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 MKUKUTA II poverty reduction strategy1, and to evaluate 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 on health, the Integrated Labour Force Survey on labour markets, the Household Budget Survey on expenditure, and the National Sample Census of Agriculture. 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.