Research on Poverty Alleviation, REPOA, undertakes and facilitates research, conducts and coordinates training, and promotes dialogue and development of policy for pro-poor growth and poverty reduction
The Research and Analysis Working Group holds open seminars to discuss findings and methodologies related to MKUKUTA and its monitoring. These open seminars usually take place on the first Friday of each month and you are welcome to attend. Please
to be placed on the email invitation list and you will be notified before each meeting.
August 2007: Forestry and Governance in Tanzania
Forty percent of Tanzania’s total land area is covered with forests and woodlands, and this supports the livelihoods of 87% of the poor population who live in the rural areas. The findings of a report on the value of forest resources and governance shortfalls in the forestry sector of Tanzania were presented by one of the authors of the report, Mr Simon Milledge.
This seminar discussed findings from two studies on nutrition. The first was "Nutrition and Development: Empirical Evidence and Lessons to Tanzania" by Adolf F Mkenda. The study sought to explain the relationship between economic growth and nutrition.
The purpose of this seminar was to explain TSED’s role in poverty monitoring. TSED is an indicator and database administrator system that: - facilitates systematization, storage and analysis of performance indicators; - allows user-friendly access to data and presentations in maps, graphs, tables and reports, and - allows grouping of indicators in different frameworks, e.g. Millennium Development Goals, etc.
The objectives of TSED are to make data more accessible, enhance statistical capacity and literacy, and to support evidence-based advocacy. Further information can be obtained from: www.tsed.org.
Participants learnt of the work by Dr Kathleen Beegle of the World Bank on examining and understanding patterns of socio-economic changes and the dynamics of poverty in Kagera, North-West Tanzania. A panel of households, communities and service providers were surveyed during 1991-1994 and those individuals from the initial 919 households were then resurveyed during 2004.
The following reports relating to this survey are available:
The MKUKUTA costing exercise was undertaken to establish the resource requirements for implementation of MKUKUTA's strategies and for attaining the Millennium Development Goals' for 2015. This seminar discussed those findings which were available, the broader implications of the exercise and the possible implications of the findings on the implementation of the strategies for MKUKUTA and the Millennium Development Goals.
November 2006: Health Inequalities and Health Equities in Tanzania.
Discussion on equity issues in service delivery in Tanzania are important because the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA) emphasises the equitable distribution of services as part of the strategy for poverty reduction. This seminar discussed findings of a study commissioned by the Ifakara Health and Development Research Centre and Women's Dignity Project on equity issues in the delivery of health services in the country:
The objective of the forthcoming 'Views of the People' survey is to gather citizens' views on the Government of Tanzania's efforts in poverty reduction, particularly through MKUKUTA and its associated processes. This survey will follow up on a previous study undertaken within Poverty Monitoring Framework called Policy and Service Satisfaction Survey (PSSS) 2002/2003 The meeting provided input to the contents of the questionnaire.
July 2006 Seminar: Rural Growth and its Challenges
The seminar discussed issues relating to growth of the agricultural and rural sector in Tanzania. Two papers were papers presented: Major findings of Agricultural Sample Census for Tanzania 2002-2003, and Smallholder characteristics assessed by household welfare differences. The electronic copy of the second discussion paper is available. Participants were reminded that both REPOA and the Research and Analysis Working Group are seeking proposals for research on rural growth.
The MKUKUTA monitoring master plan provides for the production of a report during 2007, which will be known as "the Views of the People". This seminar identified thematic areas for this report and discussed the methodology to be used. It was decided that the report should cover all the three clusters of MKUKUTA, and that the methodology for the Views of the People Survey should be an enhanced Public Service Satisfaction Survey.
Electronic copies of the background material discussed are available below:
May 2006 Seminar: Monitoring Income Poverty over Time
This meeting discussed poverty mapping methodology and a report on poverty projections recently published by the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Participants discussed the validity of the assumptions used in the IFPRI study that the relationship does not change over time between household income (consumption) and variables correlated with household income (consumption) as captured in the Household Budget Survey 1991/1992 and Demographic and Health Surveys during the 1990s. The conclusion was reached that the assumption that there is no change in the relationship does not hold true in all cases over time.
Electronic copies of the material discussed are available below; please contact
if you would like to receive a printed copy of either of the two briefs.
The Adobe Acrobat Reader software is required to read most of the documents that you can download from this site.
If you don't already have a copy installed on your computer, you can download one for free here.
