{III}.Strategies for Poverty Alleviation in Tanzania
Strategies in Place for Poverty
Alleviation in Tanzania
Analyse the strategies in place for
poverty alleviation in Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is
the only country in Africa, and perhaps in the world, that within a span of 40
years has gone through rapid and radical transformations from a colonial system
to a programme linking rural households to social services, to a market economy,
without sacrificing basic democratic ideals and social equanimity.
During the process, all of the
country‟s social, political and economic institutions underwent drastic
transformations to adjust and conform to rigid national guidelines and
priorities. Such changes seriously affected the economy, and resulted in a
gradual and protracted decline of all growth indicators during the 1970s and
the 1980s. Since then, the country has recovered significantly, mainly through
the implementation of various structural adjustment and restructuring
programmes led by the government with the help of a coalition of donors.
The strategies suggested by the
international community to alleviate poverty in this country at grass-roots
level in particular have been ineffective. This is mainly because the poor
people were not involved in designing, implementation, or evaluation of the
poverty reduction strategies. However, a way forward should be the strategy
which seeks full representation of the poor and other stakeholders in the
designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the poverty alleviation
strategy. The strategies should address the actual needs of the poor
communities and target them directly.
After independence in 1961, Tanzania
developed different strategies and policies to alleviate poverty such as the
Arusha Declaration of 1967, whereby the Government nationalized all means of
production such as land, industries and mining. In 1986 the government embarked
on Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) including trade liberalization, public
sector reform, elimination of price controls and established monopolies,
multiparty system and good governance. These strategies were suggested by the
international community and were set as a condition of accessing loans and any
other assistance.
Despite all these efforts, the
situation of poverty in Tanzania is worse than it was in the 1970s. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) findings conclude that poverty in Tanzaniahas
stagnated, and that some social indicators have worsened, but that the main
characteristics of the poor have remained unchanged.
One of the intervention measures
suggested by the government of Tanzania is;
The introduction and implementation
of social and economic policies which address the issue of poverty both at
national and individual level. This may necessitate increased state
intervention in education and other social welfare services, and the creation
of an enabling environment for private investment in the production sector.
In addressing the key challenges of
strategizing to reduce pervasive poverty, Tanzania prepared and adopted the
Development vision 2025 in 1999 and the National Poverty Eradication Strategy
(NPES) in 1997 which spell out a vision for the society with object poverty and
improved social condition. The NPES that was adopted in 1997 aimed at providing
guidance to all stakeholders in identifying, formulating, implementing and
evaluating their poverty.
The overall goal of NPES was to
provide framework to guide poverty eradication initiatives in order to reduce
absolute poverty by the year 2025. For achieving the goals of NPES the
government identified five key sectors, namely education, health and nutrition,
water, agriculture and rural roads.
The NPES has identified three areas
of strategic interventions, namely creating an enabling environment for poverty
eradication, building the capacity for poverty eradication and eradicating
poverty. The strategy has also spelt out roles at various levels for poverty
eradication initiatives. This vision 2025 is in line with the international
developing goal.
Strategies to eradicate poverty are
viewed as instruments for channeling national efforts towards broadly agreed
objectives and specific inputs and outputs. The elaboration and implementation
of the strategy are fundamentally an ongoing process. While a wide variety of
key interventions have already been launched, the preparation of strategies for
certain sectors such as agriculture and education are still under way. The
implementation of reforms aimed at shifting the responsibility of formulating
and monitoring poverty reduction intervention by districts, municipalities, and
communities at the grass roots.
The fight against poverty is
nationwide. The government‟s role is to ensure that its people are free from
poverty and live a decent life including putting in place an
enablingenvironment for all stakeholders to effectively participate in poverty
eradication activities. The government should also strengthen good leadership
and coordination mechanisms for poverty –eradication initiatives.
The government recognizes the role
of the private sector in poverty eradication. The private sector has a role of
creating employment opportunities by increasing investments. The private sector
needs to invest in the provision of social services, provision of credit
facilities and dissemination of information on poverty eradication efforts. Non
–Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have the ability to contribute effectively
in poverty eradication efforts because their activities are based at the grass
roots. Non-Governmental Organizations play a role of sensitizing people and
expand participation of beneficiaries in poverty eradication.
The National Poverty Eradication
Strategy (NPES) recognizes the important role of donors and other stakeholders;
hence they are included in the implementation of poverty eradication plans and
programmes.
People are the main stakeholders in
bringing about decent living conditions. It is their duty to denounce poverty
and carry out efforts to eradicate it. At different levels, people themselves
have to identify the available resources at their disposal and direct them into
poverty-eradication programmes.
Therefore, the strategies for
poverty alleviation in Tanzania are;
1.
The Arusha Declaration of 1967,
whereby the Government nationalized all means of production.
2.
In 1986 the government embarked on
Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs), including trade liberalization, public
sector reform and elimination of price controls.
3.
Tanzania prepared and adopted the
Development vision 2025 in 1999 and the National Poverty Eradication Strategy
(NPES).
Effectiveness of the strategies in
Place for Poverty Alleviatio
Assess the effectiveness of the
strategies in place for poverty alleviation
The effectiveness of the strategies
in place for poverty alleviation rests within the Tanzanians as well as their
government. As far as the effectiveness of the strategies is concerned, some
significant changes have been observed. These include:
1.
Agricultural output has grown at 3.7
percent per annum since 1990.
2.
Mining has begun to generate higher
output as a result of the investment undertaken by multinational corporations.
3.
Social service sectors like health
and education have expanded rapidly since the 1990s due to government
consideration as priority sector and expansion of the private sector into
social service sector.
4.
The government is paying more
attention to cross-cutting issues like environment, gender, HIV and AIDS,
employment, and malaria and restructuring local government.
5.
Policy formation and strategy are
more transparent than before.
Ineffectiveness of the strategies in
place for poverty alleviation
The vision 2025 strategy projected a
future free of poverty and characterized by good governance and the rule of law.
But the document did not provide a strategy of how to achieve them. The
National Poverty Eradication Strategy of 1997 defined areas for economic
growth, income levels, primary education, literacy, access to water and
sanitation, unemployment, mortality and health and infrastructure. This
strategy failed to specify priorities among many planned activities. It did not
incorporate the costs and targets to be made.
The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP) was a strategy for poverty reduction with the country‟s own ongoing
processes and agenda. The shortcoming of PRSP was lack of concrete operational
guidelines and costing of interventions. The proliferation of
poverty-eradication strategies made it harder for officials and other stakeholders
to see the PRSP as different from the previous attempts.
Exercise 1
Answer the following questions.
1.
Briefly explain the main types of
poverty.
2.
Mention any five indicators of
poverty.
3.
Explain why ignorance is believed to
be one of the reasons for poverty in Tanzania.
4.
Describe the external causes of
poverty in Tanzania.
5.
Alleviation and eradication of
poverty do not demand only the internal support but also the external push.
Discuss.
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