Measures of poverty based on consumption suggest that recent economic growth in many African countries has not been inclusive, particularly in rural areas. We argue that measures of poverty using assets may provide a different * The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the DfID ESRC Growth Research Programme (ES/L/) which has funded this research project and of the Research Council of Norway which has supported this work through the Greenmentality project. We are grateful to the University of Manchester for supporting Brockington's sabbatical research, to two anonymous reviewers for their incisive and supportive comments on an earlier MS and to the residents of Gitting and Gocho for answering our questions and discussing the findings with us.
We present data based on recent re-surveys of Tanzanian households first visited in the early 1990s in Manyara Region. These demonstrate a marked increase in prosperity from high levels of poverty, using locally determined measures of wealth. It does not, however, follow that these improvements derive from GDP growth. We consider the implications of this research for further explorations of the relationship between economic growth and agricultural policy in rural areas. Finally we present local interpretations of the reasons for this change which focus on endogenous characteristics like mind-sets and attitudes which are fundamental for responding to exogenous change.
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