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Country Assessment: Africa

Upgrading of Low Income Settlements 

The Country 

Tanzania is a large country with an area of approximately 945,100 sq. km. and a population of approximately 31 million. Population density is thus approximately 32 persons per square kilometer. Agriculture dominates the economy, accounting for 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by services (26 percent) and industry (15 percent). It is a very poor country with a GDP per capita of approximately US$220 (1997), ranking it among the lowest in the world. Over half the population is classified as being very poor. Basic data on the country and its main city, Dar es Salaam, are summarized in Annex C. 

The country is located in the east of Africa and has a long coastline. Apart from the mainland, it also includes a number of islands in the Indian Ocean, the largest being Zanzibar and Pemba. The landscape of the mainland is mainly flat and low along the coast but a plateau at an average of 1,220 meters constitutes the greater part of the country. It contains the highest mountain in Africa, the volcanic Kilimanjaro with an elevation of about 5,900 meters on its northeastern border. It also has three of Africa’s great lakes on its borders, Tanganyika in the west, Victoria in the northwest, and Malawi in the southwest. Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika lie in the Great Rift Valley, the vast geological fault system extending from the Middle East to Mozambique. The country is bordered in the north by Kenya and Uganda, in the east by the Indian Ocean, in the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda and in the south by Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. The climate of the mainland is warm and tropical on the coastal strip, where the main city of Dar es Salaam is situated, with temperatures averaging 27 degrees centigrade and with heavy rainfall (1,000 mm-1,900 mm). It is hot and dry on the inland plateau although there are semi-temperate highlands in the southwest. Its diverse habitats and climate have enabled Tanzania to build a successful tourist industry around its wildlife.

Urbanization 

Of the total population, some 25 percent live in urban areas but the urban population is growing rapidly at over 6 percent per annum, around twice the national rate of population growth. The country is divided into 20 regions for political and administrative reasons. There are ten major towns with populations of over 150,000 with the major city and port, Dar es Salaam, having a population of approximately three million. 

Despite government emphasis in the past on improving living conditions in the rural areas, rapid urbanization has continued. Investment in the public and private sector has not kept pace with population growth in urban areas. Low levels of urban management capacity and inappropriate institutional arrangements have hampered the development of the urban sector. Demand for infrastructure and urban services has not been met, worsening the nature and incidence of urban poverty, as well as constraining national economic growth and productivity. 

Tanzania’s rural-to-urban migration is a result of the decline of international primary commodity prices (mainly from coffee and sisal) in the 1970s and 1980s and other disincentives to national farmers that helped push rural producers to the towns in search of employment. Potential income streams, education and other subsidized or free public goods and services led many rural dwellers to Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, and other secondary cities. Dar es Salaam is seven times the size of the next largest city, Mwanza, in population terms, and continues to attract the majority of migrants. In Dar es Salaam, population densities reach 1,500 persons/hectare with an average of approximately 150 persons/hectare. It is estimated that about 70 percent of Dar es Salaam’s population live in poor, unplanned settlements 

Full Report: Upgrading of Low Income Settlements Country Assessment Report: Tanzania  

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