Washington — The World Bank has today approved two financing programs for Tanzania totaling $775 million. The new International Development Association (*IDA) financing consists of a $500 million credit for the first Tanzania Inclusive and Resilient Growth Development Policy Financing and a $250 million credit plus an additional $25 million grant for the Tanzania Maternal and Child Health Investment Program.
Tanzania has experienced a contraction of its tourism sector and a spike in import prices for fuel and other commodities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Prudent macroeconomic management has allowed the country to weather these external shocks and minimize the erosion of hard-won development gains.
The Tanzania Inclusive and Resilient Growth Development Policy Financing is the first in a series of two operations to support policy and institutional reforms that are critical to unleashing private sector growth, increasing transparency, boosting Tanzania's risk management capacity, and building economic resilience against future shocks driven by climate change and other external factors.
"The World Bank is putting its full support behind policies aimed to ensure a robust private sector-led recovery that will help the country reach its economic potential, while also making growth more inclusive and resilient to future shocks," said Nathan Belete, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania.
The second financing package of $275 million for the Tanzania Maternal and Child Health Investment Program will help the country improve the quality of essential healthcare services and scale up delivery. It includes a $250 million Program for Results (PforR) for Tanzania mainland and a $25 million Investment Project Financing (IPF) project for Zanzibar. The program is additionally funded by a grant of $25 million from the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents. The primary beneficiaries of this financing are women of reproductive age, adolescents, and children under the age of five, including newborns and infants (about 40% of the total population) who will benefit from a package of high impact quality and cost-effective reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health, and nutrition (RMNCAH-N) interventions.
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"Over the past two decades, Tanzania has significantly reduced the disease burden and improved health outcomes due to improvements in the control of major communicable diseases and vaccine preventable diseases," said Amit Dar, World Bank Director for Strategy and Operations for Eastern and Southern Africa. "With this new financing, we hope to accelerate progress in areas where outcomes have been lagging in regard to high maternal mortality, high fertility rates, elevated newborn mortalities, and high rates of malnutrition."
*The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world's poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people's lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world's 74 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.3 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has provided $496 billion to 114 countries. Annual commitments have increased steadily and averaged about $34.7 billion over the last three years (FY20-FY22), with about 70 percent going to Africa. Learn more online: IDA.worldbank.org. #IDAworks
