The main objective of the NPS is to provide high-quality household-level data to the Tanzanian government and other stakeholders for monitoring poverty dynamics, tracking the progress of the Five Year Development Plan (FYDP) II poverty reduction strategy and its predecessor plans, and evaluating the impact of other major, national-level government policy initiatives. As an integrated survey covering a number of different socioeconomic factors, it compliments other more narrowly focused survey efforts, such as the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) on health, the Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) on labour markets, the Household Budget Survey (HBS) on expenditure, and the National Sample Census of Agriculture (NSCA). Secondly, as a panel household survey in which the same households are revisited over time, the NPS allows for the study of poverty and welfare transitions and the determinants of living standard changes.
