The Influence of Effective Governance, Environmental Stewardship and Economic Growth on Human Development in Tanzania

Abstract: In the development discourse, there has been a debate on whether development classification should priorities human development outcomes such as health, education and dignity, instead of just economic growth averages. For instance, the World Bank, on the basis of economic growth, officially classify some of the developing nations as low-middle-income countries, and others as upper-middle-income. However, this raises a critical question: Is the economic progress of these countries commensurate with advancement in human development? Why does a substantial part of the population of low-middle-income economies, e.g., Tanzania, continue to languish in poverty and experience low human development? This paper used a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and Bounds testing approach to examine the influence of economic growth, effective governance and environmental stewardship on human development in Tanzania using annual time series data on human development index, GDP per capita, government effectiveness, and ecological footprint for the period 2000 – 2022. To explore the causality among the variables, the study employed the Granger causality approach. The findings confirm the presence of long-run cointegration among the variables. The pairwise Granger causality supported strong unidirectional causality from government effectiveness to human development. The NARDL test confirmed the significant influence of GDP per capita, lagged values of human development, government effectiveness, and ecological footprint on human development outcomes. The study concludes that for improved human development outcomes, Tanzania needs to priorities policies that enhance government performance and sustainable environmental practices. Keywords: Ecological footprint; Government effectiveness; Human development; Tanzania. Title: The Influence of Effective Governance, Environmental Stewardship and Economic Growth on Human Development in Tanzania Author: VC Kyara International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations ISSN 2348-1218 (print), ISSN 2348-1226 (online) Vol. 13, Issue 2, April 2025 - June 2025 Page No: 35-48 Research Publish Journals Website: www.researchpublish.com Published Date: 21-May-2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15479028 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.researchpublish.com/papers/the-influence-of-effective-governance-environmental-stewardship-and-economic-growth-on-human-development-in-tanzania