Merging in the circle

This paper argues that the in the formulation of Tanzania's PRSP, the shifting alliances between the three main groups of actors (the state, non-state and donors) included in policy formulation and and those excluded from the process from within these circles, did not sufficiently encompass the wide range of views required for inclusive and transparent poverty oriented policies. The authors find that:

• the dominations of creditor interests (streamlined disbursement, guarantees of payment) prevail without increased controls on lending policies
• the cosmopolitan middle-class are being empowered as the policy elite, at the expense of deepening popular democratic influence and oversight
• there is a one-dimensional approach to public policy on social investments without parallel attention to productivity
• the process of 'consultation' is being abused to legitimise predetermined policies (and duplicity in the portrayal of the process as participatory)

Some of the key recommendations emerging from this report argue that:

• rather than exhibiting broad based participation, the process and content of the Tanzanian PRSP reflect views of a small, homogenous ‘iron triangle’ of transnational professionals based in key Government ministries and donor agencies in Dar es Salaam
• the PRS process deteriorated into an exercise of ‘budgetism’ as against a genuine consideration of the various policy alternatives available to Tanzania
• the lack of a strategy for economic transformation in concert with the removal of bureaucratic obstacles to new credits is likely to deepen Tanzania’s already crippling long-term aid dependency
• domestic advocacy groups are being crowded out of policy debates
• that the discretion of local government has actually been increased therefore making the process less transparent
• the PRSP process itself has actually undermined (from above and below) the constitutional system of representative democracy upon which Tanzania’s political system is nominally based