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Issues in construction safety in Tanzania cast a long shadow, claiming lives and hindering project success. Understanding the complex dynamics at play is crucial for improving safety performance. This research aims to develop a system dynamics model to understand the factors influencing safety performance in building construction projects. Smart PLS was used to identify key variables using factor reduction, and 19 factors were determined as key factors to be used in this study from 143 variables from a questionnaire; then, STELLA was used to develop system dynamic modelling. A study was conducted on 255 building construction projects in five regions of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Arusha, Mwanza, and Mbeya, and later, the model was tested in one contractor's company. By simulating the interactions between these diverse elements and their impact on accident rates, it was found that both safety performance and safety management processes for construction projects are not stagnant but are expected to rise at the beginning of the project and to grow steadily as the project execution approaches its end. The sensitivity analysis conducted on the system dynamics model found that the extent, frequency, and cost of incidences are positively correlated. This study contributes facts on the status of safety climate, a new definition of safety climate, and the integration of different analysis methods in evaluating safety performance in Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system that manages environmental issues of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from the time of acquisition of raw materials up to disposal of the product is not well clear, especially in Tanzania. Most of the studies have been conducted in the field of environment management but few of them address the evaluation of the management of SMEs activities with respect to the environment. Although the nature of activities of SMEs has little noticeable environmental implications at the individual level but the impact is large due to diversification and labour intensity of these SMEs. SMEs employ about 20% of the total labour force in Tanzania. Thus, the consequences on the environment are therefore very high. In this study both quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used to evaluate the awareness on Environmental Management Systems (EMS), the extent of implementation of EMS, tools used in EMS and Factors that hinder effective EMS. Descriptive and Factor analysis have been used as techniques for analyzing data. The study found a low level of awareness, whereby about 59% of respondents were slightly aware, on EMS, tools used for EMS were found to be more reactive tools than proactive tools. Whereas about 60% of SMEs are inappropriately and inadequately implementing elements of EMS according to ISO 14001. The study found critical factors with high influence on hindering the implementation of EMS including inadequate environmental consciousness of top leaders. It is recommended that more efforts should be invested in creating awareness, impacting the knowledge and skills of implementing the EMS as per ISO 14001 requirements at all levels of SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many construction projects in developing countries including in Zanzibar suffer from time and budget overruns. The Revolution Government of Zanzibar established different bodies such as Zanzibar Contractors Registration Board (ZCRB), Zanzibar Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors Registration Board (ZAEQRB), Zanzibar Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Asset Authority (ZPPDA), among others with the aim of controlling the performance of project. Often scope creep, time and cost overruns are very common problems in construction projects. This study aims at addressing those problems by assessing the use of Earned Value Management (EVM) methodology in measuring construction industry performance in Zanzibar. The study used purposive sampling to select the sample. A self-administered questionnaire and round table discussions were deployed to architects, engineers, project managers, and quantity surveyors for data collection. Also, a case study design was employed whereby four ongoing construction projects were used as samples to collect data. The data were processed using Microsoft Excel where Chisquare, ANOVA, and Earned Value Analysis (EVA) were used to analyze the data. The study findings indicate that majority of key players of construction industry of Zanzibar were unaware of the EVA as a tool for monitoring the performance of the projects, although they practice EVMS to some extent. Also, all four cases used in this study, indicated underperformances in terms of scope, time and cost parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]