Research and Consultancy

OVERVIEW

The Institute of Social Work, through its department of Research and Consultancy, has prepared the 2017/18-2019/20 Operational Plan that will guide the operations of the department. The institute, as the higher learning institution, is mandated to conduct research and consultancy. In this fact the institute Strategic Plan is emphasizing on the need to conduct research and consultancy in order to show relevance of the institute in the country’s development initiatives. However, to achieve the aforementioned outcome, it is important to ensure that research and consultancy activities are well planned and successfully implemented. It is for this reason, the Research and Consultancy Department has prepared the Three-Year Operational Plan. The Plan includes three sections, namely Introduction Section, Achievements and the Operational Plan Section.

Achievements

Research and consultancy are the key activities of the institute; hence they must be well coordinated and marketed in order to attract the potential clients. For the period of five years i.e. from 2012/13 to 2015/16, the Institute focused on enhancing the capacity of its academic staff in research and consultancy. The capacity building programmes included long term training particularly at the PhD level, and short term training programmes. The following were the achievements:-

1. The Institute academic staff were oriented with research skills
2. Budget on research and publications was increased
3. The Research and Consultancy Department was strengthened
4. The Institute academic staff significantly involved themselves in research and consultancy activities.
5. The academic staff have participated in more than 10 international conferences

Key Areas of Competence

1. Social Work
2. Human Resource Management
3. Business Administration
4. Labour Studies
5. Community work with children and youth

Research project been disseminated

1. The Role of Social Media in Eradicating Sexual Violence among Higher Learning Institutions Students in Tanzania.
2. Realization of decent work objectives in Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania a case of Dar-es-salaam city.

Ongoing Research projects

1. Barrier to help seeking among children sexual violence survivors in Dar es Salaam, Pwani and Tanga.
2. Children on Antiretroviral Therapy and their challenges to drug adherence.
3. Informal sector: Social Protection as voluntary requirement in Tanzania. A case of Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Manyara.

---

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Institute Research Agenda

Tanzania has embarked on the industrialization process in order to transform her economy from being the third world to the middle income level. The Tanzania Development Vision (TPV) 2025 clearly states that by 2025 the country’s economy will be at the middle income level. In order to achieve the mentioned target, the country has been promoting industrial development as stipulated in the Five Year Development Plan (FYDP). However, it is difficult to achieve such target if higher learning technical Institutions do not participate fully in research and consultancy in order to address the industrial needs and inform the policy makers on the industrial transformation strategies.

Research and consultancy play a very important role in the industrialization process. Research and consultancy enable the country to come up with innovative and realistic social and economic policies which are relevant in the industrialization process. The higher learning institutions in the developed countries such as Singapore, Germany, Australia, Canada, etc were the key engine to industrial development.

Considering the aforementioned explanations, the institute as one of the higher learning institutions in Tanzania was established to conduct training, research and consultancy in the key areas of competences. The current institute areas of competence include social work, labour studies and business studies. The mentioned areas of competence are quite relevant in promoting industrial transformation in the country. For instance, the social work profession plays a very important role in industrial transformation. Norway, which is known as the welfare state, significantly promoted industrialisation by maximizing social welfare. Hence, Norway has been considering Social Work profession as one of the very important professions towards industrialization through an enhancement of the workforce quality (healthy workforce) and well-being.

Business studies including entrepreneurship are also important in the industrialization process since they promote the generation of business ideas and industrial sustainability. The question of industrial sustainability is one of the key aspects in industrial transformation. With this fact, the field of human resource management, entrepreneurship development and, business administration (the business studies) that are offered by the Institute are still very relevant in the country’s industrial transformation initiatives.

Labour relations and public management is another area of the institute competence. Industrialisation may have the positive significant impact on the lives of Tanzanians if it will produce decent employment opportunities and, the public sector is well managed to ensure social and economic protection of the Tanzanian population. With this fact, labour relations and public management profession is still very relevant in the current pace of the country to industrialize her economy. Hence, the institute does not detach itself from the national economic agenda of industrialization and promises to conduct innovative, realistic and relevant applied research and consultancy projects.

Functions of the Research and Consultancy Department

1. To supervise and coordinate all research and publication activities within the Institute
2. To ensure that, academic staff thesis and dissertations are kept in the library;
3. To liaise with heads of departments in coordinating and supervising research;
4. To build and maintain relationship with existing and new clients in promoting consultancy services of the institute;
5. Liaise with other departments to determine further areas of research and consultancy services;
6. To supervise the planning and delivery of consultancy projects;
7. To develop and manage activities of outreach programmes;
8. To advise the Deputy Rector Academics, Research and Consultancy on all matters pertaining to research and consultancy

Institute Research Agenda

1. To ensure that the Institute research-based publications contribute to the national efforts towards industrialisation,
2. To ensure that social aspects are integrated in the national industrialisation agenda to promote economic inclusiveness
3. To contribute to the growth of local private sector for the sustainable industrial transformation
4. To contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals in the developing countries particularly Africa
5. To promote proactiveness, innovation and creativity in business development and social service delivery
6. To provide empirical and theoretical contribution on how to improve social work practice in the developing countries
7. To contribute to the national and regional efforts towards maximization of social welfare of the local population

---

CONSULTANCY

Consultancy Projects from the Institute of Social Work (ISW) are done by different department.

CONSULTANCY FROM LABOUR STUDIES DEPARTMENT

Through its academic staff, the department of Labour Studies offers consultancy services in areas of its professional competencies and the following is a summary of achievement in respect of consultancy works carried out by the Department staff:-

• Zanzibar Project: Training 20 Tripartite Partners on Mediation and Arbitration. The Trainees were from Zanzibar Labour Commission, Zanzibar Trade Union Congress (ZATUC) and Zanzibar Employers Association (ZANEMA).
• Child Labour Project: Training District Councils Officials on Child Labour.
• TUCTA Project - Tanzania Labour College-Mbeya: Assessment Capacity to undertake long term training programmes.
• CMA Project: Training Mediators and Arbitrators.

For further details, please contact:

Dr. Dominic Nkolimwa,
Head of Research and Consultancy Department
P.O. Box 3375,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Email address: dominic.mkolimwa@isw.ac.tz

---

JOURNAL

Aims and Scope

The Institute of Social Work Journal promotes intellectual discussions on social and business development. The Journal aims to contribute both theoretical and empirical knowledge in order to promote sustainable socio-economic transformation in the developing economies. In this regard, the journal invites scholars from different parts of the world to submit their manuscripts. The main focus of this Journal is on Social Work, Sociology, Labour Studies, Economics, Business Development and Entrepreneurship. The Institute of Social Work Journal integrates the aforementioned professional a reas to inform the development efforts in developing countries and, provide empirical and theoretical implications on the development path. The Institute of Social Work Journal is published twice a year, in March and August.

Review Process

The Institute of Social Work Journal has a number of reviewers who are anonymously selected to review the submitted manuscripts. The manuscript for review does not show the author’s name and the affiliation. Reviewers are given two weeks to submit the report on the reviewed manuscript to the Chief Editor. The review reports are then sent to the author and incorporate the comments before submitting the revised manuscript. The manuscript will be processed for publication after being accepted by the Editorial Board basing on the reviewers’ comments.

For further information, please contact:-
Chief Editor: Dr. Joseph Pessa
Institute of Social Work Journal,
P.O. Box 3375,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Email: josseph.pessa@isw.ac.tz
Website: www.isw.ac.tz