RESEARCH STRATEGY
Finding a reliable source
When performing legal research, the reliability
of the source is essential: you cannot perform further research, advise
a client nor in any way rely on the information obtained unless you are
certain the information is dependable.
Using the Google search engine (www.google.com),
enter the following search query:
mortgages Tanzania
This search query provides a mixture of links
to tourism sites, home sale advertisements and discussions regarding financing
and capital markets, etc.
Before you continue, consider the following:
• Which of the links is likely to provide
the most reliable information concerning the availability of mortgages
in Tanzania?
• Why?
• What criteria do you use personally to assess the value of the
information contained in a website?
Consider the link: Houses / homes for
sale or for rent in Tanzania - Vacation Rental.
What kind of information will be contained in
the website? Will it include the kind of information you require for your
report?
Now click on the link to see what information
can be found at the website.
This site is a .com site, and
has been designed to serve a commercial agenda. The primary aim of the
site is not to provide objective information; rather, it is to encourage
potential clients to invest through the www.propertyworld.com
service.
At first viewing it may seem to contain much useful
information about investing in property in Tanzania.
Scroll down the page until you find the box labelled
Regions within Tanzania.
Now click on Dar es Salaam and try to
find out by how much the houses in that region appreciate (rise) in value.
The website tells us the following:
“Investment – Generally speaking homes
appreciate in value by approximately 4% or 5% per year, however this will
vary from year to year and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Your rate
of return on real estate in Dar es Salaam may be higher than many other
investments you make.”
Now click on your browser’s back button
to compare the appreciation in value of houses in Dar es Salaam with any
other region in Tanzania.
You will see that the answer given is identical.
In fact, whichever region of whichever country you choose using www.propertyworld.com,
the information given is the same.
The website includes many links in its section
on Tanzania. However, more often than not the information to which it
leads is very general and not detailed enough for the serious investor.
Furthermore, the website does not give details as to when the information
included was updated, or details as to the authority and credentials of
the author.
Evaluation and verification of a source
There are several widely-accepted criteria for
evaluating the reliability of a website.
Return to Google and scroll down until you find
the link entitled Tanzania (http://www.state.gov/e/eb/ifd/2006/62039.htm).
This takes us to the website of the US Department of State, and provides
details on the 2006 investment climate in Tanzania.
a) Authorship & authenticity
Identifying the author is an important step in
evaluating the expertise and objectivity of the source. In this case,
the author is the US Department of State. Among other things, the Department
of State's primary objective is to promote long-range security in US foreign
relations. Accordingly, the State Department is likely to be motivated
to obtain reliable information.
In addition, the authenticity of the site may
be checked by following links on the page to other State Department links,
as well as links to other US Government resources online. Importantly,
at the very bottom of the page, there is a link to Updates.
Following this link gives us significant information about when the site
was last updated, and also contains information about what is not
included on the site. Combined, this information is valuable in assessing
the currency of the information (how up-to-date, valid and reliable it
is).
Another important indicator of authorship is the
URL (Web address) of the site. The website address includes the .gov
top level domain (see task 3 regarding top level domains). The
.gov top level domain is reserved for the United States
Federal Government. Your assessment of the website may be different if
the domain is .com, which is designated for commercially-sponsored
sites (see www.propertyworld.com above).
Finally, the web page includes a Contact
Us link. Where necessary, it is possible to call to confirm
the content of the site or, at least, trace its origins.
b) Content
The accuracy of information on a site may be determined
by analysing the expertise, objectivity and currency.
Expertise may be determined by analysing the source
of the information, credentials of the author and the information relied
upon by the author to present the information. The Department of State
has access to resources from the US Congress, other US departments and
agencies, foreign governments, etc. Accordingly, it is likely that the
information will be reliable. In addition, the bottom of the article indicates
that the source of the information was, at least in part, the Bank of
Tanzania.
The objectivity is affected by the purpose of
providing the information. Is the author objective or biased? In this
case, an important question may be: is the source promoting a political
agenda?
The currency may be determined by various means.
The title of the document itself, “2006 INVESTMENT CLIMATE STATEMENT
-- TANZANIA" is a clear indication of the date of the resource.
It is up to the individual researcher to determine
if the date of the article is sufficiently recent for the purposes of
their research. Compare, for example, the link Accessing Off-shore
Sources and Capital Markets (http://pdf.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACB769.pdf),
an article from December 1997 which states that "there are no institutional
and legal frameworks to support mortgage institutions in Tanzania".
Once you are satisfied that the information contained
in the US Department of State website is reliable, try to find one more
site that meets the above evaluation criteria using the same Google search
query:
mortgages Tanzania
Do any of the sites listed in the first two or
three pages meet the above evaluation criteria? If so, would they be of
any use to you in preparing your report?
Among the authoritative sources listed are: info.worldbank.org,
www.publications.parliament.uk and www.undp.org.
