimates, as the multiplier effects established in this study did not factor in substantial positive environmental and socio economic impacts accrued from SGR’s non-profit partner organization, the Grumeti Fund. Consequently, our study findings present compelling evidence that SGR tourism investments, when combined with the Grumeti Fund’s conservation and community development activities, demonstrate a pro-poor economic approach of substantial benefit to the Tanzanian economy. This was possible because the investment made by one private company is relatively substantial in comparison to the limited government services provided to the Mara Region, where nearly half of the 1.7 million people in this region remain in the poverty trap. These results provide compelling evidence that this type of high-value low-volume tourism investment can also contribute to sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development when paired with conservation and community development efforts. This assessment also demonstrates the value of ecosystem services derived from conserving Tanzania’s rich and globally significant natural heritage for the benefit of both people and nature. As there is more tourism potential in Tanzania, Tanzanian government authorities at all levels should consider encouraging and supporting similar tourism investments (i.e., high-value low-volume tourism model). This support could be tailored to providing incentives such as tax rate reduction or exemptions to encourage this specific type of tourism investment. Private investment is particularly important in rural and underserved regions in Tanzania– like the Mara Region – where there have been limited economic investments despite substantial opportunities for economic growth. </p>

E-procurement is a technological system that was introduced for the purpose of increasing efficiency in procurement. Following emergent of this new technology people within the organization (users) had some expectations regarding performance improvement in procurement as compared to the old manual procurement system. In this view, this study aimed at examining users' perception on the effect of e-procurement practice on customer satisfaction in public procurement. The study adopted explanatory sequential mixed method involving both quantitative and qualitative data that were collected in two different phases. The population of study included user staff working in five selected procuring entities whereby questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from respondents who were approached by using simple random sampling technique. Also, interview guide was used to collect qualitative data from Heads of Departments whereby the obtained data were analyzed by using content analysis. In order to determine user's satisfaction on procurement service delivery, data were analyzed in two steps: first, the mean difference between perception and expectation of customers was computed (P-E). The obtained value was divided by total number of items to get index score for each service quality dimension. Then, the index score was divided by the five service quality dimensions to get the overall index score. Second, Binary Logistics Regression Model was applied to estimate the effect of independent variable (Tangibility, Responsiveness, Reliability, Empathy and Assurance) on dependent variable (customer satisfaction). The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between use of e-procurement and increase in customer satisfaction in procurement. Therefore, it is recommended that chief executive officers in public organizations should take e-procurement as a solution to improve service delivery to their customers.

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