The ideas suggested in the Zanzibar Poverty Reduction Plan are guided by four main strategies:

to keep a steady focus on the three guiding principles of

	reducing income poverty
	improving human capabilities, survival and well-being and
	containing extreme vulnerability

to create a favourable environment for investment by

	adopting open market and liberalised economic policies and
	promoting the participation of the private sector

to promote social harmony and participation by

	reducing the immense costs of social unrest and
	addressing glaring inequalities particularly between Pemba and Unguja

to keep a balance between

	policies which encourage economic growth,
	the social and environmental effects of those policies, and
	redistribution of wealth in favour of vulnerable groups

It will take some time to organise stakeholder consultations to figure out the details of how to act on all of these strategies. Present thinking about three key areas is given below.

The primary target groups for poverty reduction are

	rural small farmers and fishermen
	low income inhabitants of informal urban settlements, notably the unemployed
	the aged, single mothers and children in deprived circumstance
	people with limited access to basic social services

Reducing income poverty
Income poverty will be reduced by encouraging wealth creating and therefore income generating activities and by tackling any inequality issues that might appear as a result. This will be possible by stimulating economic growth through investment and through encouraging new, local businesses to start up in the growth areas of agriculture, small scale manufacturing, trade and tourism.
The Grassroots Consultation Meetings (GCM) showed that people thought there was a priority need to address issues in education, health, water, agriculture and infrastructure. Work in these areas will help to directly and indirectly reduce poverty and also help to create a more favourable climate for investment.	Economic growth in Zanzibar over the last three years was estimated at about 2% per year. The ZPRP target is to increase this to about 6% per year by the end of the three year period. Sub targets have also been set for the priority sectors.

Creating and enabling environment for investment

External investors will not be attracted to Zanzibar unless they see opportunities to make a profit in a politically and socially secure environment. This means that the government needs a sound investment policy in place as soon as possible and also needs to widen and deepen the financial sector which is presently very weak.

The government on its own cannot provide people with everything they need. How can communities offer support and assistance?

If there is to be political and social stability then the government must tackle what poor people themselves see as the causes of poverty. This will call for increased and effective government spending to improve the quality of life. Organisations which are outside government will also be encouraged to invest.

External investors and the people themselves want to be able to trust government departments. This means that government officials must be able and willing to design and implement policies and procedures with openness and transparency. The ZPRP stresses the need for good governance practices and an appropriate moral code of public ethics in Zanzibar

The five top Priorities

Through the ZPRP the government will give top priority to the following areas:

	community based projects which empower people and meet the priorities which have been set by the communities themselves
	better health services for the poor (eg readily available services and drugs)
	better education facilities for all (eg improved teaching skills and more skill development programmes)
	improved agricultural productivity and better use of natural resources (eg better extension services, planting materials and credit schemes. Involving farmers and fishermen in development processes. Promoting micro and small scale enterprise development schemes)
	expanded programme of public service reform and capacity building

The government will regularly update the amount of money given to different poverty reduction activities as a result of information and analyses coming from the monitoring and evaluation exercises.