Gender Mainstreaming in Smart City Development : An Analysis of the Team Europe Initiative 'Green and Smart Cities SASA!' in Tanzania

Abstract: The last decade has seen a substantial rise in smart cities across Africa (Aghimien et al., 2020:29). This research presents a case study on the Team Europe Initiative ‘Green and Smart Cities SASA!’ in Tanzania, a development initiative aiming to introduce smart city technologies in Mwanza, Tanga and Pemba. Semi-structured interviews and participatory observations have been utilised, with respondents including stakeholders of the programme as well as outside key informants. The research aims to get an insight into the intersection of gender mainstreaming and ownership in smart city developments in a developing context. Thus far, few researchers have looked at the intersection of smart city developments with gender, particularly in a developing context. As the SASA programme aims to prioritise women in its interventions, the research further aims to understand the ways in which gender mainstreaming is currently being implemented, and how it could/should be improved in the future. The research makes use of Castel Branco’s (2008) Critical View on Ownership, as well as Mehra and Gupta’s (2006) Alternate Approach to Gender Mainstreaming.  The research found that gender is currently prioritised by all stakeholders. However, gender mainstreaming in the SASA programme is mainly implemented through individual strategies. As such, the collaborative initiatives have up until now been sporadic rather than systematic, indicating a lack of synergy between the  implementing partners. This has created a vague and undefined concept of responsibility of the claimed gender prioritisation. With this said, the SASA programme could benefit from a more strategic implementation of gender mainstreaming. This, as will be argued, could be achieved through a strengthening of leadership, accountability-mechanisms as well as more tangible project objectives and indicators. In addition, a further integration of coherent gender strategies and gender expertise is recommended.