Poverty Eradication:

An Overview:

The definition and measurement of poverty in Tanzania has evolved over time.  The periodic changes in the definition stem from the variation both across time and space in the description of what constitutes socio-economic well being.  Earlier definitions focused on the cost of meeting basic needs necessary for maintaining a minimum standards of living.  The cost of minimum nutritional requirements is the most important component of the basic needs approach to the measurement of poverty.  

This definition has been strengthened by including socio-economic indicators of well being such as high rates of morbidity and mortality, prevalence of malnutrition, illiteracy, high infant and maternal mortality rates, low life expectancy, poor quality housing, inadequate clothing low per capita income and expenditure, poor infrastructure (communication, transport, social services etc.).  Others include high fertility, lack of access to basic services such as safe water, food insecurity and poor technology.  In entirely, these futures can be used to identify poor and non poor individuals households and societies or communities.  An individual house hold or community found to be characterised by some or all of these futures can be identified as being poor.  

Most elements of these aspects of poverty are based mainly on economic considerations.  Consequently, many of these indicators are quantifiable. Recently, the definition of poverty has been further broadened.  New definitions incorporate problems of self-esteem, vulnerability to internal and external risks, exclusion from the development process and lack of social capital.  The new additions to the definition of poverty capture the qualitative aspect of socio-economic well being.  A combination of the quantitative and qualitative definitions of poverty are utilized to identify who the poor are, the extent of their poverty, where they live and what they do for a living.  These definitions also influence the design of pro-poor policies for economic growth, public expenditures, safety net programms and tools for assessing the impact of programmes and projects on poverty reduction.

Generally poverty is a result of many and often mutually reinforcing factors including lack of productive resources to generate material wealth, illiteracy prevalence of diseases, natural calamities such as floods, drought and man made calamities such as wars.   

At the international level, an unequal economic and political partnership, as reflected in unfavourable terms of trade and other transactions for developing countries is also a major cause of poverty in developing countries.  Some causes of poverty are not direct for example, traditions and norms which hinder effective resource utilisation and participation in income generating activities. 

The assessment of poverty levels and trend is complicated by lack of consistent information and absence of officially recognised poverty lines.  Partly due to the absence of official poverty lines some studies have used their own lines.  Thus, “lower lines”  denote basic food needs based on specific assumptions about eating habits, nutritional requirements, and cost, and “upper lines” cover in addition to such food requirements, and other essential needs, such as clothing, housing, water, and health.  Moreover, a poverty line of One US$ per day in real terms has been used to facilitate comparison with other countries.  

Regional Poverty and Welfare Ranking:

The poverty and welfare indicators are used here to rank the twenty regions in Tanzania.  The analysis is preliminary; needs further refinement, and therefore, should be used with caution.  The intention is to provoke the usage of poverty and welfare monitoring indicators by various actors.  According to the composite ranking Dodoma, Kagera, Lindi, and Coast Regions are ranked the most deprived.  Dar es Salaam, Ruvuma and Kilimanjaro are least deprived with the same ranking.

Poverty remains predominantly a rural phenomenon, although the number of poor in urban areas, mainly the unemployed and those engaged in the informal sector, is growing fast.  In both rural and urban areas the poor typically lack capital and human assets: they are less educated, of ill health and have large families.  The vulnerability of poor is increased by preponderance of disease, including the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS.  

Action Taken to Eradicate Poverty:

Since independence in 1961, the government of Tanzania has had poverty eradicate as its main goal.  One of the intervention measures suggested 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 service, and the creation of enabling environment for private investment in productive sectors.

In addressing the key challenge of strategizing to reduce pervasive poverty Tanzania prepared and adopted Development Vision 2025 in 1999 and the National Poverty Eradication Strategy (NPES) in 1997, which spell out a vision for the society with abject 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 a framework, to guide poverty eradication initiative in order to reduce absolute poverty by the year 2025.  For achieving the goals of NPES the government identified five key sectors: education, health and nutrition, water, agriculture and rural roads.  The NPES has identified three areas of strategic interventions namely: those creating an enabling environment for poverty eradication, those building the capacity for poverty eradication and those eradicating poverty.  The strategy has also spelt out roles at various levels for poverty eradication initiatives. This vision 2025 is in line with international development goal remains a point of references for current poverty reduction actions.  

