Refugees and Agricultural Development in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania’s experience of refugees is instructive in several respects. At all times a receiver not a generator of refugees, Tanzania has been one of the twelve African nations which have taken a disproportionate share of the continent’s refugee burden — a product of its early peaceful independence in an unstable region and its open-door policy towards refugees. Tanzania has accumulated a lengthy experience of refugee settlement by supporting a large refugee population for the last 25 years or so (equivalent to about one per cent of its population at any one time). Refugees offered asylum include a wide range of nationalities and groups of varying sizes, status and background. Finally, it is one of the few countries which has matched international stance with its domestic policies — through its positive programmes of refugee assistance.