This paper aims at assessing the capabilities of rural households after the liberalization of the
agricultural markets in the 1980s due to reforms in Tanzania’s economy and the agricultural
sector in the mid 1980s, all aimed at speeding up Tanzania’s human development. Tanzania’s
economy is predominantly dependent on agriculture. Low levels of human development and
poverty remains endemic and widespread in Tanzania more than four decades of independence
and these are mostly concentrated in the rural areas, where about 77 % of the population lives.
The rural poor, mostly dependent on agriculture live in remote areas of different agro-climatic
zones with little or no physical assets and a less qualified human resource base. The paper
specifically intends to assess whether rural people are capable of; meeting their household’s
health and education costs, owning a good house with private piped water and their ability to
participate in social events requiring monetary contributions. The paper uses data from a field
study that involved 200 respondents selected at random in the three districts of Rukwa region.
Findings indicate more than half of the surveyed households thought they were currently able to
meet their education costs and to participate in various social events requiring monetary
contributions. However, many households were currently incapable of meeting their health costs
as well as owning good quality houses with private piped water.