# Tanzania - United States Department of State

- Digital Press Briefing on the U.S.-Africa Business Summit Joy Basu, Deputy Assistant SecretaryBureau of African AffairsAlice Albright, CEO, Millennium Challenge CorporationReta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors, Export-Import Bank of the United StatesMODERATOR:  Good afternoon to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub.  I welcome our participants logging in from across the continent and thank all of you for joining this discussion on the topic of the ongoing U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas.  Today, we are very pleased to be joined by the U.S. Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, Joy Basu, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Alice Albright, and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Reta Jo Lewis.  Our speakers will review the 2024 U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Dallas and how the U.S. works to increase trade and investment in Africa. We will begin today’s briefing with opening remarks from our speakers and then we’ll turn to your questions.  We’ll try to get to as many of them as we can during the briefing. So with that, I’d like to turn it over to the president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Reta Jo Lewis, for her opening remarks.  MS LEWIS:  Good morning and thank you very much.  It is such a pleasure to be here with all of you to speak about the Export-Import Bank of the United States’ commitment to fostering economic collaboration with nations in Africa.  The Export-Import Bank – as we call it, EXIM – is the official export credit agency of the United States.  We actually were established as of February – this February – 90 years ago.  EXIM has played a very critical role in fostering economic opportunity for U.S. companies and for partnering nations that American companies do business with around the world.   It is very exciting to be here at the Corporate Council on Africa’s U.S. annual meeting, and it has given us an opportunity to talk about the work that we have and to make some major announcements.  As those of you who do not know, EXIM offers direct loans, loan guarantees, and insurance products backed by the full faith and credit of the United States to support the exports of U.S.-made goods and services.   So we were actually proud to be able to announce that – on Tuesday, we announced alongside the president of Angola, where we participated in a signing ceremony to celebrate the closing of three key partnerships for global infrastructure and investment, PGII projects, in Angola.  The projects that we signed are historic direct loans for more than 900 million to support the construction of two solar energy power plants in Angola.  The project is the largest renewable energy project and largest transaction in Sub-Saharan Africa in EXIM’s 90-year history.   We also celebrated the closing of a 363 million transaction on the – our China and Transformational Export Program, which we call CTEP, which goes to support the export of small business Acrow Corporation’s prefabricated modular steel bridges and related equipment to construct bridge infrastructure across Angola.   And then the final transaction that we were able to announce with President Lourenço and signed by his minister of finance, Minister Vera Daves, was a final transaction for 42 million to support Gates Air’s export of EXIM – of FM transmitters, towers, training, and other equipment.  This authorization is going to help extend the Angolan Government’s ability to communicate by radio with approximately 95 percent of the country’s population.   These were projects that we were – have been working with the Government of Angola for the last year, and we know that these are the types of projects that epitomizes our commitment to the Biden-Harris administration’s PGII objectives, a collaborative effort by U.S. Government agencies to support sustainable, clean, resilient, and inclusive infrastructure projects. So our commitment to Sub-Saharan Africa is also one of our key mandates that Congress has placed on us since we were reauthorized in 2019 to make more financing available in Sub-Saharan Africa.  And we know there is still more work to be done.  We’re eager to continue building upon our strong work on the commitment – on the strong work on the continent and are excited to be here at the U.S.-Africa Business Summit to seek out additional new opportunities to support U.S. exporters doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa.   MODERATOR:  Thank you very much, Chair Lewis.  So for her opening remarks, now we’d like to go to CEO Alice Albright.  MS ALBRIGHT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Good morning, good afternoon.  Wonderful to be with everybody.  So it’s a very exciting week for us.  There is, of course, as Chair Lewis has just said, the U.S.-Africa Business Summit going on.  It’s the 16th Summit, and there’s a lot of energy in the room, with a number of U.S. agencies there and then a number of participants, heads of state from the continent, and a number of businesses.  It was just a terrific – it is a terrific environment.   MCC has a lot going on in the continent.  One of the things that we also did this week was we celebrated 20 years of MCC being in operation.  We were started in 2004 by President Bush.  And since our founding, we’ve been squarely focused on working on the continent.  Of the $17 billion that we’ve invested globally so far, 10 billion of it has gone to the continent.  We’ve worked in 24 countries.  We’ve done – of the 10, almost all of it relates to infrastructure in one way or another.  We also have a lot going on right now in the continent.  