WASHINGTON, May 31, 2023 — New financing approved by the World Bank will enable at least 300,000 Tanzanian farmers, nearly half of them women, to adopt resilience-enhancing technologies and practices to increase their productivity, while facilitating access to assets and services for up to 1.8 million more farmers.
“Agriculture is key to inclusive economic growth and rural poverty reduction in Tanzania, and the region more broadly,” says Nathan Belete, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania. “This new program underscores the importance of harnessing the potential of agriculture-led growth to strengthen food systems resilience while generating jobs.”
The newly approved $300 million Tanzania Food Systems Resilience Program (TFSRP) is a Program for Results (PforR) that is financed by the International Development Association* (IDA). It supports the implementation of three result areas under the government’s wider Agriculture Sector Development Program II (ASDP II). These include improved service delivery in research, extension, and seeds; developing resilient rural infrastructure; and strengthening fiscal performance to enable delivery on priority investment areas.
The Tanzania program has been approved as part of the second and third phases of the Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) for Eastern and Southern Africa totaling $903 million. The rest of the financing is allocated to Comoros ($40 million), Kenya ($150 million), Malawi ($250 million), Somalia ($150 million), and the African Union Commission ($13 million). Launched in June 2022, the program’s first phase provides support to Ethiopia and Madagascar, as well as two regional bodies.
Multiple shocks are affecting African food systems, with extreme weather, pest and disease outbreaks, and political and market instability becoming more frequent. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is further exacerbating these impacts by disrupting the global food, fuel, and fertilizer markets. As a result, an estimated 73 million people in the region are projected to experience food stress or a food crisis emergency.
“Increasing food systems resilience and strengthening Tanzania's ability to adapt to the challenges of climate change requires a transformation in institutional systems and ways of working,” says Emma Isinika Modamba, World Bank Senior Agricultural Economist and Task Team Leader for the TFSRP. “This program focuses on resilience-building by increasing access to climate-smart technologies, early warning systems, and drought resistance.”
The FSRP supports participating countries in prioritizing medium-term investments that can transform and strengthen the resilience of their food systems. It helps countries to re-build their productive capacity, improve the management of their natural resources, strengthen food value chains and access to markets, and improve policies, national and regional, to enhance the resilience of the sector. Although the program prioritizes medium-term investments to enhance resilience, it can also provide a range of short-term support measures in case of a deteriorating food security situation. The FSRP is central to the World Bank’s engagement in the region, which prioritizes enhancing human development outcomes and increasing the resilience of populations in a region undergoing complex overlapping challenges.
*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
