Tanzania

Joyful learning and play create a strong foundation for lifelong learning

BRAC’s cradle-to-career network of education programmes in Tanzania support learners at every level—from toddlers to adults. Our award-winning play labs are vibrant, fun spaces where children ages 3–5 learn through play. With engaging facilitators and an evidence-based curriculum, children can develop physically, emotionally, and socially. Evidence shows early learning opportunities can break the cycle of poverty and inequality.

Adolescent girls who have left the formal education system can access learning opportunities or vocational training. Through our accelerated learning approach, girls learn digital literacy and entrepreneurship skills.

We also support the Tanzanian government with teacher training, mentoring, and curriculum development

Setting the stage for the next generation of leaders

BRAC Tanzania’s work with young people combines social and economic empowerment with education, ensuring that girls and women reach their full potential.

Through safe, mentor-led clubs, girls gain life skills, learn how to think critically, and build confidence. They also receive vocational training, startup kits, and support to start small businesses of their own. At the same time, they are equipped with the skills needed to better navigate the challenges that may affect their lives. Sports and games are also a part of the experience, helping girls strengthen their teamwork skills.

Throughout the process, we also work closely with parents, communities, local partners, and governments, to create solutions to the challenges they face. For over 15 years, this approach has helped girls and young women take charge of their futures.

Confident girls grow up to be bold women who transform their own lives and communities

BRAC and the Mastercard Foundation are equipping 337,525 girls and young women in Tanzania with entrepreneurship, employability, and life-skills training. We’re also providing them with tools to start and scale their own businesses.

The five-year programme applies BRAC’s proven approaches using microfinance, youth empowerment, agriculture, and skills development to improve lives and livelihoods.

Smallholder farmers grow the lion's share of the world's food, but they are some of the hardest hit by problems like climate change, poor soil, and poverty. BRAC Tanzania helps these farmers improve how they grow and sell food. We use smart, low-cost methods that are proven to work, even in tough weather conditions.

We work especially with women and young people, teaching them farming techniques that protect the environment and improve nutrition. Additionally, we help them get access to markets, farming loans, and tools to deal with climate challenges.

By supporting small farmers and connecting them to better opportunities, we help build stronger, healthier, and more food-secure communities.

Building a scalable model for play-based learning

BRAC’s social enterprises are born out of local needs, and they lie at the intersection of business and traditional non-profit. Our social enterprises create sustainable livelihoods, by supporting people to become producers and entrepreneurs, providing access to quality inputs and training, and connecting them to markets.

BRAC’s childcare microenterprise was founded in 2020 to give more children in Tanzania a strong start through a network of microentrepreneurs who build on BRAC’s play-based learning model. In Dar es Salaam, the enterprise runs low-cost, high-quality early childhood centres that focus on play-based learning for children ages 3 to 5. It is also testing new models—including a mobile classroom—to reach more families and operate in a sustainable, scalable way.

A proven pathway out of extreme poverty

BRAC’s flagship Ultra-Poor Graduation approach is a globally recognised and widely adopted solution proven to break the poverty trap. Graduation enables people to build a long-term trajectory out of extreme poverty through a time-bound package of sequenced interventions. This combines a large investment in income-generating activities, basic needs support, and ongoing, intensive coaching.

Unlocking the entrepreneurial spirit of women

BRAC Tanzania Finance Limited, launched in 2007, is the largest microfinance institution in Tanzania. We provide responsible financial services to people who are excluded from the mainstream financial system, particularly focusing on women living in poverty in rural and hard-to-reach areas of the country.

Our core credit products include group-based microloans provided exclusively to women, small enterprise loans, and agrifinance loans for rural small-holder farmers. We complement our services with financial and digital literacy training, empowering clients to make informed decisions and manage their finances better.

In all our endeavours, we adhere to the Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management and the Client Protection Principles, placing clients’ wellbeing at the centre of everything we do to achieve our mission

Access to financial services is a core part of BRAC’s holistic approach to development, complementing its social programmes to drive sustainable change and support people to lift themselves out of poverty.