Paper short abstract:

Based on original ethnographic data, this paper considers the practical risks, concerns and philosophical problems with the application of ‘Western’ occupational health and safety concepts, structures and practices in collaborative socioeconomic development work in Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

In 2010, the US government-funded Millennium Challenge Account Tanzania commissioned a review of the occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems at TANESCO, the Tanzanian national electricity supply company. In particular, MCA-T required that TANESCO update its existing OHS policy and contractor's safety guidelines to ensure compliance with international best practices in occupational health and safety.

With a background in sociocultural anthropology, I was hired by a British OHS contractor to lead a team of researchers, engineers and health and safety consultants in the collection of survey- and interview-based data from TANESCO employees and management at a number of sites across Tanzania. My team also collected data from local and regional authorities, state emergency and security services and community representatives, as well as representatives of large corporations, NGOs, state-level authorities/agencies and other high-level stakeholders.

My de facto fieldwork provided me with an ethnographic platform from which to consider the values, objectives and methods of workers engaged in collaborative socioeconomic development at the junction of international relations, social science, and private sector business ideology and practices in East Africa. My data also provides valuable insight upon the risks inherent in such work. Drawing on project-specific data and personal ethnographic observations, my paper will review the positions of all the parties involved, and consider the ethics - expressed in terms of 'benefit-sharing' and 'social value' - of this public sector development project.