These may contain useful information, but each of the documents listed
focuses on a single issue and tends to be rather academic (e.g. “Legal
Pluralism as a Policy Option: Is it Desirable? Is it Doable?”).
Let us now see if we can find an authoritative
site detailing some more practical information which may be used in the
report.
Our original search query (mortgages Tanzania)
was relatively limited. A broader search query may produce a wider range
of useful links.
Using the Google search engine, enter the following
search query:
foreign investment Tanzania
This returns many useful hits, one of the first
being for the Tanzania Investment Centre (www.tic.co.tz).
Note the domain name (.tz). This indicates that the website
is registered in Tanzania. The keywords listed under the Google link suggest
that this site will contain exactly the kind of information you are looking
for. As the site is not a .com site, it may not be run
by a commercial firm (and therefore free of commercial bias). However,
you cannot be certain of this until clicking on the link and examining
the website’s contents.
Now click on the link and find the About us
section towards the bottom of the website. Is this site run by a commercial
firm, or by the Tanzanian state? The answer to this is not immediately
obvious, and in each case the author/s may have a certain bias towards
encouraging foreign investment that may not be the case with a truly independent
source. However, this does not necessarily mean that the site does not
contain valuable information.
Scan through the information and links to see
if there are any potentially useful sources of information for your report,
assessing this information according to the evaluation criteria discussed
earlier.
If you are satisfied that the website meets our
criteria, use the Tanzania Investment Centre together with the US Department
of State website to prepare your report. If you are not satisfied that
the Tanzania Investment Centre meets the above criteria, try to find another
website that does.
Verify each question you address in your report
by cross-checking with at least one further website. Use the above criteria
to assess the reliability of each website you use.
You may wish to try searching for further websites
by using some of the following keywords:
Tanzania
portal
gateway
foreign investment
i nvestment
Answer
The following websites meet the criteria
discussed in task 13, and may be relied on when preparing your report.
N.B. This is only a selection of the available
websites. You may have found other websites that also meet the required
criteria.
1) Securing a mortgage
on property purchased in Tanzania
The language used in this recent news article
suggests that the source, an independent newspaper, is objective.
The article makes it clear that at present general lending rates
are very high, and that the mortgage industry in Tanzania is very
young. Full introduction of mortgage financing is expected to take
place during the financial year 2006-2007.
2) Openness to foreign investment
The website below is hosted by the US department
of state, and provides up-to-date information on investing in Tanzania.
While the information may be more objective than that provided by
the Tanzanian state, be aware that the US State Department aims
to further the interests of American foreign policy. As such, it
is worth considering the relations between the US and the country
in question before relying too heavily on the information provided
by the State Department.
Relations between the US and Tanzania are
friendly, and an assessment of the information provided by the website
reveals it to be up-to-date, objective and reliable.
3) Corruption
A recent report into corruption in Tanzania,
prepared for the OECD, NEPAD, UN Global Compact and Transparency
International can be viewed at:
The Economic and Social Research Foundation’s discussion forum
(newsgroup) includes postings on a wide range of topics concerning
corruption in Tanzania, and can be accessed at:
Governmental efforts at tackling corruption
are detailed at the Tanzanian Prevention of Corruption Bureau’s
website:
4) Protection of property rights
The following link leads to detailed, reliable
information on Tanzanian investment guarantees and laws and regulations
governing investments in Tanzania:
5) Expropriation and compensation
A wealth of useful, objective information
on investment opportunities in Tanzania, including full details
on expropriation and compensation, can be found at the Royal Netherlands
Embassy (Dar Es Salam) website:
6) Dispute settlement
The Lawyers’ Environmental Action
Team website, although focused on environmental law, offers much
valuable information concerning the Tanzanian legal system and dispute
settlement:
One particularly interesting document can
be viewed at: http://www.leat.or.tz/activities/tarime/tarime.complaint.doc.
This is a complaint prepared by a group of lawyers, providing valuable
insight into the workings of the Tanzanian judicial system.
|
Further research
Recent and archived finance and business-related
articles concerning Tanzania can be found at Business in Africa
Online:
Another useful website for potential investors
is the Tanzanian Government’s
Portal:
Mortgage Loan Financing – Finance
Portal:
This is a .com site, so
is likely to be run by a commercial firm. While this may indicate
a certain bias, note the information detailed under the link Tanzania
Online Gateway. The term gateway is often used as a
synonym for portal so the link may lead us to a useful portal containing
information relating to investing in Tanzania.
Now click on the link and scan through the
information and links to see if there are any potentially useful
sources of information for your report. You will notice that the
site is not particularly well maintained, and includes several language
errors. However, many of the links look promising.
Notice in particular the following link
at the bottom of the screen:
Tanzania Online
Tanzania Online Gateway, Tanzania Online database, poverty reduction
... Corruption & Good governance Economic Management Education
... Banking and Finance ...
www.tzonline.org/
This would seem to fit our needs perfectly.
It is a .org site (generally used by non-profit
making organizations) and clearly includes the kind of information
needed for the report.
|
|
