New IESC Program in Tanzania Will Foster Inclusive Economic Growth
 |
|
The new four-year, $20 million program will help foster inclusive, broad-based economic growth. |
Tanzania is nearing a tipping point. In just the past five years, Tanzania has doubled its revenue, curbed inflation, and now counts itself among the top 20 fastest growing countries in the world.
IESC has been awarded a new four-year, $20 million program in Tanzania that will help foster inclusive, broad-based economic growth through support to the agricultural sector, which accounts for almost 70 percent of Tanzania’s labor force and a quarter of its GDP.
The Feed the Future Tanzania Enabling Growth through Investment and Enterprise Program is a USAID’funded initiative with three main objectives: (1) improve the policy environment to support a vibrant private sector; (2) cultivate a sustainable market for business development services to support small and medium enterprises in Tanzania; and (3) broaden access to finance for small and medium enterprises. The program will particularly target women- and youth-owned businesses for support.
Activities will be based in the southern agricultural corridors of Mbeya, Morogoro, and Iringa, as well as in Zanzibar.
For more than 50 years, IESC has been a leader in volunteer support for private sector development. IESC will draw on its robust registry of highly skilled volunteers to lend their expertise to program activities.
The new program will bring together private sector and local government actors to foster dialogue around effective policies for growth. Ultimately, the goal is to stimulate greater investment and improve competitiveness in Tanzania’s agricultural sector and small and medium enterprises more generally.
This program is awarded through the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) and funded by USAID, as part of the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future.
IESC will implement the program in partnership with Mennonite Economic Development Associates and the International City/County Management Association, and with a local Tanzanian firm, Diligent Consulting Limited.
