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The World Bank has concluded a long-running investigation into claims of human rights violations linked to a Bank-funded $150 million tourism promotion project in southern Tanzania.
The Regrow (Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth) project covering Tanzania’s southern tourism circuit is on schedule to wind up officially late February, but has been under probe for more than a year over the allegations which pointed to potential non-compliance by local authorities with the Bank’s rules on project management.
The Bank suspended its sponsorship package in April 2024, pending the outcome of the investigation, and later in November announced that the project had been formally closed at the government’s own request. Nevertheless, the investigation continued.
Bank sources have told The EastAfrican that since most of the project funds had already been disbursed by the time of the suspension, the government said it could handle the remaining part of the project until the official end date in February 25.
In an updated project factsheet published on its website on January 22, the Bank confirmed that its Inspection Panel, which began the investigation in December 2023, had finished its work and would share its report with the Board of Executive Directors for further action in line with internal procedures.
“The Bank’s management is reviewing and preparing a response to the Panel’s findings which it will also submit to the Board,” the update said. “This response includes the Bank’s proposed actions to address the panel’s findings of non-compliance, and the Board then considers both the Panel’s report, management’s response, and the proposed action plan.”
It also said the findings, responses and deliberations would remain confidential until the Board made a final decision on the way forward, after which “all these documents become public”.
The Regrow project was launched in September 2017 with the aim of developing wildlife-based tourism in southern Tanzania, which according to the Bank, accounted for more than 25 percent of the country’s total foreign exchange earnings by 2019.
Focus areas included improving infrastructure and management systems in the area’s game reserves, primarily the famed Ruaha National Park, and offering alternative livelihoods for surrounding communities.
But in 2023, two local villagers lodged a formal complaint to the World Bank about alleged violence and intimidation tactics being deployed by government park rangers to forcefully evict native communities from the project area.
They accused the state-run Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa), being one of the project’s main implementing agencies, of among other things, seizing and confiscating cattle belonging to villagers around the Ruaha National Park.
According to the petition, the Bank was equally at fault for failing to follow its own policies and procedures designed to prevent such actions by local authorities in the course of resettling indigenous people to make way for projects that it funds.
The two individuals filed their petition with the help of Oakland Institute, a US-based lobby. But their identities have remained hidden throughout for “fear of retribution”, according to official documentation on the case.
The Inspection Panel is part of the World Bank’s Accountability Mechanism and authorised by the Board of Executive Directors to carry out independent investigations into Bank-financed projects to assess the extent of the Bank’s compliance with its operational policies and procedures.
Its scope for the Regrow project probe included reviews of rules of engagement between local authorities and communities and Tanapa’s track record in running game reserve projects in consultation with affected communities.
In the January 22 update, the Bank’s management quoted the government as saying it “currently has no intention of resettling communities in the foreseeable future, and they may continue exercising their usual livelihood activities in their villages.”
“In addition, the government is engaging with communities in and around Ruaha National Park with the goal of providing them with stepped-up support,” it said.
Oakland Institute has continued to pursue the matter relentlessly and, in a January 21 statement on its website, called the decision to cancel the project in November a “landmark victory” for the impacted villagers.
According to the project update, concerns still existed about inadequate systems for aggrieved villagers to report their concerns about the project’s implementation and seek redress.
“Nonetheless, the Bank understands that the government may be completing infrastructure works commenced under the project using its own resources,” it added.
At the time of the funding suspension last April, 88 percent of the initial $150 million World Bank commitment to the project had already been disbursed.
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