World Bank bankrolls Tanzania’s new antipoverty drive with Sh1.03 trillion

Dar es Salaam. The World Bank will issue a loan of Sh1.03 trillion in support of the second phase of Tanzania Social Action Fund (Tasaf).

A total of Sh2 trillion will be spent during the five years of implementation of phase of Tasaf which was officially launched by President John Magufuli in Dar es Salaam on Monday.

The remaining amount will be sourced from various other development partners, including the Opec Fund for International Development which will issue $50 million (about Sh115 billion).

According to Tasaf director general Ladislaus Mwamanga, the programme aims to empower poor households with funds, known as ‘Productive Social Safety Net’ with which they can conduct their income-generating activities.

The projects to be implemented include those that will produce employment as well as developing infrastructure in the education, health and water sectors.
With the aim of reducing poverty in extremely poor households, Tanzania developed Tasaf in 2000. The first phase was implemented from 2000 to 2005 whereby a total of 1,704 social projects were implemented.

The projects included: construction of classrooms, rural roads, health centers, teachers’ houses, infrastructure for irrigation as well as water reservoirs during rainy seasons.

Residents across 40 municipal/district councils in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar have had reservoirs constructed in their areas.
The second phase of the project was implemented between 2005 and 2013 where a total of 12,347 social projects worth Sh430 billion were implemented in 126 municipal councils of Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. A total of 18,682,208 people benefited from the projects.
“Following these successes, we are now getting into a new one that will run for 10 years starting August 2012 to 2023 in two phases,” he said.
He said the first phase - which is expected to end this year - will pave way for the second programme which will end in 2023.
A representative of the World Bank, Preeti Arora said the programme aims at contributing to human development, saying despite a solid foundation a third of Tanzania’s population remains poor and vulnerable.