Zanzibar records significant drop in poverty

ABDALLAH MSUYA in Zanzibar

Bella Bird, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Somalia and Burundi.

ZANZIBAR pulled off a significant basic needs poverty and extreme poverty decline of 4.5 per cent and one per cent respectively during the 20102015 period, reveals the World Bank Poverty Assessment report launched here, yesterday.

However, the two sister Islands of Unguja and Pemba notably, enjoyed a mixed fortune with Urban Unguja being the main driver behind the poverty reductions, while the Pemba Island registered a notable increase in poverty among its population.

The World Bank assessment which analyses data from the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar’s Household Budget Survey (HBS) as well as the Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS), shows that the basic needs poverty rate in the archipelago stood at 30.4 per cent in 2015, when the assessment was conducted, compared to 34.9 per cent in 2010.

Unguja, the most populated and most developed Island in Zanzibar, registered a sharp decline in the poverty rate from 26 per cent in 2010 to 18.4 per cent in 2015. This downward trend in poverty was also reflected in other urban centres and rural areas related to Unguja with a decline of 11 per cent for the former and three per cent in the latter.

“The contribution of educational levels of household heads and their spouses to the reduction in Unguja is significant as it underscores the importance of strong investment in the human capital of citizens to eradicate poverty,” said Bella Bird, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Somalia and Burundi.

“Nevertheless, the negative poverty trends for Pemba highlight the urgent need to address the wider issue of regional inequality by driving to ensure more equitable access to basic services across the country,” Ms Bird issued a call.

The report points out that the main drivers of poverty reduction in Unguja were increases in returns to both education and economic activity of the poor. “Household businesses, followed by both the non-farming sector and agriculture, have become more productive in recent years, inducing improvements in the economic situation of the poor,” expounded Ms Bird.

In contrast, Pemba, an Island which its economy is predominantly agricultural, saw its poverty rate increased from 48 per cent to 55 per cent during the period. And the increase, the report says, is due to the fact that 83 per cent of the Pemba population resides in rural areas, underscoring the underdevelopment of the Island’s urban sector as the core contributor to increased poverty.

Commenting on the report, Chief Guest, Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Idd, said it was an important document for all development stakeholders in the public and private sectors, since it presented the Isles’ poverty status while outlining appropriate poverty alleviation strategies.

Ambassador Idd welcomed the poverty reduction progress registered during the past five years, but bemoaned the negative trend in rural Pemba as a serious issue for the government.

“Our government has taken various measures to reduce poverty in Pemba including improvement of infrastructure and high investments in education, but yet the rate of poverty still remains fairly high,” he remarked, noting that the government was ready to listen and implement appropriate poverty alleviation strategies that would be recommended by the experts.

Ambassador Idd recalled that the Isles development vision 2020 has set a goal of reducing the number of people living in poverty in Zanzibar by half come 2020; and insisted; “We are indeed unwaveringly committed to reach this goal through effective pro - poor policies.”

The report also noted that despite the positive trends in pay-offs from educational attainment in Unguja’s urban areas, unemployment among educated youth remains high.

According to the World Bank assessment, the discrepancy could be related to the quality of education in Zanzibar which has been declining with the substantial expansion of the system’s capacity over the past decade, similar to trends witnessed on Mainland and most of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Responding, Ambassador Idd said the government will continue to build vocational centres to provide necessary skills for youths to be self-employed in order to reduce the unemployment rate.

The assessment on the other hand showed improvements in households living conditions, but the World Bank warned that still a large part of the Zanzibar population remains clustered around the poverty line and could easily fall back into poverty at the slightest shock.

The World Bank assessment was conducted by analyzing data from the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar’s Household Budget Survey (HBS) as well as the Integrated Labor Force Survey (ILFS)