WB passes $450m to boost human capital in Tanzania

Washington. Over five million Tanzanians, more than half of them women, will benefit from improved social safety nets supported by new financing approved yesterday by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors.

The $450 million (about Sh1 trillion) International Development Association (IDA) credit to the Second Productive Social Safety Net Project (PSSN II), implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (Tasaf), will seek to improve food consumption and livelihoods, while increasing children’s primary and secondary school attendance and completion; as well as their access to health care.

“Tanzania’s earlier social safety net programme helped beneficiaries to save more money and obtain more assets. As a result, many people had more food and access to better education and health care. Still, this new support will be critical to improve the lives of many more people in need and overall raise the country’s human capital index, which is still very low at 0.40,” said Ms Bella Bird, the World Bank Country Director.

“We will continue to work with the government and engage with citizens and other stakeholders on the complex set of development issues facing the country and its people,” she added.

Tanzania successfully piloted a conditional cash transfer programme in three districts from 2009 to 2012.

It was eventually developed into a comprehensive and integrated national social safety net system, namely Tasaf.

In 2012, the government began implementing the scaled-up first phase supported by IDA through the PSSN I, which attained its target of reaching one million households by September 2015, well ahead of schedule.

PSSN I targeted approximately 650,000 households living under the food poverty line as well as about 350,000 at-risk of falling under that line, because of a shock affecting their income.

The objective of PSSN II is to provide poor households with income-earning opportunities and socio-economic services, while enhancing and protecting the human capital of their children. “Due to population growth, despite the reduction in the extreme poverty rate, the absolute number of people living in extreme poverty increased between 2007 and 2018,” said Mr Muderis Abdulahi Mohammed, World Bank senior Social Protection specialist and Co-Task Team leader.

In addition to the newly approved IDA support, the overall PSSN programme is being financed by the government of Tanzania as well as other development partners including DfID, USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the International Fund for Agriculture Development, Government of Norway, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Opec Fund.