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Zawya
11-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
World Bank to spend $112mln to fix flaws in wound-up Tanzania project
The World Bank has lined up a multimillion-dollar damage control programme after fundamental mistakes were discovered in the way it monitored human rights protections related to a tourism management project in Tanzania. According to the bank officials, the amount of fresh financing may eventually total more than two-thirds of the multilateral lender's initial $150 million outlay for the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project in southern Tanzania. The project was officially wound up in February. The funding will be disbursed through two separate interventions, starting with $2.8 million to support communities living in and around the Ruaha National Park who were adversely affected by the flaws identified in a recently concluded investigation into the project's implementation. A second, bigger disbursement of up to $110 million, to be spent on another project covering other parts of the country, is also in the pipeline but awaiting approval by the bank's board. Regrow was sponsored by the International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank affiliate, with the aim of developing Tanzania's southern tourism circuit. Launched in 2017, the project became the subject of an extended investigation after allegations of human rights violations against surrounding communities cropped up during its last two years of operation. The probe was conducted by an independent inspection panel mandated by the World Bank board to assess the extent of the bank's compliance with its own operational policies and procedures in projects that it finances. According to the panel's findings, non-compliance with the bank's policies on involuntary resettlement in particular was a major weakness in the project and "contributed to the harm experienced by the affected communities.""In conducting its due diligence, the Bank's management did not recognise that, based on Tanzania's game park management legislation, people residing in and/or accessing parks and other protected areas without authorisation could face involuntary physical and economic resettlement," the panel reported. It also noted that pre-project risk assessments did not sufficiently recognise how the involvement of the Tanzania National Park Authority (Tanapa), a state-owned agency with a law enforcement mandate, 'would invariably have implications for the livelihoods and the well-being of communities residing within park boundaries and accessing park resources for the purpose of sustaining livelihoods.'Tanapa was named as a major culprit in the original claims of violence and intimidation tactics being deployed by government park rangers to forcefully evict native communities from the project area, primarily the famed Ruaha National Park, using methods such as seizing and confiscating their cattle. A formal complaint was filed by two local villagers to the World Bank in 2023, triggering the investigation. The identities of the two individuals have remained hidden throughout for 'fear of retribution,' according to official World Bank documentation on the case, although they are understood to have been backed by the Oakland Institute, a US-based lobby. The Inspection Panel report was more critical of the Bank's handling of the project than of any wrongs that Tanzanian authorities may have committed. Nevertheless, the new action plan agreed with Tanzania in response to the Panel's findings also outlines a number of new interventions designed to address this aspect of the matter. Edith Jibunoh, the Bank's Washington DC-based spokesperson for Eastern and Southern Africa told The EastAfrican in a virtual interview on Tuesday that a workshop will be convened next month to brief Tanzanian officials on "relevant good international practice in protected area management.""The briefing will cover topics such as effective and responsible enforcement of park restrictions, conflict avoidance, community engagement, and benefit sharing," she explained. Further interventions will include establishing and maintaining an effective grievance redress system and a fully operational hotline to raise concerns directly to the World Bank in Tanzania. World Bank staff in Tanzania have also been provided with an interim guidance note on how to "responsibly" handle human rights issues, security, conflicts and other risks related to projects involving protected areas going forward."Based on this interim guidance note, the Bank will prepare a more comprehensive Good Practice Note on the same topic, not just for projects it sponsors in Tanzania but all countries, by December 2025," Ms Jibunoh said. She also explained that the initial $2.8 million project to fix the harms caused by flaws in Regrow's implementation will be sponsored by a "trust fund" and the monies handled by "a third party in the form of a reputable NGO to be identified.""The NGO is to be confirmed by the end of this month, as we are aiming for the project to begin by June. The Rufiji Basin Water Board will also be involved in the project, representing the government," she said. On the new Scaling-up Locally Led Climate Action Program (Scale) operation that is expected to cost at least $110 million, Ms Jibunoh said it would be more "national in scope" and focus on improving the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in areas such as Usangu Catchment, source of the Great Ruaha River, and Mbarali district in Mbeya region."The project plan is still being worked out and will be submitted to the Board by June. The details will be made public once it gets Board approval. We are being more careful this time because we don't want to repeat the same mistakes as in the Regrow project," she said. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
