Economic strategy and structural adjustment in Tanzania

In Tanzania, the need for structural adjustment in the 1980s had its origins in both the negative events in the international economy and the failure to adjust policies swiftly enough in response to the initial shocks. In many respects, the evolution of the Tanzanian economy since independence and the events that led to structural adjustment are quite similar to those experienced by many other African countries. This paper discusses the economic strategy as well as the structural adjustment in Tanzania. The first part of the report focuses on the origin of the economic crisis. The second part discusses the politics of reform. Part three explains the reform process. The distributional impact of reform is reviewed in part four of the paper and the sustainability of the reform process in part five. Part six discusses the role of donors and, finally, the paper concludes with a brief discussion on the vision of the reform period.