Rural Development and the Fight against Poverty in Tanzania: A Fifty-Year Perspective

Since independence in 1961, fighting poverty has constantly been a major goal of the Tanzanian government’s development strategies. This chapter analyses the rural development policies implemented by the Tanzanian government during both the socialist and the post-socialist period, and investigates the reasons why, in spite of the centrality of rural development within Tanzania’s post-colonial state-building process, the agricultural sector has generally recorded a disappointing performance after independence. In so doing, the chapter highlights some historical and political continuities and discontinuities between the socialist and the post-socialist development strategies, and investigates their effects on citizenship rights in the rural areas of Tanzania.