Sustaining Tanzania S Economic Development

This book investigates the performance of firms and households in Tanzania and the strategies they adopt to navigate shocks, achieve sustainability, and build resilience to sustain their growth and development. The contributions show that Tanzania, like many countries, faces a challenging future but is better positioned to do so than it has been.

Far reaching macro-economic and structural reforms combined with increases in government spending have been the primary drivers of Tanzania's growth acceleration. As growth in government spending slows, the locomotive for growth will need to shift to increased demand for exports and domestically produced goods, requiring Tanzania to strengthen substantially its international competitiveness, accelerate structural change, and safeguard the environment while maintaining macroeconomic stability. For Tanzania's poor to be able to participate and benefit from important growth, a greater focus on rural development, improved governance of the management of Tanzania's natural resources, and better targeting of social services to the poor is suggested. Successful design and implementation of a shared growth strategy will also require a strengthening of policy management and coordination in Tanzania to ensure that scarce human and financial resources are effectively deployed.

This book is designed to contribute to the government's thinking on how best to translate broad MKUKUTA (the government of Tanzania's National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty) policy objectives into practical tactics and programs well suited to Tanzania's economic priorities and to the removal of key institutional and infrastructure bottlenecks. The book aims to respond to three fundamental questions: (a) what factors explain Tanzania's recent acceleration in economic growth, (b) how well has the accelerated growth translated into reduced poverty, and (c) what needs to be done to sustain growth that is also pro-poor. This book focuses on three issues that are central to the success of Tanzania's poverty reduction efforts: What factors explain Tanzania's recent acceleration in economic growth? Has the accelerated economic growth translated into reduced poverty? What must be done to sustain economic growth that is pro-poor? The book presents evidence from the macroeconomic, sectoral, firm, and household levels that shed light on these questions. In addition, the book examines the effectiveness of measures that support the poor in efforts to accumulate human and physical capital, which would enhance their prospects of contributing to economic growth. Finally, it is important to mention that this book is a compilation of chapters written by authors from the African Development Bank (Peter Mwanakatwe), COWI Consultants (Kerstin Pfliegner), independent consultancies (Marianne Simonsen and Annabella Skof), and the World Bank (Jean-Eric Aubert, Vandana Chandra, Louise Fox, Henry Gordon, Johannes Hoogeveen, Pooja Kacker, Ying Li, Allister Moon, Philip Mpango, Ravi Ruparel, Anuja Utz, Robert J. Utz, and Michael Wong).

This report identifies lessons from Tanzania's development experience over the past four decades, and assesses how a higher sustained growth and a better livelihood for its citizens in the future can be achieved. The background papers: review and evaluate the country's growth and poverty reduction performance; highlight the strategic and institutional imperatives needed for developing sustained growth and reducing poverty; and consider the development of the private sector and its increased role in the growth and modernisation of the Tanzanian economy.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and is offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book investigates the performance of firms and households in Tanzania and the strategies they adopt to navigate shocks, achieve sustainability, and build resilience in order to sustain their growth and development. The contributions take into account competitiveness and productivity for firms, and income or welfare for households. Has the ability to navigate successfully through shocks and a changing economic environment improved over the past two decades? What are the lessons for managing and recovering from shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic? Chapters cover a range of issues including competitiveness and value chains as determinants of (export) trade performance and the importance of technology, innovation, linkages, and value chains for the resilience and sustainability of firms. Trends in household income diversification and rural livelihoods, and improvements in financial inclusion, particularly through digital financial innovations such as mobile money services, promote the resilience and sustainability of households. Gender and regional, especially urban-rural, differences are incorporated. Cross-cutting themes emerge: the need for modern technology and infrastructure to increase the productivity and employment of firms; the role of investment in human capital in reducing gender inequalities and equipping workers and entrepreneurs with relevant skills; and the importance of access to resources for innovation. The performance of Tanzanian firms has gradually improved since 2000 - although many challenges remain - and this has benefitted households through employment opportunities; the COVID-19 pandemic was however a significant shock to the economy and progress stalled or reversed as a result. Tanzania, like many countries, faces a challenging future but is better positioned to do so than it has been.

An up-to-date, comparative, examination of the developing economy of Tanzania and its grass roots progress out of poverty, with pointers to its wider implications for policymakers, NGOS and practitioners. Over the past thirty years, in common with a number of other Sub-Saharan African countries, Tanzania has experienced a period of painful adjustment followed by relatively rapid and stable economic growth. However the extent of progress on poverty reduction and the sustainability of the development process are both open to question. In this book, prominent international observers provide a range of different perspectives on the process of development over time and the issues facing a rapidly growing African economy: political economy; agriculture and rural livelihoods; industrial development; urbanisation; aid and trade; tourism; and the use of natural resources. Comparisons are drawn with other African economies as well as other developing countries, such as Vietnam. An invaluable deep review of Tanzania's economy and development, the book also looks at the wider implications of the research for the futureon the continent and beyond. David Potts is Honorary Visiting Researcher at the University of Bradford and was Head of the Bradford Centre for International Development 2015-16. He worked for six years as an economist in Tanzania's Ministry of Agriculture in the 1980s, has had many subsequent short-term assignments in the country and is co-editor of Development Planning and Poverty Reduction (2003).