We’ve got about $3 billion in active programs. So in addition to meeting with a lot of our partners, this week we also announced the implementation or the start of implementation of, as I’m very proud to say, our 79th program, and it is a $350 million program in Malawi to help farmers get their goods to market cheaper and faster.  So we are very excited about that.  We also had a chance to meet with a number of our bilateral partners – of course, President Chakwera was with us to announce the project.  We also had a wonderful meeting with President Neves from Cabo Verde.  Of course, Cabo Verde was one of our earliest partners at MCC, and we announced – well, we announced it earlier this year.  We had a chance to speak with him further about something that we think is going to be very interesting, which is a regional program with an island nation, and I think it speaks to that country’s very strong vision for the role that they occupy where they are.   From a trade and regional investment perspective, we think that our regional program is going to really be very additive to our work, and we’ve got a number of different regional programs that are in various states of play.   And then another program that we’re – I’m just jumping around a bit, but another program that we’re very excited about is our program in Mozambique we signed this past fall, and it’s a half-a-billion-dollar program that will focus on various aspects of infrastructure in Mozambique.  One big piece of it is a significant investment to restore the bridge that connects the southern – the Mocuba* Bridge that connects the southern part of the country to the northern part of the country, and it’s become very vulnerable due to flooding and other things to do with climate change.  So we’re very excited about that. We have a lot of other things going on.  We have currently $3 billion in active programs in the continent, and I’m happy to answer further questions about them if we have time.  But let me turn it back over to you all so you can get on to other questions.  Thank you. MODERATOR:  Thank you very much, CEO Albright.  So finally for her opening statement, let’s turn to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joy Basu. MS BASU:  Thank you so much, and thank you, everyone, for joining.  Good afternoon.  Thank you for your time today and thank you for the important work you do as journalists.  A free press is a critical part of a thriving democracy, and we know that those values go hand in hand with a thriving economy.  So thank you for the important work that you do, and we’re just very – I feel very lucky to be here with Chair Lewis and with CEO Albright.   I will just wrap up very quickly by saying it’s been a successful Summit for us so far, and it’s really exciting to see how much progress has been made with the U.S.-Africa trade relationship not only since the December 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, but since I was with so many of you last summer in Gaborone at the CCA Summit last year.   We had a very comprehensive interagency delegation here to meet with the – I believe the final number of participants from CCA was 1,789, so almost 1,800 people were here.  And we had representation from across our interagency. As you heard from my colleagues, so much of the work that our interagency does is focused on energy and infrastructure, because that is so foundational to the work that other industries create.  We also had incredible deal signings with USTDA and Malawi, working on battery storage; with DFC and Sierra Leone, working on energy.  And we had meetings here to build on those industries with healthcare, with agriculture, and cross-functional industries like ICT. I think the goal of this is to really reiterate the U.S. commitment to Africa and the U.S. commitment to a 21st century economic partnership with the continent.  And the work here at USABS is really helping to partner with our African governments and African and American private sector to facilitate private sector-led economic growth and prosperity. So let me wrap there.  I’m very excited for your questions.  Thank you.  MODERATOR:  Well, thank you very much to each of our panelists today.  We’ll now begin the question-and-answer portion of today’s briefing. So for our first question today, we have a question from Mr. Andualem Sisay Gessesse of the New Business Ethiopia.  And his question is directed to Chair Reta Jo Lewis, and that question is this:  “Can you please explain the major achievements of the Export-Import Bank of the United States in advancing trade and investment with African countries over the past few years and your plans ahead to further enhance and support U.S. companies to invest in African countries and boost trade between the two sides?” So, Chair Lewis. MS LEWIS:  Yes, thank you so much for that question.  One of the things that we are very excited about is that EXIM, as I mentioned, is celebrating our 90th anniversary this year.  And our support for Africa really dates to nearly that beginning.  Since we did our first deal in Angola in 1942, EXIM has had a strong and reliable – and a trading partnership for Africa.  And so since 1997, that has been underscored by EXIM’s congressional mandate to build partnerships and increase financings in the region. I – in Fiscal Year 2023, not only did we – we approved over 1.6 billion in authorizations for Sub-Saharan Africa that I just mentioned, we also have undertaken over five trips and traveling throughout Africa, meeting not only with government officials but, of course, the private sector.  Because we know that it is going to be through public-private partnerships that we can all get this work done.  In the work that we’ve also done in support of U.S. exporters engaging with Africa is that we’ve signed six MOUs with African governments and institutions, as well as signing the memorandums of understanding with Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire.  