Tanzania: Tasaf III Project Receives 1.5tri/ - Boost

By Sylivester Domasa in Dodoma

INTERNATIONAL communities including the United Nations, the European Union and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have agreed to fund poverty reduction strategies under the

country's social action fund-TASAF III.

A total of 1.5tri/- or 630.31 million US dollars have been contributed to help implement the second phase of TASAF III that seeks to empower communities and improve the individual's livelihoods.

TASAF Executive Director Ladislaus Mwamanga told the Deputy Minister for Public Service Management and Good Governance, Deogratius Ndejembi that the World Bank and OPEC Fund have released a soft loan of 450 and 50 million US dollars respectively.

He said Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) offered a grant of 60 million US dollars, the Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania donated 16.45 million US dollars, the EU donated 24.7million US dollar and the Swiss Embassy also granted 17.360 million US dollars to the programme.

"The United Nation agencies; UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WFP and ILO all donated a combined grant of 2.0million US dollars in addition to experts," he said.

The Irish Aid also released a grant of 9.8million US dollars to support the government initiatives.

The Executive Director explained to the Deputy Minister that the implementation of the previous schemes had helped reduce the abject poverty by 52 per cent and expect the new programme will reach more people across the country.

"Our programme is implemented in both the Mainland and the Isles. There has been a positive development in both sides of the union and especially in Pemba," he said.

"Our expectation is to see more people graduate and become independents in the community," he said.

TASAF said it had implemented a total of 7775 employment creation projects countrywide costing some 83bn/- as well as 772 infrastructure-based projects at the cost of 36.6bn/-.

Nonetheless, Mr Mwamanga says a serving scheme introduced among the communities has helped create a total of 23,618 groups with 319,940 members in 48 councils.

"These groups have been able to save 5.9bn/- and have so far issued a total of 2.5bn/- loan among members to invest and improve productivity," he noted.

Mr Ndejembi hailed the Fund for winning international community's support seven years after its establishment. However, the Deputy Minister was concerned that after years of implementing the project, the fund had not attained its intended targets.

"There are so many people who are still dependent on the programme. We must move faster and ensure we create a community of independent people," he said.

According to Ndejembi one out of ten people is likely to have graduated from the abject poverty line, and urged more effort to increase the number of households graduating to the safety net.

The Deputy Minister, however, ordered TASAF to conduct an intensive assessment on the performance of the funds released to households on a month-to-month basis.