A Systematic Review of Urbanisation, Informal Settlements, and Social Welfare in Tanzanian Cities: An African Perspective, 2021–2026

This systematic literature review addresses a critical knowledge gap concerning the gendered impacts of rapid urbanisation and informal settlement growth on social welfare in Tanzanian cities. It interrogates how these processes, often analysed through Western theoretical lenses, uniquely shape the livelihoods, security, and well-being of women and communities. Employing the PRISMA framework, the review analyses peer-reviewed articles, policy documents, and grey literature from African scholarly databases published between 2021 and 2026. The synthesis reveals informal settlements as complex spaces where women enact vital social welfare functions through informal networks and economies, countering deficit-based narratives. Key findings demonstrate that tenure insecurity and inadequate infrastructure disproportionately exacerbate women’s care burdens and vulnerability to climate-related shocks. Crucially, the analysis identifies a growing corpus of African scholarship that centres localised coping strategies and community-based governance. The review concludes that effective social welfare policy in Tanzania’s urban future must be co-produced. This requires recognising informal settlements as entrenched features of the urban landscape and leveraging indigenous social capital, underscoring the imperative for urban planning that is both gender-responsive and epistemologically grounded in African realities.