AEGiS-AP: World Bank gives Tanzania US$136 million grant Associated PressImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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World Bank gives Tanzania US$136 million grant

Associated Press - Tuesday December 3, 2002

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - For the first time in Tanzania's history, the World Bank has given the East African nation a grant - US$136 million for AIDS and poverty reduction projects, a bank spokeswoman said Tuesday.

About half of the money, $70 million, will be used in the fight against AIDS and the balance will be spent on reducing poverty, said World Bank spokeswoman Rosalie Ferrao.

"The Bank has earmarked these resources with a clear sense of urgency needed to deal with the devastating effects of HIV /AIDS, and to do so in innovative ways particularly targeted to support community-based interventions," the bank said in a statement Monday.

An estimated 2 million of Tanzania's 32 million people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. About 35 percent of Tanzanians live below the poverty line.

Ferrao said although Tanzania gets World Bank loans, this is the first time the East African nation, among the world's poorest and most indebted, is receiving an outright grant.

Tanzania owes the World Bank $2.6 billion in loans. Tanzania's central bank says the country's total external debt is $6.56 billion.

In November last year the International Monetary Fund approved debt relief in the amount of $3.3 billion for Tanzania to be spread over 20 years.


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