DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania has expressed its gratitude to the World Bank for its significant financial and technical assistance in enhancing research capacities and data utilization for informed policy-making. Deputy Minister for Finance, Hamad Hassan Chande, acknowledged this support during the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.
Chande highlighted the vital role played by the World Bank in fortifying the National Bureau of Statistics and Zanzibar Bureau of Statistics, particularly in conducting comprehensive household surveys and interviews. He credited the World Bank’s assistance for facilitating numerous reforms in Tanzania’s agricultural sector, thus positioning the country as a key food supplier in the East and Central Africa region.
“We have seen remarkable policy changes in agriculture, enabling Tanzania to become a reliable source of food for neighboring countries,” Chande stated.
The event was a convergence of leading researchers and senior policymakers from across Africa, aiming to foster discussion on research, policy, and the developmental impacts of the LSMS-ISA initiative, especially in Tanzania. Organized by the National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania and the Office of the Chief Government Statistician in Zanzibar, the event also served as a platform to present recent research papers by African researchers utilizing survey data for policymaking.
Chande emphasized the importance of building research capacity, which was instrumental in conducting the Household Budget Surveys of 2011/12 and 2017/18. These surveys unveiled significant progress in poverty reduction, with basic needs poverty dropping from 28.2% in 2011-12 to 26.4% in 2017-18, and food poverty declining from 9.7% to 8.0% over the same period.
Pedro Olinto, a Senior Economist at the World Bank, shared insights with the ‘Daily News’ on the LSMS-ISA’s role in understanding economic growth, household expenditure, and poverty reduction dynamics in Tanzania. “The study provides a deeper understanding of poverty reduction processes and trends in moving out of poverty,” he said.
One key finding from the longitudinal surveys was a reversal in rural-urban migration during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The conference concluded with a panel discussion that distilled the LSMS-ISA experience in statistical capacity building, data usage for research and policy, and the role of longitudinal multi-topic household surveys in the context of climate change, health crises, and increasing fragility and conflict.
The LSMS-ISA, a unique system of longitudinal surveys, aims to enhance understanding of household and individual welfare, livelihoods, and smallholder agriculture in Africa. In collaboration with national statistics offices in eight Sub-Saharan African countries, the project focuses on multi-topic, nationally representative panel household surveys with an emphasis on agriculture. The project’s main goal is to promote innovation and efficiency in statistical research on the relationship between agriculture and poverty reduction.
The project supports the design and implementation of the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TZNPS), concentrating on expanding agricultural content and ensuring comparability with other LSMS-ISA surveys in the region. The TZNPS is a comprehensive household panel survey that gathers data on various aspects, including agricultural production, non-farm income activities, consumption expenditures, and other socioeconomic factors.