In 2002, Tanzania renewed its 1974 commitment to universal primary education. This paper explores differences in the current policy-formulation context, examining how development discourse and aid practice have shifted the space and scale of public governance in Tanzania, legitimising international agendas and the participation of non-Tanzanians in the domestic policy process. The analysis suggests that the influence of a highly co-ordinated transnational aid community and the package of aid mechanisms that are being deployed with considerable effect in Tanzania are likely to replicate a situation in which access has been prioritised once more at the expense of improving the quality of primary education. (Contains 2 notes.)