Various stakeholders met at the Poverty Policy Week, a three-day forum popularly known as PPW to discuss the country’s development progress. This year, the theme was “Empowering of the Poor is Fundamental in Speeding/Facilitating/Enhancing Economic Growth  and Sustainable Development”.

The overall objective of the forum is to assess and discuss progress in the implementation of MKUKUTA and the Public Expenditure Review (PER). In contrast the previous PPW fora, the 2008 consultations had the additional value of allowing stakeholders to discuss in the wider context the PER. Approximately, a total number of 400 participants managed to participate in the 2008 PPW.

The guest of honor the Hon Sumari, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, informed participants that the government will act on the issues raised during the forum including the cited areas of weak implementation. He reminded the forum that growth of the economy and reduction of poverty is the government's main agenda as has been addressed in the Vision 2025 and MKUKUTA through the three clustered pillars.

The REPOA organisation (Research on Poverty Alleviation), gave comments on the Household Budget Survey for 2007. The main observations brought forward are that the survey results suggest little change in average expenditures and rates of poverty since 2000/01 but that there is greater ownership of consumer goods. The survey also found that there was an increased attendance in school, including of the poorest children.

The Poverty Monitoring Group on its part noted that there was a deterioration of access to water but improvements were seen in consumer durables, housing quality, food share, access to health and education services. However, they posed the question: why do households invest in consumer goods rather than assets?

There were also presentations by the Village Community Banks (VICOBA) on the contribution of their organisation in meeting the MKUKUTA goals and increasing the human capital for the majority of Tanzanians and the Social Protection Team on the National Social Protection Framework which aims help achieve the MKUKUTA goals of improving the well-being of Tanzanians and reducing inequalities.