Contribution of Anti-Poverty Targeting Programmes

Abstract

This study was essentially carried out to show the extent of the contribution of Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) — Phase l, under the Public Works Programme (PWP) window, to the poor at the grassroots level in targeted areas. The study sought to provide information from areas of intervention that would enable responsible units and processes to identify critical areas of concern in the fight against poverty. In particular, the study sought to examine the effect of TASAF's interventions in reducing poverty among the rural vulnerable groups. Specifically, it intended the actual contribution of these interventions towards reducing certain dimensions of mass poverty. For that reason, capable approaches for data analysis were adopted. They included both complex and conventional approaches to quantify and analyse the existence of poverty before and after TASAF's 'safety-nets' targeting. TASAF was established by the Government of Tanzania as one of the key institutions for country-wide poverty alleviation processes. The operational emphasis of the Fund's first phase was largely placed on the grassroots communities in both rural and peri-urban areas. This phase operated under three key windows, namely: the Community Development Initiatives (CDI), the Public Works Programme (PWP) and a Pilot Social Support Programme (SSP). This study focused on the relative contribution of Phase 1 PWP subprojects which had provided safety-nets to the vulnerable poor who were employed by these community projects in Singida Rural and Kibondo districts. A total of 310 respondents were interviewed, and the collected data were analysed. A combination of five different techniques, as suggested by various poverty analysts was employed for data analysis. The analysis included other fundamental views about poverty. The overall results showed that there was a sizeable decline in poverty levels for PO, PI and P2 for the periods during and after Phase 1 of the intervention. The Sen Index of Poverty (Psen) indicated that there was a substantial reduction in the poverty gap that existed then. However, based on the key findings, the study recommended that effective anti-poverty targeting programmes of the PWP-type ought to contribute significantly to P2 poverty levels, and a sort of in-built savings and credit design needed to be adopted during the intervention period in order to improve the future livelihoods of the beneficiaries.