Natural gas projects and local community development in Tanzania

Tanzania aims to become a middle-income country by 2025. Natural gas development has been identified as one of the platforms to launch this development strategy. In addition to using natural gas for domestic consumption, power generation and industrial development, the Tanzanian government has announced the country will become a leading liquefied natural gas exporting country in East Africa. Accountability mechanisms must be instituted to ensure that equitable compensation is provided to those who have lost their farmlands and other livelihood assets due to gas project developments. The concerns of the communities directly impacted by the natural gas development need to be documented and understood by policy- and decision-makers in order to have their needs addressed.

Gender

• The baseline survey contained gender-inclusive questions and included focus group discussions for women only. The multi-stakeholder workshop included 34% of women. The research found that gas development projects do not address women’s concerns and livelihood situations and that women are not well represented in decision-making forums.

Environment

• The research captured individual and collective experiences of environmental dispossession that were further communicated to decision-makers.

Governance

• It is anticipated that improving governance, with a focus on communities directly affected by the gas development projects, results in tangible benefits to the affected population in terms of poverty reduction and improvement in livelihoods.