Poverty alleviation projects are more likely to succeed when driven by the momentum of local communities. However, civic participation in Tanzania remains low. This research, by Salma Emmanuel, Dylan Groves and Beatrice Montano, working with ESRF aims to test the hypothesis that gaining first-hand experience with advocacy while at school fosters a sense of civic duty in young people, building their confidence and skills, and making them more likely to participate actively in their communities.

School-improvement grants will be given to forty secondary schools. In a randomly selected twenty of these schools, students will decide how the grant is spent – this will involve campaigns and a secret-ballot election. In the control group of twenty schools, school leadership will decide how the funds are allocated.

Researchers will carry out surveys to compare the political aspirations of students in the two groups of schools, while also planning to assess the civic participation of these students over time as they approach adulthood. If a causal link is identified between experience of a democratic process in school and future civic engagement, this approach could serve as a scalable model for fostering civic capacity and leadership skills in rural communities.