Donors give Sh904bn for new budget

The amounts have declined since, though. But the current chair of the GBS donor group, Finnish Ambassador Sinikka Antila, said on Thursday that Tanzania continues to rank among the top recipients of GBS funds despite the decline. PHOTO|FILE 

By Sturmius Mtweve, The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

The funding, which is Sh15 billion more than the commitment for the current financial year, will go directly into the national budget. Although the funds have not been disbursed on time by the 12 donors in recent years, GBS is the government’s preferred aid vehicle because it is predictable.

Dar es Salaam. Donors in the General Budget Support (GBS) lobby have promised slightly more than half a billion dollars in direct financial support for the government in the next financial year.

The funding, which is Sh15 billion more than the commitment for the current financial year, will go directly into the national budget. Although the funds have not been disbursed on time by the 12 donors in recent years, GBS is the government’s preferred aid vehicle because it is predictable.

The group said in a statement: “GBS development partners have committed a total of $559 million (about Sh904 billion) in direct financial support to Tanzania’s budget for financial year 2014/15. Tanzania continues to receive one of the highest levels of budget support in Africa.”

GBS funding for the current financial year was $560 million (about Sh889 billion) compared to $495 million (about Sh842.5 billion) that was provided in 2012/13. GBS levels rose steadily through the last decade and reached a peak in 2009/2010, when it hit $930 million.

The amounts have declined since, though. But the current chair of the GBS donor group, Finnish Ambassador Sinikka Antila, said on Thursday that Tanzania continues to rank among the top recipients of GBS funds despite the decline.

“GBS is the preferred aid modality of the government…as development partners provide their GBS commitments during the government’s budget planning process, it enables funds to be taken into account in the national budget planning,” she told The Citizen on Saturday.

According to the diplomat, the funds have been diminishing for two main reasons--the fiscal and economic circumstances in the donor economies and the fact that Tanzania is also increasingly mobilising more domestic resources to finance its development agenda.

Finland took over the chairmanship of the Budget Support Development Partners Group from Sweden on Wednesday this week. The other members of the group are the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the World Bank.

The immediate former GBS chair, Sweden, focused on three aspects of budget support. They included delivering tangible, measurable poverty reduction results in line with the government priorities. It also focused on greater transparency and accountability, results-based dialogue, communication and effective working methods.

“Our joint efforts to reform the budget support instrument have enabled us to build a basis for future support,” Swedish Ambassador Lennarth Hjelmaker noted in the statement announcing the new commitment, “and to continue contributing to the government’s efforts to reduce poverty, create jobs and improve services.” The GBS donors invest in strengthening the capacity of the government to deliver results and improve lives. The development partners want Tanzania’s impressive economic growth to become more inclusive and translate into poverty reduction, job opportunities and improved service delivery to citizens, including those living in the remotest parts of the country.

Important results set to be monitored in the year ahead include improved pupil-teacher ratios in more districts, more nurses and midwives per 10,000 population and more rural households getting safe and clean water.

GBS statistics show that in 2005/2006 and 2011/2012, Tanzania received aid amounting to $5 billion under this system