WB advocates cash handouts poor

President Jakaya Kikwete speaks during the funeral service of late South African President Nelson Mandela in his childhood village of Qunu yesterday. Far right: Members of the South African armed forces move Mandela’s coffin to the burial site. PHOTOS | AFP 

 

By  Athuman Mtulya, The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• While World Bank sponsored cash handout pilot programme targeting the poor in 80 villages in three districts bore success, local experts are cautions about its practicality and sustainability in the long run.

Dar es Salaam. Opinion is divided on how to lift four million people, surviving on Sh2600 per month, from extreme poverty.

While World Bank sponsored cash handout pilot programme targeting the poor in 80 villages in three districts bore success, local experts are cautions about its practicality and sustainability in the long run.

The World Bank advocated that the ‘Mama Shida’ programme run by Tanzania Social Action Fund (Tasaf) since 2010, be scaled up, but the experts are in favour of other interventions that address the root cause of poverty.

The WB on Friday launched the fourth issue of Tanzania Economic Update entitled Raising the Game, Can Tanzania Eradicate extreme poverty? The issue argues that economic growth in the country was not trickling down to the poor and blames it on investments only in capital intensive sectors, such as mining and telecommunication.

“…levels of growth in labour intensive sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing remain modest or even negative, resulting in the failure of economic growth to facilitate a high level of job creation,” highlighted the report.

As a result, 4.2 million Tanzanians continue to survive on only Sh26,085 per month; this is far below the UN poverty line of two dollars a day

.

The report also discussed what WB country director Philippe Dongier called “… a bold new way of lessening extreme poverty by transferring cash directly to the most vulnerable people.”

He also challenged Tanzania to seriously invest in social protection if it really aims to combat poverty, as currently only three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is allocated to safety nets this amount is even lower compared to poor countries like Malawi and Ethiopia which are spending over four per cent of their GDP on various prevention programmes.

WB country lead economist Jacques Morisset was more optimistic, saying that if only ten per cent of aid inflow-$250 million-will be invested in conditional cash transfers, extreme poverty will be reduced by half.

This method however raised alarm in guest panellists at the report launch who believed that a solution cannot be treated as an intervention initiative.

WB is drawing confidence on the initiative from experience in Brazil and Mexico where such programmes proved effective.

It is not a strange thing in Tanzania where since 2010, the pilot cash flow programme, Mama Shida under Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), has been implemented in three districts of Kibaha, Bagamoyo and Chamwino and helped 80 villages