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Article History

Received: 2 April 2025

Accepted: 13 April 2026

First Online: 21 May 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: The research protocol was conducted in accordance with the institutional research ethics framework of the Research Ethics Committee of Shandong University of Science and Technology (SDUST), Qingdao, China. The study was classified as non-interventional social science research and therefore qualified for exemption from formal Institutional Review Board (IRB) review under the university’s research ethics policy governing social science research. According to the Shandong University of Science and Technology Research Ethics Policy and the Tanzania National Research Ethics Guidelines (2017), formal IRB approval is not required for studies involving the analysis of de-identified administrative datasets and non-invasive household surveys where no biological samples are collected and no clinical interventions are conducted. The scope of this exemption covered the collection and analysis of anonymized socio-economic data related to the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) program and the integration of secondary datasets used in the spatial econometric analysis. All research procedures were conducted in accordance with internationally recognized ethical standards for research involving human participants, including the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its subsequent amendments, as well as relevant national and institutional regulations governing social science research. All datasets used in the study were anonymized prior to analysis, and no personally identifiable information was retained in the final research database.

: Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the primary household survey component of the study. Data collection was conducted between October 2021 and March 2022 by the lead researchers and trained enumerators using a standardized consent protocol. Because approximately 45% of respondents had no formal schooling, oral informed consent was adopted to ensure that participants fully understood the purpose and voluntary nature of the research. Prior to each interview, enumerators explained the objectives of the study, the expected duration of participation, the voluntary nature of involvement, and the confidentiality safeguards applied to all responses. Participants were informed that they could decline participation or withdraw from the interview at any time without consequence. The consent process was witnessed and documented by members of the research team before interviews commenced. Enumerators received prior training on ethical engagement with respondents, neutrality in questioning, and protection of respondent confidentiality. To ensure privacy and anonymity, no personal identifiers were recorded in the survey instruments and all collected responses were anonymized during data transcription and analysis. Furthermore, the authors confirm that the manuscript does not contain any identifiable images or personal information relating to individual participants, thereby ensuring full protection of participant privacy.