Social protection and coloniality: Learning from the past and present. Tanzania case study

Tanzania has made notable progress in expanding its social protection system, yet the influence of colonial governance models, entrenched donor dependency and limited population coverage of existing provisions remain significant. This case study critically explores the historical and contemporary processes of social protection policymaking in Mainland Tanzania, drawing on qualitative interviews and documentary analysis. Colonial legacies continue to shape Tanzania's economic structure and institutional frameworks. Extractive colonial economies prioritised cash crops and mining, embedding a dependency that persists today and limits fiscal space for domestic investment in social protection. The British administration introduced formal governance and social protection institutions that remain pertinent today, but they continue to largely exclude the informal sector and rural populations, despite recent efforts to introduce social insurance schemes for informal sector workers (e.g. National Informal Sector Scheme, NISS). Postcolonial dynamics also play a defining role. Tanzania's early Ujamaa socialist model under President Julius Nyerere fostered broad welfare ambitions, many of which were later dismantled under neoliberal Structural Adjustment Programmes in the 1980s. Since then, global policy agendas and actors have heavily influenced domestic policymaking. Donor-driven programmes dominate key areas such as cash transfers (e.g. the World Bank-supported and targeted roductive Social Safety Net programme), and development partners use various policy transfer mechanisms to shape domestic policies and programmes. The scarcity of domestic resources significantly hinders the pursuit of universalist social protection investments. Despite this, the role of domestic actors remains pivotal. Nyerere's legacy continues to inspire social policy thinking, and civil society and political elites actively shape - and sometimes contest - social protection arrangements. At the same time, limited implementation capacity and corruption undermine effectiveness of social protection delivery, particularly in rural regions. The study identifies pathways forward: strengthening domestic financing through better taxation and value-chain participation; enhancing government leadership and coordination; integrating informal, community-based social protection mechanisms; and promoting regionally driven, South-South cooperation. These shifts require reimagining social protection, rooting it in Tanzania's socio-cultural and economic fabric to build a more inclusive and resilient system.