World Bank announces multimillion-dollar redress fund after killings and abuse claims at Tanzanian project
The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years. Allegations made by pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa). The pastoralists say most of the incidents took place after the bank approved $150m (£116m) for the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project September in 2017, aimed at developing tourism in four protected areas in southern Tanzania in a bid to take pressure off heavily touristed northern areas such as Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. In 2023, two individuals wrote to the bank accusing some Tanapa employees of 'extreme cruelty' during cattle seizures and having engaged in 'extrajudicial killings' and the 'disappearance' of community members. The Oakland Institute, a US-based thinktank that is advising the communities, and which alerted the World Bank to abuses in April 2023, says Ruaha doubled in size from 1m to more than 2m hectares (2.5m to 5m acres) during the project's lifetime – a claim the bank denies. It says the expansion took place a decade earlier. Oakland claims 84,000 people from at least 28 villages were affected by the expansion plan. This week, the bank published a 70-page report following its own investigation, which found 'critical failures in the planning and supervision of this project and that these have resulted in serious harm'. The report, published on 2 April, notes that 'the project should have recognised that enhancing Tanapa's capacity to manage the park could potentially increase the likelihood of conflict with communities trying to access the park.' Anna Bjerde, World Bank managing director of operations, said, 'We regret that the Regrow project preparation and supervision did not sufficiently account for project risks, resulting in inadequate mitigation measures to address adverse impacts. This oversight led to the bank overlooking critical information during implementation.' The report includes recommendations aimed at redressing harms done and details a $2.8m project that will support alternative livelihoods for communities inside and around the park. It will also help fund a Tanzanian NGO that provides legal advice to victims of crime who want to pursue justice through the courts. A second, much bigger project, understood to be worth $110, will fund alternative livelihoods across the entire country, including Ruaha. The total investment, thought to be the largest amount the bank has ever allocated to addressing breaches of its policies, is a reflection of the serious nature of the allegations. The bank had already suspended Regrow funding in April 2024 after its own investigation found the Tanzanian government had violated the bank's resettlement policy and failed to create a system to report violent incidents or claim redress. The project was cancelled altogether in November 2024. A spokesperson said the bank 'remains deeply concerned about the serious nature of the reports of incidents of violence and continues to focus on the wellbeing of affected communities'. By the time the project was suspended the bank had already disbursed $125m of the $150m allocated to Regrow. The Oakland Institute estimates that economic damages for farmers and pastoralists affected by livelihood restrictions, run into tens of millions of dollars. Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, said the 'scathing' investigation 'confirmed the bank's grave wrongdoing which devastated the lives of communities. Pastoralists and farms who refused to be silenced amid widespread government repression, are now vindicated.' She added that the bank's response was 'beyond shameful'. 'Suggesting that tens of thousands of people forced out of their land can survive with 'alternative livelihoods' such as clean cooking and microfinance is a slap in the face of the victims.' Inspection panel chair Ibrahim Pam said critical lessons from the Regrow case will be applied to all conservation projects that require resettlement and restrict access to parks, especially those implemented by a law enforcement agency. Regrow was given the go ahead in 2017. The Oakland Institute described its cancellation by the government in 2024 as a landmark victory, but said communities 'remain under siege – still facing evictions, crippling livelihood restrictions and human rights abuses'. In one village near the southern border of Ruaha, the brother of a young man who was killed three years ago while herding cattle in an area adjacent to the park, said: 'It feels like it was yesterday. He had a wife, a family. Now the wife has to look after the child by herself.' He did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal. Another community member whose husband was allegedly killed by Tanapa staff said: 'I feel bad whenever I remember what happened to my husband. We used to talk often. We were friends. I was pregnant with his child when he died. He never saw his daughter. Now I just live in fear of these [Tanapa-employed] people.' The Oakland Institute said the affected communities reject the bank's recommendations, and have delivered a list of demands that includes 'reverting park boundaries to the 1998 borders they accepted, reparations for livelihood restrictions, the resumption of suspended basic services, and justice for victims of ranger abuse and violence. 'Villagers are determined to continue the struggle for their rights to land and life until the bank finally takes responsibility and remedies the harms it caused.' The bank has said it has no authority to pay compensation directly. Wildlife-based tourism is a major component of Tanzania's economy, contributing more than one quarter of the country's foreign exchange earnings in 2019. The bank has said any future community resettlement will be the government's decision. Additional reporting by Peter Mururi
