Tanzania is building food security and improving nutrition with USAID support

USAID

Agriculture and Food Security

In partnership with the Government of Tanzania, donor partners, civil society, and the private sector, Feed the Future improves smallholder farmer income and nutritional status. Our investments focus on the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor and on specific crops such as rice, maize, and horticulture. Feed the Future construction projects, such as improved roads and irrigation, complement activities to improve farmer productivity, nutrition, and product processing, storage, and marketing. Private sector investment and policy initiatives improve the business enabling environment to promote agricultural growth, while research activities build the capacity necessary for long-term agricultural development.  

Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance

Efforts to strengthen democratic governance are integrated throughout the country portfolio to increase principles of democracy and good governance, especially in the areas of health, natural resource management, and among civil society organizations. USAID compliments this assistance through support to the Government of Tanzania’s oversight and accountability institutions. USAID has also worked to improve civic and voter education, strengthen the electoral process, improve the effectiveness of female parliamentarians, and help journalists and editors report in an accurate, conflict-sensitive manner.

Economic Growth and Trade

In Tanzania, USAID takes a multifaceted approach to building inclusive, broad-based economic growth that includes improving agricultural productivity, spurring investment in the energy sector, preserving natural resources and biodiversity, and filling the unmet need for family planning services. Furthermore, by ensuring women and youth are able to take advantage of opportunities in these sectors, these efforts work toward reducing extreme poverty and sustaining economic growth well into the future.    

Education                          

We improve early grade learning for 1.4 million primary school children by increasing the availability and use of quality learning materials, improving teacher skills and behaviors, and enhancing parental and community support in over 3,000 primary schools. This is complemented by annual reading and math assessments to track gains in learning and guide future strategy, policies and programs. We partner with local government authorities, school and community leaders, teachers, and parents to provide a holistic package of interventions to increase adolescent girls’ enrollment and retention in secondary school.

Tusome Pamoja (Let’s Read Together) is USAID’s flagship education activity in Tanzania and aims to improve early grade learning outcomes for 1.4 million primary school children. In addition to increasing the availability and use of quality learning materials, Tusome Pamoja will improve teacher skills and behaviors, as well as enhance parental and community support of education in more than 3,000 primary schools. To build on this, annual reading and math assessments will measure gains in learning in order to help primary schools adopt appropriate best practices.  

Energy

We support the Government of Tanzania in advancing private-sector energy transactions, and help adopt and implement the policy and regulatory reforms necessary to attract private investment in the energy and power sectors. Power Africa support includes technical assistance to utilities, regulatory authorities, and government institutions to improve the feasibility of proposed energy projects. We also improve the public sector’s ability to engage with financial institutions and the private sector to finance power projects.

Environment 

We partner with Tanzanians to build sustainable livelihoods and support natural resource management by developing and implementing national environmental policies, and by supporting community-based conservation. These programs take a sustainable approach to landscape management, targeting critical ecosystems. Key objectives include: sustaining critical wildlife habitats, reversing land degradation, restoring watersheds, and improving community livelihoods through conservation enterprises. We target sustainable agriculture and agroforestry, trade, and private sector initiatives in areas such as tourism, honey and coffee.

Gender Equality and Youth

Our key strategic focus in Tanzania is empowering women and youth, who are marginalized and underutilized in society, and must have greater access to and control of resources, opportunities and decision-making power. This will reduce extreme poverty, build healthy communities, and promote inclusive growth. Our activities for women and youth strengthen the national-level enabling environment for them, ensure they are healthier and more productive, and promote women’s equality and youth inclusion in local governments and communites. We integrate gender equality, women’s empowerment, and youth inclusion in all our activities, and are one of two USAID missions to have a development objective for gender and youth.

Global Health

Our health programs focus on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, family planning and reproductive health, nutrition, global health security, and maternal, newborn, and child health. We support the Government of Tanzania’s strategies for improving the citizens’ health and fulfilling the targets laid out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To improve the quality, availability and use of preventive and curative health services, our programs focus on three interconnected areas: quality integrated services, health systems strengthening, and healthy behaviors. These efforts support the Government of Tanzania’s commitment to improving health and health services, focusing on increased efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. 

Water

Tanzania’s health, economy, and food security depend on sustainably managed water resources. In critically threatened watersheds, USAID supports improved management of water resources, better service access, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity conservation. USAID works with partners from the Government of Tanzania, the private sector, civil society, and communities to improve the delivery of water services and enhance watershed management.

Working in Crisis and Conflict

Tanzania, like other countries in the region, faces a range of natural disasters, including drought, floods, and seismic events. Factors such as climate variability, population growth, and slow economic development compound risks to populations by increasing their vulnerability to disasters. USAID works with the government and local organizations to better prepare for crises through risk mitigation, which includes a regional disaster risk reduction strategy and activities to increase the resilience of the population to cope with future shocks while continuing to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable populations.