Tanzania - Second Social Action Fund Project

Page 1 PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) APPRAISAL STAGE Report No.: AB1054 Project Name Tanzania Second Social Action Fund Region AFRICA Sector Other social services (60%);General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector (10%);Ports, waterways and shipping (10%);Micro- and SME finance (10%);General water, sanitation and flood protection sector (10%) Project ID P085786 Borrower(s) UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA Implementing Agency Government of Tanzania President's Office, State House P.O.Box 9120 Tanzania TASAF Management Unit Old Kilwa/Malindi Street P.O. Box 9381 Tanzania Tel: 255-51-123582/84 Fax: 255-51-123582 tasaf@ud.co.tz Environment Category [ ] A [ ] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Safeguard Classification [ ] S 1 [X] S 2 [ ] S 3 [ ] S F [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared August 11, 2004 Date of Appraisal Authorization September 8, 2004 Date of Board Approval November 23, 2004 1. Country and Sector Background The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) set within Vision 2020/2025 for the United Republic of Tanzania outlines the main thrust of the Governments strategy to tackle poverty. The PRSP focuses on three dimensions of eradicating poverty: (a) reduce income poverty, (b) improve human capabilities, survival and social well-being, and (c) contain extreme vulnerability among the poor. The Government of Tanzania (GOT) has adopted the internationally-endorsed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the basic minimum achievements for its citizens to have a tolerable level of human existence. The GOT has further adopted the Public Expenditure Review (PER) as a tool to assess the extent to which resources are being used to meet the PRSP goals, ensure fiscal discipline and accountability, prioritize between competing needs, promote efficiency, and guide the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The main development challenge for the GOT is widespread poverty as evidenced by the 2000/2001 Household Budget Survey which showed that 19% of the population lives below the Page 2 food poverty line while 36% live below the basic needs poverty line of under US$1 per day. In the capital city, these figures were 13% and 18% for food and basic needs poverty lines respectively. Thus, inequalities are high as evidenced by the 2000/2001 Gini co-efficient of 0.35, and also reflected by the overwhelming rural and peri-urban distribution of the poor. Access to safe drinking water in 2002 was 70% for urban and 50% for rural populations. Although gross primary school enrolment in the country is now at 100%, tere are challenges of increasing secondary school enrolment as a strategy to improve on numbers of entrants into vocational training and education institutions in the strategy to build a skilled workforce. Health indicators (maternal and infant mortality, malaria-related morbidity, and HIV/AIDS-related illness) remain high in spite of the many efforts of Government and several NGOs. Within the strategy to attain MDGs, the GOT expects to see improvements in many indicators