Rural development

1. UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
Master program
COURSE: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
ASSIGMENT I

2. THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY OF TANZANIA

3. BACKGROUND
The majority of the people in Tanzania (about 80%) live in the rural areas;
Where poverty is deep and widespread, the statistics shows that 43.1% of the
rural population is under the poverty line;
Where 47% of the rural population cannot afford and access basic needs.
However the rural areas are central to Tanzania’s overall development. They
account for more than half of the country’s income generation; more than 60%
of foreign exchange earnings; and support the livelihood of more than 80% of
the population.

4. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE
RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
The overall objective of the Rural Development Strategy is to provide a
strategic framework that will facilitate the co-coordinated
implementation of sector policies and strategies concerned with the
development of rural communities.
In particular, the RDS will support the implementation of the Poverty
Reduction Strategy and create a development environment that will
contribute to enabling rural communities and households achieving
sustainable livelihoods.

5. DIMENSIONS OF RURAL
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
The realization of rural development in the context of the country’s
development vision largely depends on the pace of growth in the
agricultural sector
In the strategy, attention should be towards attaining the following
 High Quality Livelihood
 An Enabling and Peoples Empowering Environment
 Self-Reliance and Self-Sustainance
 Trade and International Competitiveness

6. PREPARATION OF THE RURAL
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Preparation of the Rural Development Strategy is organized under three main
bodies namely, the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee, Inter-ministerial Technical
Committee and a Joint Government-Donor Working Group.
The Inter-ministerial Steering Committee was assigned the responsibility of
steering the preparation of the RDS.
A Joint Government-Donor Working Group was formed to coordinate consultation
between the two development partners. The Prime Minister’s Office was
responsible for the overall coordination and monitoring of the study

7. THE STRATEGY
Improving the living standard of the rural people will depend on improvements
on several initiatives.
The cohesive strategy for rural development in Tanzania involves four
categories of strategic intervention.
They are:
 promoting widely shared growth
 increasing opportunities and access to services
 reducing risks and vulnerability and
 good governance

8. PROMOTING WIDELY SHARED GROWTH
Poverty in Tanzania will not decline without growth in rural incomes, and rural
incomes will not grow without improving productivity of the agriculture
sector, and growth of rural nonfarm businesses.
Strategic Priority Areas
There are four strategic priority areas covered under promoting widely shared
growth which are;
 Agriculture and Livestock Development;
 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs);
 Skills Development and
 management of Natural Resources

9.  AGRICULTURAL AND LIVESTOCK
DEVELOPMENT
Through;
 Investing in Agricultural Research and Technology to Increase
Productivity, Raise Farm Incomes and Protect the Environment
 Improving Water Management Systems to Raise Crop and Livestock
Yields and Reduce Risks of Crop Failure and Livestock deaths
 Increasing Livestock Productivity and Quality for Domestic and Export
Markets through Appropriate Veterinary Services
 Improving Marketing

10.  SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE
ENTERPRISES
Economic diversification and the promotion of non-farm economic activities is
a key aspect of rural development
The strategy paid special attention to facilitating the promotion of SME
activities, including agro-industrial activities
creating the policies and institutions that encourage private investment in rural
enterprises and complementary businesses
strengthening linkages between rural producers and small towns and urban
centers, where most processing and marketing takes places

11.  SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
The productivity of the workers largely depends on the skills of the workers,
the strategy is designed to improve the skills of the rural workers through;
 To improve the access for both young women and men to vocational
education and training institutions that provide appropriate trainings
 To improve the standard of VET institutions in order that they can meet
the expectations of industry
 To increase women’s access to vocational education and training
activities
 To re-orient vocational education and training activities to be more
market-responsive

12.  NATURAL RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT AND UTILIZATION
Tanzania’s natural resources are being poorly managed and not yielding their
full economic the strategy will work on;
 To create a conducive framework for the sustainable development of
natural resources
 To enhance security of natural resources ownership to the state,
communities, and private individuals
 To improve land use planning as a basis for improved environmental
management
 To extend and further develop the community based management
approach to all districts

13. INCREASING OPPORTUNITIES AND
ACCESS TO SERVICES
Social services are prerequisites to human capital formation. Human capital is
potentially the only asset that the poor can own and make use of.
The strategic priority areas covered under Increasing Opportunities and Access
to Services are;
 Education and Health
 Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
 Housing and Good Shelter
 Road Network Infrastructure, Information, & Communication
Technology
 Telecommunication and Information Services and Energy

14. EDUCATION AND HEALTH
 To raise Primary School Enrollment and Attendance Ratios and improve
quality of education
 To develop curriculum which is responsive to the needs of primary school
and provide further education opportunities for primary school leavers
 To expand Adult literacy and Complementary Basic Education
 To reduce mortality rates for enhanced survival and improve nutritional
status
 To rehabilitate existing health facilities and enhance quality of rural health
providers and promote opportunities for private sector to provide health
care services.

15. RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND HOUSING
 To establish a decentralized approach to the provision of water supply
systems in the rural communities and expand coverage of water supply
systems by utilizing appropriate sources
 To involve the private sector and the community in the construction and
maintenance of rural water supply
 To develop private and public partnership in housing and promote the
housing industry to increase housing finance
 To promote cooperative arrangements in the provision of better housing for
the rural poor

16. ROADS INFRASTRUCTURE, INFORMATION,
AND TELECOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
 To develop a road network which is high standard and well maintained,
facilitating the integration of rural areas and urban markets.
 To enhance the capacity of local authorities to maintain their feeder road
network
 To improve the existing services and widen/extend the coverage by
installing new and modern telecommunication satellites
 To promote the private sectors’ involvement in developing and expanding
telecommunication services throughout the country
 To improve commercial and social postal services

17. REDUCING RISKS AND VULNERABILITY
To reduce risks and vulnerability of shocks, rural households and communities
should be facilitated
 To diversify income-generating activities and ensure provision of basic
social services for the vulnerable communities
 To protect the legal rights of vulnerable groups, in particular women,
orphans, disabled and the aged
 To assist rural households and their enterprises manage risks and lessen
the impacts of disasters when they occur
 To ensure that changes taking place under the globalization process
have least adverse effects to the rural communities.

18. GOOD GOVERNANCE
Since the implementation of the various rural development strategies depended
almost wholly on the Government, good governance is crucial for the success of
the strategies
The strategic priority areas covered under good governance are;
 Decentralization and Empowerment
 Participatory District Planning
 Participation of NGOs and CBOs
 Justice, Security and Corruption

19. WHAT CAN WE LEARNT FROM
TANZANIA’S RDS
In the context of Ethiopia and Somaliland, we can benefit from Tanzania’s
RDS from these;
 Supporting the programs with law acts
 Complementary programs linked with the RDS
 Heavily focusing on road infrastructure and telecommunication
 Promoting the participation of NGOs and lining their efforts with the
national strategy
 Centralization and decentralization of the preparation and
implementation of the strategy
 Paying special attention to the environment and natural resources to
contribute income diversification in the form of tourism