Alumni of the Month

Currently Chairman of Daima Associates Limited—a group of development and management consultants—and principal research associate of two of nationally well-known organisations (ESRF and REPOA), Samuel Mwita Wangwe is not a newcomer in the fields of social-science research and social engineering in Tanzania. He is an alumnus of the University of Dar es Salaam of the 1972 graduating class. He was born on 30th March 1949 in Tarime in Mara region and went to primary school at Kibumaye Primary School (1955-1962) and Ikizu Secondary School (1963-1966) in the same region before proceeding to Kibaha Secondary School, Dar es Salaam/ Coast region (1967-1968) where he obtained advanced-level secondary education.

Attaining first class B.A. honours at the end of his undergraduate studies, Wangwe was immediately recruited by the Economics Department as a Tutorial Assistant (1972), where he subsequently rose to Assistant Lecturer (1974), to Lecturer (1976), to Senior Lecturer (1979), to Associate Professor (1982) and finally earned a full professorship in economics in 1985. He served in this position for a total of eleven years from 1985-1996. Beyond, yet closely related to, this his steady academicprofessional career, Professor Wangwe was appointed to a number of positions internationally as well as nationally, such as Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies in Maastricht in The Netherlands (from April 1991 to April 1994); Executive Director for the Economic and Social Research Foundation, ESRF - an organisation he helped in founding in Tanzania dedicated to research and policy analysis (1994-2002); as well as Policy Advisor in public service management in the President’s Office (2004-2006). In this latter position, the focus was mainly on the coordination of government reforms. Back in 2002 and subsequently in 2005, Samuel had been engaged concurrently as Director, Consultant and Chairman of a consulting firm Daima Associates Ltd, located in Dar es Salaam. From 2011-2015, he served as Executive Director for REPOA [Research on Poverty Alleviation], a research-cum-policy think-tank on development policy. Both ESRF and REPOA, though strictly non-governmental, have remained in close working relations with the Tanzanian government, given cutting-edge research results the two agencies have produced on behalf of a number of government departments. Sam Wangwe has, not surprisingly, remained a principal research associate with these organisations.

Professor Wangwe is a prolific writer, credited with scores of publications, ranging from scholarly journal articles to books, singularly produced, co-written or edited. A selection from books and monographs will suffice:

• S.M. Wangwe (1983). Social Accounting:  Principles and Application.  Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press;
• With N. Lipumba and L. Msambichaka (1984), ed. Economic Stabilization Policies in Tanzania. Economics Department and Economic Research Bureau, University of Dar es Salaam;
• With P. Collier, S. Radwan and A. Wagner (1986).  Labour and Poverty in Rural Tanzania:  Ujamaa and Rural Development in the United Republic of Tanzania. Oxford: Clarendon Press (Winner of Edgar Graham Prize in 1988);

With R. Skarstein (1986). Industrial Development in Tanzania:  Some Critical Issues. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies (in cooperation with Tanzania Publishing House, Dar es Salaam);

• With F. Stewart and S. Lall (1992), eds. Alternative Development Strategies in African Development.  London: MacMillan Press;
• With Achi Atsain and Anne Gordon (1994), ed.  Economic Policy experiences in Africa:  What have we learned?  Nairobi: African Economic Research Consortium;
• S.M Wangwe, ed. (1995). Exporting Africa: Technology, Trade and Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa. UNU/INTECH Studies in New Technology and Development, London: Routledge;
• With H.H Semboja and P. Tibandebage (1998), ed. Transitional Economic Policy and Policy Options in Tanzania: Tanzania Political Economy Series. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers;
• With M. Mwandosya and J. Mwapachu (1996), ed. Towards a New Millennium:

Perspectives on Tanzania’s Vision 2025: Proceedings of A Retreat Workshop, 1620 September 1996. Dar es Salaam: Centre for Energy, Environment, Science and Technology;

• With B. van Arkadie (2000), ed. Overcoming Constraints on Tanzanian Growth: Policy Challenges Facing the Third Phase Government. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers;
• With C. Lancaster (2000). Managing a Smooth Transition from Aid Dependence in Africa [Economic Development Policy Essay no 28]. London: Overseas Development Council;
• S. Wangwe (2002), ed. Partnership for Development in Africa: National Capacity Assessment in Tanzania. Tanzania Political Economy Series No.4. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers;
• S. Wangwe (2002), ed. NEPAD at Country Level: Changing Aid Relationships in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: ESRF/Mkuki na Nyota Publishers;
• With Donald Mmari (2017), ed. Research and Policy Nexus: Perspectives from Twenty Years of Policy Research in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers; and
• With Francois Bourguignon (2018), ed. Tanzania Institutional Diagnostic. Dar es Salaam: Economic Development Institute.