Rural-urban Interactions and Livelihood Strategies: the Case of Lindi and its Region in Southern Tanzania

Rural-urban interactions include 'spatial' linkages - flows of people, of goods, of money and other social transactions between towns and countryside - and 'sectoral' interactions - rural non-farm employment and urban agriculture. Households increasingly rely on both rural and urban-based resources for their livelihoods. For low-income groups, this is often a survival strategy to make ends meet by engaging in a variety of activities. For higher income groups, investment across sectors of activity and between rural and urban areas, for example by acquiring farmland with income from trade or urban-based employment, is an accumulation strategy to increase assets and income. In Tanzania, economic reform since the mid-1980s has accelerated the demise of state intervention in agicultural production and marketing, and at the same time has opened up new sectors of activity, especially trade. With the decentralisation reform introduced in the mid-1990s, local government's responsibilities have extended to local economic development and poverty reduction. A better understanding of the constraints and limitations of rural-urban interactions, and of the policies affecting them, is increasingly important, especially in the context of small and intermediate urban centres and their surrounding regions. This report explores how different groups rely on rural-urban interactions and linkages in and around the town of Lindi in southern Tanzania. A similar study was conducted in and around the town of Himo, in the Kilimanjaro region (Working Paper no 1 in this series). Both projects were undertaken by researchers at the University College for Land and Architectural Studies and the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme of Dar es Salaam.