One of the poorest countries in Africa, Tanzania is located on the eastern coast

of Africa, between Kenya and Mozambique. Along the coast are plains, teeming wi
th animal life, and towards the north and south are large mountains and highland
s. The capital is Dodoma with Dar es Salaam as the largest city. According to th
e UN records in 2010, there are 45 million people living there with resources of
hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural
gas, and nickel.
Tanzania still faces many problems today, both politically and economica
lly. Today, Tanzania is run by a republic government with Jakaya Kikwete as the
president. He has been president since his election in 2005 and is now serving h
is second term. Although he may seem like a model African leader, there are stil
l impoverished areas in Tanzania. His work aimed towards turning Tanzania into a
free-market economy, with only half of the population in the labor force. As pr
esident, he dropped inflation and had the countryâ s debt wiped, but most Tanzanians
were still impoverished.
Being in the bottom 10% of the worldâ s economies relative to GDP, Tanzania h
eavily depends on agriculture, which provides 85% of exports and employs 80% of
the work force. Only 4% of the land area (4% of 947,300 sq km) can be used beca
use of climatic conditions. The environment faces many issues: soil degradation;
deforestation, desertification; destruction of coral reefs threatens marine hab
itants; recent droughts affected marginal agriculture; wildlife threatened by il
legal hunting and trade, especially for ivory. Residents face many natural haza
rds, too, such as the flooding on central plateaus and occasional droughts. This
affects how the people are forced to live in Tanzania, they must adapt to the d
ifferent climates and hazards Tanzania faces.
Through all the efforts of supporting agencies, World Bank, and sympathe
tic countries, who try to fight international poverty, Tanzania still struggles
to develop. The aid was not effective because of the large amounts of inefficien
cy, corruption, resistance from peasants, and rise of imported petroleum. A 2007
Household Budget Survey showed that the amount of people living in poverty decr
eased by 2.4% to 33.3% from the 35% that lived in poverty in 2001. This shows th
at in 2001, 15.75 million people of the 45 million residents of Tanzania lived i
n poverty. A problem that contradicts the positive view of the decrease in pover
ty is the growth rate in population which accumulates about 2.9% added each year
. The decrease in population cannot compensate for the rate of growth. Consequen
tly, the reduction in the proportion of poor translates to an increase of 1 mill
ion people living in poverty on mainland Tanzania between 2001 and 2007. Tanzan
ia is trying to make an easier commercial environment, but through its efforts,
however, only about 14% of Tanzanians have access to power and Tanzaniaâ s transport
infrastructure remains insufficiently developed to support growth and connect al
l Tanzanians with markets and services.
Tanzania is targeted by the MDGs because the country evidently needs aid
and shows clear problems that directly relate to MDGâ s goals: end poverty, have uni
versal education, have gender equality, improve child health and maternal health
, combat HIV/AIDS, aid environmental sustainability and aim for global partnersh
ip. Tanzania has a very big problem when it comes to poverty since around a thir
d of its large population is dealing with poverty. Education is also a problem s
ince inequality is a factor. Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the homes to the vast
majority of children out of school. Only 5% o adults have a secondary education
and only about 1% have a tertiary education. This relates to the goal gender e
quality, since Tanzania deals with inequality today, especially to people of oth
er colors. For example, a report written on November 3, 2009 said that albino pe
ople are being killed by Tanzanians who may have been driven by cultural beliefs
, one being that albino parts can make you rich. Child and maternal care in Tan
zania is important because of the large population and openness to disease. With
out the proper skill and care, deaths at birth are bound to happen. This links t
o the goal to combat HIV and AIDS since Tanzania has an evident problem, being r
ight above some countries that face the worst cases of HIV and AIDS.