The development of social protection policies in Tanzania, 2000-2015

Tanzania has recently scaled up a piloted conditional cash transfer programme to target the extreme poor across the country. In addition, there has been moves to finalise a national social protection framework and the possibility of introducing an old age pension has been announced. This paper focuses on these three main social protection developments in Tanzania and looks into the role of different bureaucracies and their funding partners in shaping social protection policies. The Tanzanian case illustrates how external agencies influence the development of social protection strategies in low-income countries. Although policy ownership lies with domestic institutions, their ability to develop policies, implement these and document their success is largely depended on the support they get from external agencies. By funding pilot projects and supporting evidence-based publications and promotional events, external actors can play a determining role in promoting specific social protection policy designs. Without strong institutional ownership with the backing of resourceful partners, proposed policies are less likely to get sufficient political support