And we’re – each of these agreements have been designed to facilitate up to about 500 million in U.S. exports financing and deepen the commercial relationship with those countries. We are – we have been working very diligently with those on the continent where we have signed and begun work through MOUs totaling about 1.3 billion with the African Ex-Im Bank, with the Africa Finance Corporation, and then most recently with the Bank of Industry in Nigeria.  In total since I’ve joined EXIM, we have signed about 2.3 billion of MOUs.  And so we recognize that the continent is changing, and we’re committed to the administration’s various initiatives on Africa. You can see, by the MOUs that we have signed, we are prepared to work with African countries and partner with all stakeholders to ensure that our exporters compete on a level playing field.  And so we want to be partners in the work that all of us do in helping U.S. exporters contract with Africa, as well as as we work with the foreign buyers who want to – on the continent who want to purchase U.S. goods and services.   We know that as we have done – undertaken this work, we know that the needs around infrastructure, health care, women entrepreneurship are very vital for – and are vital, and investments for – are needed for economic growth and for job creation.  And so we stand ready as partners and collaborators to work with those on the continent. And as Alice mentioned, this conference has borne out to be very successful for us.  It is such high energy in the room, and to be able to see how far the relationships that we have garnered, along with others in the United States Government who are here in full force to support these efforts that the President has asked us to in building and strengthening and deepening our bilateral relationship.  And EXIM has been – is very proud to have done their part.  MODERATOR:  All right.  Thank you very much.  So we do have a question from Kemi Osukoya of Africa Bazaar magazine.  And I’d like to open Kemi’s mic and if Kemi can answer – ask that question live. QUESTION:  Hello, can you hear me?  MODERATOR:  Yes.  QUESTION:  Okay.  Thank you very much for taking my question.  And good morning and good afternoon to you guys.  My question is a two-part.  What percentage of the deals that were signed will be given to SMEs and women-owned businesses, both on the continent and as well as the U.S. entrepreneurs?  And the other part of my question is, being on the ground at events, you mentioned that you’re hearing feedbacks from the partners, with leaders.  So could you share some of those feedback that you hear regarding the work that you’re doing on the continent?  Thank you very much. MS LEWIS:  No, thank you very much for that question.  As it relates to SMEs, I think what a lot of – what we always like to say at EXIM is that we’re the bank for everyone.  And in being the bank for everyone, we have to strive exceptionally hard as we work with large, medium, and small businesses.  EXIM, when we were reauthorized in 2019, Congress gave us an additional mandate to make additional financing available in the small business arena, and not just – I call it not just small business for small business’s sake, but also to really drill down and go beyond a small business, but also around women entrepreneurship, around veterans, around – and rural communities, and really in the underserved populations. And so we’re very excited that with the agreements that have been signed on these particular deals that I just discussed in Angola, there is a significant amount of work that will be done in the supply chain, and most of those businesses are small business.  We have been – as we have worked through this process with Angola as well as with our own U.S. exporters, small business, they all know that small – that the small business exporters are very essential, and we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely what that looks like.   As it relates to – and then additional work that we have done to ensure that we reach those small businesses is to work with members in the diaspora.  The President announced – President Biden announced a diaspora council a few months ago, and one of the things that we’ve been really hard at work with them is to ensure that the work that we do at EXIM is expose to those members who are specifically focused on how do you develop and continue to build strong relationships with diaspora members throughout the continent.  So we’re really excited about the work that’s going to go forth in Angola and excited about the work that we do at EXIM overall, and the fact that last year, when we authorized the over $8.5 billion, 2 point – 2 billion of that was transactions that were in small business.  So we feel we are on target and on tap to reach those goals, as well as the fact that 90 percent – I think it’s like 88 percent, 88.5 percent – of the transition that EXIM does on a yearly basis is in the small business arena.  So we feel pretty confident that small business is going to be very much a part of the work that we’re doing, not only here in U.S. but those also in Angola and in Africa.  MODERATOR:  Thank you very much, Chair Lewis, for that response.  And we do have a lot of questions, and unfortunately, the time of our participants is limited, so we only have time probably for a few more questions today.  We did receive a question from Ms. Favour Okpale of BusinessDay in Nigeria, and the question is:  “African countries, including Nigeria, face enormous challenges, including inadequate power supply, lack of infrastructure, and security, among others.  Wondering whether these issues were on the front burner at this Summit; and in specific terms, are there concrete commitments from the U.S. to assist Nigeria and other African countries come out of this?”  And she also has a question about AGOA.  So I think if I could throw it to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Basu for her take on this question.  