Abstract
The COVD-19 pandemic has affected most sectors of the economy around the world leaving men and women unemployed, which has necessitated the need for carrier innovations. In Tanzania, agriculture and tourism are among the very important sectors of the economy and biggest contributors to gross domestic product (GDP). Beyond the pandemic, there are opportunities to capitalize through career innovations. Findings indicate that urban agriculture, genetics editing in livestock, bees and drones, and blockchain technologies can significantly improve the agricultural sector. Market research, diversification, up-skilling, responsible tourism, new hygiene standards, and encouraging business travel will enhance the tourism sector moving forward. It is recommended that balance for innovation and development, investing in strategic collaborations, moving from single point-based interventions, and focusing on the poor in innovations are important.
Top1. Introduction
Innovation is increasingly essential for an effective response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in low and middle-income settings that are the target of official development assistance (ODA) investments. Currently, it has been more than a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic (WHO, 2020). Hundreds of millions of people have lived through lockdowns. Many have made the abrupt shift to working from home; millions have lost jobs. The future looks uncertain. Most people around the world don't know when, or if, societies might return to normal or what kind of scars the pandemic will leave.
Amid the upheaval, employers, the labour market and graduates are talking about work-life to dozens of experts, leaders and professionals across the globe to ask: what are the greatest unknowns will they face? How will they work, live and thrive in the post-pandemic future? How is Covid-19 reshaping the world and if it is potentially forever (BBC, 2021). Looking around the issue of work in context specific, how the pandemic has normalized remote work, and what that might mean. Will people go to the offices normally again around the world and, if so, how often? What impact will a ‘hybrid’ way of working have on how people communicate, connect and create employments? Will work-from-home be the great leveler in terms of gender equality and diversity? What will work mean if offices are virtual and lose those day-to-day social interactions? Questions are also on what will happen to people who can’t work from home as well as those whose jobs depend on a steady flow of traffic into urban hubs. Can the world learn from COVID-19 and build better safety nets for the most vulnerable workers? If the future is digital, how to make sure swathes of the global population aren’t left behind especially in the developing economies (Mayala, 2021)? The whole world by now know that work will never be the same in most parts, even if people doesn’t yet know all the ways in which it will be different.
The aim of this chapter is to contribute to an understanding of how Tanzania has been affected by the pandemic even though there were no total lockdowns for the country. Knowing the effects alone however is not complete in itself, but what are the relevant innovations and steps that need to be taken afterwards is important. A literature review and statistics from UNDP (2020) on the short, medium and long term effects in the key sectors of the economy are used to analyse innovations required in the agriculture and tourism sectors.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. However, many scholars and governmental organizations have given their own definition of the concept. Some common element in the different definitions is a focus on newness, improvement and spread. It is also often viewed as taking place through the provision of more-effective products, processes, services, technologies, artworks or business models that innovators make available to markets, governments, and society. Innovation is related to, but not the same as, invention: innovation is more apt to involve the practical implementation of an invention (i.e., new / improved ability) to make a meaningful impact in a market or society, and not all innovations require a new invention.
Career: An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress.
Tourism: Is the act and process of spending time away from home in pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure, while making use of the commercial provision of services. As such, tourism is a product of modern social arrangements, beginning in Western Europe in the 17 th century, although it has antecedents in Classical antiquity.
COVID-19: Is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. 'CO' stands for corona, 'VI' for virus, and 'D' for disease. Formerly, this disease was referred to as '2019 novel coronavirus' or '2019-nCoV. According to the World Health Organisation, the COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that people also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow).
Agriculture: Is the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products (agribusiness). Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities.
Workforce: Is the total number of workers employed by a company on a specific job or a project.
Tanzania: Officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania ), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. The Tanzanian population is estimated to 60 million.