This paper reviews the trends in non-consumption dimensions of poverty in Tanzania between
1992 and 2001. It assesses changes in access to and distribution of housing facilities, social
services and infrastructure at national level and disaggregated to three levels: Dar es
Salaam, other urban areas and rural areas. To assess changes in distribution we introduce
Concentration Incidence Growth Curves (CIGC) that show the distribution of growth in
access to services across wealth groups.
In general, non-consumption dimensions of poverty show improvements between 1992 and
2001, with the exception of access to a primary school. The proportion of adults having
completed primary education, the availability of electricity and improved roofs have most
significantly improved. Developments at the national level largely reflect the situation in
other urban areas, where improvements have been realized on all but one indicator. The
trends for Dar es Salaam and rural areas are more diverse, and improvements in some areas
are countered by deterioration or stagnancy in others. Growth in access to services, negative
or positive, also has not been equally distributed across wealth groups. The rich often lost
less or benefited (more), while the poor gained less or lost (more). Again, other urban areas
are an exception: here the poor not only gained, but for some indicators gained more than the
rich. This has however not evened out existing inequalities between the rich and the poor in
other urban areas. In Dar es Salaam and especially in rural areas, inequality has increased
while existing redistribution through access to facilities, social services and infrastructure
has decreased; warranting sustained or even increased policy focus.