MS BASU:  Perfect, thank you so much, and thank you again for the question.  We just came back, actually, from the bi-national mission in Abuja last week, which was co-chaired between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Foreign Minister Tuggar, and we discussed these questions in depth there.  And so I will be brief right now as the readouts of those meetings come out.  But we had a large session on shared prosperity.  And we understand that the challenges that Nigeria are facing are quite acute, and we see them echoed across the continent – as you say, lack of infrastructure, increasing insecurity, and yes, the United States is committed to be a good partner across that spectrum.  What I would say is, in particular, we’ve made commitments both to work on the security situation, but also to, as you’ve heard today, work on infrastructure, whether that’s roads and bridges or that’s energy, huge challenges both in Nigeria and across the continent.  A few concrete commitments were to work on the business-enabling environment in Nigeria, and to make sure that American companies that are investing in Nigeria are having a transparent and positive experience to deliver those goods and services, and we see that across the continent.  We also talked about reaffirming the difficult but hard policy choices that Nigeria is making and that we see being made across the continent to really strengthen their economies.  So of course in Nigeria there’s been a lot of challenge with the currency, but it is hopefully something that will make the economy stronger and enable Nigerian businesses to thrive.  We see that work across the continent as African countries come out of the pandemic and try to come out from under quite significant debt burdens and foreign exchange challenges.  And so we are working closely both with our U.S. Treasury, with the central banks of African countries, particularly Nigeria, and the World Bank to make sure that these countries are on solid economic footing to really serve their people and meet the basic public needs, both first and foremost for their people, but also to create the public sector goods that then allow private sector companies to thrive. So let me pause there.  I’m happy to follow up afterwards as well.  Thank you.  MODERATOR:  All right, thanks very much.  So we have a question on MCC, and that came in from Sogah Blessed of Joy News TV in Ghana.  Sogah, I’d like to open your mic, but if you could please be very brief in asking your question because our time is very limited.  Thank you. QUESTION:  Thank you.  I’m grateful.  Thank you for the opportunity.  I’m asking this question because of a peculiar situation we face in Ghana in the energy sector, the power crisis.  In 2019 the MCC revoked a $190 million funding for the energy sector owing to some challenges we had with the privatization concession.  I’m asking, given the situation in which we find ourselves now, is the MCC willing to avail this crucial funding, or it will be on the condition that unless the Government of Ghana brings back the PDS concession, which was a privatization module, and at the MCC?  Thank you. MS ALBRIGHT:  Thank you for the question.  A couple – a couple of thoughts on Ghana.  We did have a compact with Ghana, and the compact is closed.  And we were able to complete a fair amount of that work.  Right now we don’t have any immediate plans to work again in Ghana, but we can always look again to see if Ghana may be – may become a country that we can work with again. Generally speaking with regard to energy, we’re working in a number of energy compacts across the continent right now, because I completely agree with you about how critical energy is to overall development, which is our main mandate. MODERATOR:  All right, thank you very much.  As I mentioned, our panelists’ time is very limited and I know that Chair Lewis has another commitment in a few minutes.  So I’d like to give her an opportunity to give some closing remarks if she has some closing thoughts for us.  MS LEWIS:  Well, thank you so much.  I think this has been a very important conversation.  We realize – we’re really excited to be able to talk with all the journalists this morning.  I think the thing that we want to emphasize at EXIM is that we have a vested interest in the continent.  But we have a vested interest about the people and improving peoples’ lives, not only in America but also in Africa.  And so that’s why we are here as well as the work that we have done over decades about building partnerships and collaborations.  And I just want to just continue to emphasize the fact that we are looking for ways of how to continue to work with all businesses, especially large, medium, and small, and that to end on saying that equity is a priority for us.  We proudly provide additional support for those critical businesses.  And so when we’re speaking about small business, we’re speaking about women entrepreneurship, we know that they have to overcome a number of challenges.  We know that access to capital is the number one thing to keep them from growing and expanding, and that’s why EXIM is proud to offer additional services to our U.S. exporters and to our foreign buyers and working with our small businesses as we continue to keep a spotlight on them.  And so we are offering the different products and services, and we stand ready to work with them whether it is through initial consultation, helping them as they analyze the opportunities, working – as we work alongside our Department of Commerce who is often leading number delegations that we participate in throughout the continent, and also working to assist small businesses and underserved populations and minority business with connections to resources.  We have a 20-year – five-year history of doing that work, and we have recently introduced some additional products that is going to go to the benefit of that community.  