The World Bank’s stated objective of the Tanzania Productive Social Safety Net II (PSSN-II) project is “to improve access to income-earning opportunities and socio-economic services for targeted poor households while enhancing and protecting the human capital of their children.”
This project aims to benefit children in the course of implementation as one of the key beneficiaries but does not mention strengthening the child protection systems in its implementation.
The PSSN-II project has a total project cost of $883.31 million, with the International Development Association (IDA) providing $450 million in financing.
Given that this project will consist of a large cash transfer in addition to other programs, it is critical that children, one of the target demographics for the project, are included in the stakeholder engagement process.
Additionally, the project could be an opportunity for strengthening child protection systems to better prevent and address early marriages, child sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEA/H), harmful cultural practices, child labour, child neglect, school dropouts, etc.
BIC and the Foundation for Environmental Management and Campaign Against Poverty (FEMAPO) have been closely monitoring this project since 2020.
Between June and December 2020, BIC and FEMAPO conducted monitoring work and found that stakeholder consultations were delayed, children were not considered as key stakeholders in them, SEA/H prevention and response training for the project staff was lacking, grievance redress mechanism (GRM) were not set in a child-friendly manner, and there was no open line of communication between Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) and CSOs based around the country to receive regular feedback on the project’s implementation.
In a hybrid seminar in March 2021, BIC and FEMAPO shared these findings and key recommendations with the Bank and the TASAF staff, the implementing agency. The seminar engaged groups that would not have otherwise been aware of entry points for the project and allowed them to directly engage with participating TASAF staff and the Bank’s task team leader. Such hybrid engagements can serve as a means of bridging gaps in stakeholder engagement for civil society in less accessible countries and regions.
Throughout 2022, BIC and FEMAPO continued monitoring the project implementation with the overarching goal of assessing if the recommendations shared are actually being implemented by TASAF and the Bank, and if they are using the project as an opportunity to bolster the child protection system in Tanzania.
Based on that monitoring, we have realized many of our concerns at the beginning are still issues today, including the following:
Lack of inclusion for children and CSOs working on child rights in the stakeholder engagement process throughout the project cycle. Children are listed as beneficiaries of the project, as heads of households, and direct beneficiaries. However, children have yet to be directly consulted about project design and implementation. Child participation is one of the four core principles of the Convention on the Rights of the child, and our experience shows it is doable.
Failure to take CSOs' concerns seriously and implement previous recommendations. Since the sharing of recommendations mentioned above, field visits and interviews with key stakeholders have shown no concrete progress around our recommendations.
BIC has created a two pager highlighting these concerns as well as laying out recommendations to address them. You can view that two pager here
