THE out-going World Bank Country Representative to Tanzania, Ms Bella Bird has called up the government to invest more in poverty eradication initiatives so as to attain its development goals.
She made the call on Wedneday in Dar es Salaam during the farewell ceremony, organized by Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), saying that the Fund as among the initiatives has been playing a major role in downsizing the poverty in the country, hence, should not stop.
“We recently launched the poverty assessment for Tanzania in December together with the National Bureau of Statistics, one of the most striking findings was when we looked at the decline of poverty in Tanzania and we found that if TASAF had not been there, the rate of poverty in Tanzania would have been at least two percent high. This is the kind of independent assessments or validations that show the impact of the work that you are doing,” she said, adding that: “We knew that there was need to include everybody, and of course TASAF has reached many people including the Hadzabe and this is just an example of the power and reach of the TASAF programme” she said.
She added that other striking things on TASAF programme are the number of visitors who visit the country for learning purpose.
The TASAF Executive Director, Mr Ladislaus Mwamanga commended Ms Bird and the WB’s endless contribution in changing Tanzanians lives.