So we are really excited to have been able to have a few minutes to share with you our continued commitment to work on the continent.   MODERATOR:  All right, thank you very much.  And as I mentioned, our panelists’ time is limited, so I’d like to also ask Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Basu and also CEO Albright if they have any closing thoughts for us. MS BASU:  I will defer to CEO Albright first.  MS ALBRIGHT:  Thank you.  Just very, very briefly, we too at MCC are very committed to a very inclusive approach to economic growth.  We didn’t get to touch on it earlier, but we work in almost every country on either figuring out how to include women and women-owned businesses into our work or small and medium-sized businesses.  So this often takes the form of different reforms that are necessary to enable parts of the society that are typically not included to get included.  We’ve got some wonderful examples – one in Lesotho just recently where there were some laws that were changed to enable women to own – to inherit land.  We’ve got a terrific program that we’ve just closed out in Morocco that introduced opportunities to a range of people in that country.  We’ve got a wonderful program in Cote d’Ivoire, a partnership with Microsoft that is focusing on bringing digital skills to women entrepreneurs in Cote d’Ivoire.   So inclusive growth is very much a focus of our work, and I think we’re making good, slow, steady progress on it.  MODERATOR:  All right, thank you.  And finally for Deputy Assistant Secretary Basu.  MS BASU:  Happy to, and happy to quickly answer a couple of questions that were coming up earlier, one around the feedback that we’ve gotten.  The feedback has been for more.  Right, we want more U.S. companies, more trade.  The momentum is really great and we cannot let our feet off the pedal – our foot off the pedal when it comes to strengthening this economic partnership.   U.S. companies in Africa not only help raise standards, but the work that we do, as CEO Albright mentioned, really creates the enabling environment for all businesses to thrive – African businesses, multinational businesses, American businesses.  And we know the marketplace works better when there are more choices, and so we’re glad to be able to facilitate and foster that.  And so that’s the main feedback that we have heard across the last – that I’ve at last heard across the last few days, is for more, and a lot of excitement about momentum that’s been made so far.  There was also a question about AGOA, and I would defer to my colleagues in Congress, who really have the responsibility for reauthorizing AGOA since it is a law.  But I will emphasize that the Biden administration has expressed strong support for the reauthorization of AGOA and the modernization of AGOA.  We want to see it reauthorized in order to be – to continue to be the cornerstone of trade, but also to facilitate our utilization, and to be more impactful and more strategic.   And so we have had great conversations with our colleagues on the Hill, in Congress, and there is what we call bipartisan and bicameral support for AGOA, which I think really emphasizes that our Africa relationship is important across the United States.  However, we do need to see ways that that law will actually get signed, and so we are working closely with our partners in Congress to see what can be done.  My push to our African partners on the continent is to develop utilization strategies to increase their usage of AGOA, which is a really incredible unilateral program for African companies to export to the United States duty-free.  And we want to see more companies – small companies, large companies – take advantage of that.  And so my push to the African partners on the line is to increase awareness but also increase national strategies that will let small companies and large companies make the most of this benefit.  And that maybe leads to my final point, which is a push to all our journalists on the line, which is twofold.  One is to keep doing what you’re doing in bringing transparency to your local markets about what is happening, because that is what is required for economies to thrive, is that transparency and that information and accountability.  So thank you for the work you do there and the ways that enables democracy but also economic growth.  And so keep up that great work.   But also, help us to tell the good-news stories across Africa, but also across the U.S.-Africa business relationship.  I think in the last year there have been a lot of hard stories across Africa, and those are very important, and we are working as a U.S. Government to address the democratic backsliding and the incredible insecurity we’re seeing in many areas.  But one challenge in enabling U.S. businesses to come to Africa is the risk perception.  And so one thing our team does very closely is try to, on one hand, right-size that risk perception and tell the good-news stories of countries that are taking the right policy decisions, that do have the right enabling environments; and then, other side, working to actually reduce the risk of investing by helping shore up security, helping to foster democracy and reinforce democracy.   So I ask your partnership in both sides of that, both in bringing accountability where it’s required, but also in telling the good-news stories because we know there are so many incredible innovations and entrepreneurs, and the world needs those African entrepreneurs to solve the problems of the future, and you are an important conduit for making sure their stories are told.  So thank you. MODERATOR:  All right.  Well, that concludes today’s briefing.  I want to thank Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs Joy Basu, Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Alice Albright, and President of the EXIM Bank of the United States Reta Jo Lewis for joining us today.  Thank you also to all the journalists for participating.  As always, a recording and a transcript of today’s briefing will be distributed to participating journalists as soon as we can produce them.   If you have any questions about today’s briefing, you may contact us here at the Africa Regional Media Hub at AFMediaHub@state.gov.  I would also like to invite everyone to join us on Twitter, or X, at our handle @AfricaMediaHub.  Thank you very much and have a great day. # # # 
