Tanzania secures Sh434 billion from AfDB and World Bank.
Two multilateral institutions, the African Development Bank and the World Bank have given Tanzania $255.2 million (Sh434 billion) to help support the health sector, private sector reforms and economic governance.
The AfDB approved $155.2 million (Sh263.5 billion) while the WB approved $1000 (Sh170 billion) according to statements released yesterday.
The health project supported by the World Bank donation would see up to eight million Tanzanians access better health services each year from now until 2015. The project is designed to build on success in improving access to health services, which have helped to cut infant and child mortality rates by nearly half over the past decade.
"Children in the country stand a much better chance of survival today than they did 20 years ago, or even 5 years ago, thanks to investments that made vaccinations, mosquito nets, vitamin supplements and other basic health services available," said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Acting Country Director for Tanzania.
The AfDB loan to Tanzania was provided through the African Development Fund, which is the AfDB group’s concessional or ‘soft loan’ arm.
"This programme is the AfDB Group’s fourth general budget support operation in Tanzania. One of its distinctive features is that it widens the scope of the AfDB’s intervention to target both soft and hard enablers of private sector development, while consolidating gains and deepening reforms in public financial management and mainstreaming anti-corruption reforms," said Ndoumbe Lobe, the AfDB’s director for governance, economic and financial management.
He added that the smooth implementation of the governance and economic competiveness support programme would leverage the partnership between the Tanzanian authorities and the group of general budget support partners.
The establishment of the AfDB’s regional resource centre in Nairobi, as well as its field office in Dar es Salaam, will help deepen the group’s policy dialogue and technical advice with the Tanzanian authorities and other development partners, according to Mr Lobe.
The AfDB Group has 23 ongoing operations in Tanzania. They include 15 national projects, two private sector operations and six multinational operations, amounting to a total commitment of around $945 million.
The World Bank project is expected to contribute about a fifth of the total Health Basket Fund (Tanzania’s main vehicle for donor financing for health) will further support the Government’s efforts to focus on quality and to bring in new financing mechanisms that strengthen management of health services at the local level.
Credits: Citizen reporter/The Citizen
This article was originally posted on Sustainable Development Africa Platform
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