The government of Tanzania has been active in attempting to stimulate national economic development since independence, and has used such methods as concentration of rural population in village settlements, the promotion of nine growth centres into secondary cities, and the decentralisation of both the decision-making machinery and economic activities, in particular industry, from Dar-es-Salaam, but with only limited success. Tanzania is still using the basic pattern of urban centres and structures developed during the colonial period, and the problem is that this pattern was designed to serve a different function and purpose from that of today. This study aims to evaluate Tanzania's current urban spatial structure, and the associated economic linkages, in relation to its present development goals. Specifically, it attempts to evaluate one aspect of the spatial economic structure, that of the urban hierarchy, in facilitating the flows of goods, services and information between the rural and urban sectors of the country. This is approached by evaluating the extent to which existing spatial structure has reduced both the primacy of Dar-es-Salaam and the existence of regional inequalities, has attracted industrial growth away from the coastal and northern zones, and has achieved the development objectives of the state of Tanzania. The results of this study show that the dominance of the coastal areas, and, in particular, the metropolitan city of Dar-es-Salaam, the northern centres of Arusha, Moshi, Tanga and Morogoro over the other centres and regions of Tanzania, has not been weakened. The growth centre strategy has not been able to reduce either urban primacy, and in particular the primacy of Dar-es-Salaam, or regional inequalities. It can be concluded that although Tanzania's development goals have changed sincelndependence, the spatial organisation of its towns and service centres, its communication and transport networks and the economic links between them have remained largely unchanged. The present urban structure in Tanzania, and the Dodoma study region, is not appropriate for the nation's current development goals, and has not succeeded in bringing about either the desired rural development or regional equity
