Cash transfer scheme helped government win elections in Tanzania

Social service delivery and social protection have a long history in Tanzania. Over the last couple of decades, coverage has increased significantly.

Concurring with economic liberalisation, the advent of multi-party elections in the early 1990s led to a gradual expansion of programmes. Spurred by intensified electoral competition and supported by donors, shifting governments sought to ameliorate the economic hardship brought about by economic reforms. Programmes increasingly targeted the rural majority of the population and were supported by donors.

One of these programmes was TASAF, a community development programme with a public works component, which is now in its third phase and includes a cash transfer component, the Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN).

PSSN was promoted by a policy coalition of development donors and government bureaucrats. Historically, the transfer of cash is met with reluctance in Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which prefers public works programmes.

However, prior to the elections in October 2015, a massive scale-up of PSSN was decided by the government. Implementation happened with record speed. By August 2015, 1.1 million households - 8-10 percent of the entire population – had been reached and more was to come.

In a new working paper, "Social protection in an electorally competitive environment (1): The politics of Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) in Tanzania", Thabit Jacob from Roskilde University/University of Dodoma and Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen from DIIS analyse the interrelationship between politics and social protection in the East African country.