Reasons for Poverty

A group of Masai children
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Being a complex country ridden by a range of conflicts, there are naturally a great number of reasons for Tanzania’s poverty.

Perhaps one of the most significant reasons for Tanzania’s poverty is corruption. This is especially the case within the government, which as the result leads to shortcomings when it comes to the government of the country. When authorities have the interest and gain of themselves in mind, rather than the development of the country and the good of the people, the money is far from ideally distributed, leading to economic stagnation: poverty. A culture of corruption within the overall population is also an issue. For example, Tanzania has tremendously high interest rates due to the high fraud risk in the country. This makes it difficult to fund new projects that could have provided prosperity for the country.

Education is also in issue, and a contributor to Tanzania’s poverty. Civic United Front national chairperson,

A Tanzanian school class
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Prof Ibrahim Lipumba stated in an interview with Daily News that "Education in our country has become a source of poverty. We have come to a point where we need to think about alternative ways to eradicate poverty in our country," He also emphasized that within Tanzanian society the people have little thinking of self-employment. Instead of looking to start their own businesses they look to the government and private organisations for work opportunities, a situation which creates a passive society and a failing economy. This makes it very difficult to take up loans to fund new project which could have brought prosperity to the country.

On the positive side, Tanzania is not significantly affected by wars and conflicts. The last war in which Tanzania was directly involved was the Tanzania-Uganda war, and although this cased a setback for the Dar es Salaam government due to the expenses related to the invasion of Uganda, it recovered from this in 2007 when Uganda paid back Tanzania’s debt.

The Kagera Region
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Although war is not a major issue for Tanzania, it is a very vulnerable country. Approximately 80% of the Tanzania’s population relies on agriculture for a living. This means that in the case of a natural disaster, the majority of Tanzania’s population would temporarily, in some case permanently, lose their livelihood. On top of this, the effect a natural disaster would have on a country like Tanzania, who is already struggling with poverty and a lack of infrastructure, would be tremendous. In the case of the 2011 drought in the Kagera region in the north-western part of Tanzania, the lack of water resulted in a large amount of the region did not flower properly. The local small farmers rely heavily on the coffee industry since the harsh climate provides little opportunity to grow other crops. When the coffee harvest failed, these farmers could not afford sufficient food anymore, much rather sending their children to school.