In June, 1999, the government issued “Poverty and Welfare Monitoring Indicators”, a document intended to provide the basis for monitoring the implementation and evaluation the impact of poverty eradication programmes.  The indicators will facilitate the development of baseline data for assessing the status of poverty and welfare, in order to guide policy and programmes for reducing poverty.  The NPES and Poverty and Welfare Monitoring Indicators were developed in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders.  In line with the NPES, the government has identified priority areas for public expenditure in the context of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) whose implementation is monitored under the annual Public Expenditure Review (PER) process involving a wide range of stakeholders. This is the process that has guided the budget frames for three years.  This budget management system will be embedded in overall development strategy, which coordinate external assistance.

The framework contains both economic and social goals in respect of identified priority sectors where the main areas of concentration are:

  • Further improvement in policy environment and market friendly.  Institutional framework are key to scaling up growth and reducing poverty to a significant extent.  However, the key to significant poverty reduction in Tanzania is accelerated growth.  Estimates of responsiveness of poverty reduction to growth indicates that such accelerated growth could lead to reduction in the share of population living below the poverty line from around 50 percent currently to 30 percent by year 2015.
  • Achieving the target of accelerated growth will require significant efforts to enhance productivity and increase investment in both human and physical capital.
  • Increase investment in human capabilities requiring measures to increase the incentives and returns for undertaking such investments, and increased public support in areas where externalities are large ie. Primary education and health care.
  • Structural transformation.
  • HIV/AIDS control activities need to become an integral part of development policy and practice cutting across all sectors.
  • A cohesive long term strategy for agriculture led growth in Tanzania involves at least sustained macro-economic stability, more effective research and extension, improved infrastructure and developing a coherent institutional framework for supporting transformation of agriculture and rural development more broadly.

Strategies to  Eradicate Poverty:

The strategy is viewed as an instrument for channeling national efforts towards broadly agreed objectives and specific inputs and outputs.  The elaboration and implementation of the strategy are fundamentally ongoing processes.  While a wide variety of key interventions has already been launched, the preparation of strategies for a certain sectors such as agriculture and education are still underway.  Moreover, the implementation of reforms aimed at shifting the responsibility for formulating implementing and monitoring poverty reduction intervention by districts, municipalities, and communities at the grassroots has started, but it will take some time to complete.  The overall strategy of poverty reduction will therefore need to be managed flexibility to accommodate additional action plans and activities emanating from the ongoing work.  The poverty reduction strategy is to large extent, an integral part of ongoing macro-economic and structural reforms that are being supported under the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (IMF) and the Poverty Structural Adjustment Credit (World Bank). 

At the same time, in addressing the same intractable theme of poverty the World Bank and IMF in 1999 launched the Enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.  The objective of this initiative is to offer assistance to countries facing unsustainable debt obligations.  Proceeds from debt relief will enable Tanzania commit its resources to sustainable development and reducing poverty and improve the delivery of education and health services.  Donor community has through HIPC provided relief which has increased Tanzania’s ability to fight poverty and implement its own development policies. The main instruments in operationalising the initiative are Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (IMF) Programmatic Structural Adjustment Credit (World Bank) and PRSP. 

The PRSP is an integral part of HIPC process, focusing mainly on poverty alleviation.  The PRSP encompasses poverty- oriented extra - budgetary activities, and various non financial considerations that have an important bearing on poverty reduction.

The elaboration of the PRSP has entailed broad consultation among the stakeholders a factor that has contributed to underlying consistency in the country’s development policy objectives, including the strategy for poverty alleviation.  Substantial efforts towards poverty reduction by international partners are still being implemented outside the framework of central government budget.  To ensure maximum progress toward poverty reduction and improved predictability of budgets efforts would be rationalized and realigned to reflect PRSP priorities.

The PRSP, while focusing on antipoverty objectives, will take into account structural reforms, macro-economic stability and promotion of economic growth, consistent with Tanzania’s National Development Vision 2025.

Consistent with the long term objective of eradicating poverty the government established (with effect from July, 1998) a Multilateral Debt Relief Fund to which several donor countries committed a total of US$ 145.56 million.  By December, 1999 US$ 109.5million out of the total commitment was already disbursed to finance activities related to health and education.

There is a wide range of actors involved in PRSP monitoring activities which range from data collection, processing analysis to utilisation.  The overall responsibility for monitoring poverty at national level lies with Vice - President’s office the government institution charged with the coordination of poverty eradication initiatives to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are involved in the monitoring process.