Tanzania and Sweden signed an agreement worth 117.8 billion / – for the implementation of the Productive Social Safety Net Phase II (PSSN II) in the country.

Speaking at a signing ceremony held in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Emmanuel Tutuba said that the implementation of the PSSN II was a continuation of the PSSN I which ended in 2019.

Anders Sjöberg, Swedish Ambassador to Tanzania attended the event.

The following is PS Tutuba’s speech he gave at the meeting.

STATEMENT BY EMMANUEL M. TUTUBA, PERMANENT SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND PLANNING ON THE OCCASION OF THE SIGNING OF THE GRANT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF TANZANIA AND SWEDEN TO SUPPORT PHASE II OF THE PRODUCTION OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY

26 AUG 2021, DAR ES SALAAM

Your Excellency, Anders Sjöberg, Ambassador of Sweden to the United Republic of Tanzania;

MRS. Sandra Diesel, Head of Development Cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Tanzania;

Ms. Amina Kh. Shaaban, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning;

Mr. Ladislaus J. Mwamanga, Executive Director – Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF);

Representatives of the Swedish Embassy;

Other government officials;

Members of the press;

Ladies and gentlemen;

Hello.

1. I am pleased to sign with you today a grant agreement under which the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania will access the grant in the amount of 450 million Swedish Kronor (SEK), equivalent to to TZS 117.8 billion to finance phase II of the Social Security Net (PSSN II) production. As you know, this is a successor to PSSN I, which started in 2013 and ended in 2019.

2. Recognizing the importance of PSSN II, the Swedish government has advanced a grant of SEK 100 million equivalent to TZS 26.2 billion in June 2021. This is in addition to SEK 750 million equivalent to TZS 196.4 billion. TZS for PSSN I. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you personally and through you the Government of Sweden for this valuable support.

3. Your Excellency the Ambassador, PSSN II will be implemented for four years, from 2020 to September 2023, with a budget of US $ 883.31 million, or the equivalent of TZS 2.02 trillion. I am pleased to note the Swedish government’s contribution to the PSSN II budget, which has reduced the funding gap.

4. Your Excellency, the main objective of PSSN II is to improve access to income opportunities and socio-economic services for targeted poor households while improving and protecting the human capital of their children. Thus, the PSSN II Program includes the following activities:

I. Provision of conditional cash transfers (Cash Transfer Program) to eligible and duly registered households.

ii. Carrying out labor-intensive public works activities (Public Works Program – PWP) designed to generate temporary employment opportunities for PWP beneficiaries in eligible households with the working capacity to implement implementation of community sub-projects.

iii. Carry out program activities, including a basic and enhanced livelihood improvement program designed to promote self-employment, paid employment, savings and investments, provide entrepreneurial skills training and provide grants to eligible beneficiaries.

iv. Institutional capacity building and integrated delivery system building, which involves carrying out a program of activities designed to improve institutional capacity and develop systems for the delivery of benefits and services and project implementation.

5. Your Excellency, after the launch of PSSN II, the immediate exercise was to verify eligible households. As of December 2020, a total of 1,013,635 households have been verified for eligibility in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar and the remaining 56,800, verification is ongoing to ensure that no eligible households are left behind. side.

6. For the period July 2020 to July 2021, 871,654 eligible beneficiary households received TZS 171.8 billion in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

7. Your Excellency, the impact assessment of the PSSN has been carried out and data has been collected in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, which revealed the following results, among others:

i) Absolute poverty has been reduced by 8 percent where the ability to meet basic needs has improved.

ii) The number of targeted beneficiaries participating in modern agricultural activities using fertilizers has increased.

iii) The increase in the number of enrolled and enrolled children from poor households has increased by 6 percent.

iv) Increase in the number of targeted beneficiaries using health services and increase in the number of children 0-24 months who have access to health centers.

v) Increase in family savings.

vi) Increase in improved housing for poor households.

vii) Increase in self-employment for targeted beneficiaries of the old status of daily workers.

8. Your Excellency, this is the great achievement as our people gradually rise from abject poverty to the level where they can contribute to economic growth.

9. Your Excellency, our two countries enjoy exceptional friendly relations, which are developing as evidenced by the increase in the number of bilateral development projects supported by the Swedish Government. Tanzania has benefited from Swedish support, mainly in the areas of budget support through the Economic and Fiscal Governance Program (EFGP), energy sector, research cooperation, land use planning, education and productive social safety net (PSSN). Ongoing projects and programs have a portfolio of approximately SEK 2.76 billion equivalent to TZS 723.2 billion and completed projects / programs have a portfolio of approximately SEK 2.59 billion equivalent to TZS 677.2 billion of TZS in the form of grants.

10. Your Excellency, on behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Government of Sweden for this valuable support, which is part of the Five-Year Development Plan.

11. Your Excellency, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you personally, to your team and to government officials whose dedication and efforts made the signing of this grant agreement possible today.

12. Your Excellency the Ambassador and all the participants, allow me to conclude my remarks by reaffirming the commitment of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania under His Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan to continue to cooperate with the Government of Sweden to strengthen our valuable development cooperation. In addition, rest assured that the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania will take all necessary measures to ensure the successful implementation of this program in order to achieve the targeted objectives.

13. Thank you for your kind attention.