- Tanzania Union Day Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of StateOn behalf of the United States of America, I join President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the people of the United Republic of Tanzania in celebrating 60 years as a unified country.As we celebrate this milestone, let us reflect on the rich history and enduring values that bind our two countries together and drive the relationship forward. We applaud Tanzania’s commitment to undertaking important reforms to strengthen democratic governance, increase transparency, and spur economic growth. From the Commercial Dialogue to the Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Program, we have made significant progress in elevating our bilateral partnership this year and look forward to continued collaboration.I extend my warmest wishes for health, prosperity, and security to all Tanzanians.						Tags																													Africa																															Bureau of African Affairs																								Office of the Spokesperson																								The Secretary of State																								Tanzania
- Tanzania HomeReportsBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices&#8230;Tanzania				hide	document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {	if(window.jQuery) {		jQuery( document ).ready(function() {			if (jQuery(".bc_middle").hasClass("collapse")) {				jQuery(".bc_ellipse").click(function(){					jQuery(".bc_hide").toggleClass("visible");					jQuery(".bc_middle").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_ellipse").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_content").toggleClass("noflex");					jQuery(".block_breadcrumbs_content").toggleClass("noflex");				});				jQuery(".bc_hide").click(function(){					jQuery(".bc_hide").toggleClass("visible");					jQuery(".bc_middle").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_ellipse").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_content").toggleClass("noflex");					jQuery(".block_breadcrumbs_content").toggleClass("noflex");				});			} else {				jQuery(".bc_ellipse").hide();			}		});	}});																							2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Tanzania																																					Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor																																																																																							Download Report																																																							Translations																																																																 In this section										/																							EXECUTIVE SUMMARY																																													EXECUTIVE SUMMARY																															Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person																																																									a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings																																																																											b. Disappearance																																																																											c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Other Related Abuses																																																																			Prison and Detention Center Conditions																																																																																																																		d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention																																																																			Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees																																																																																																																		e. Denial of Fair Public Trial																																																																			Trial Procedures																																																								Political Prisoners and Detainees																																																																																																																		f. Transnational Repression																																																																											g. Property Seizure and Restitution																																																																											h. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence																																																																																	Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties																																																									a. Freedom of Expression, Including for Members of the Press and Other Media																																																																			Internet Freedom																																																																																																																		b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association																																																																			Freedom of Peaceful Assembly																																																								Freedom of Association																																																																																																																		c. Freedom of Religion																																																																											d. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Leave the Country																																																																											e. Protection of Refugees																																																																																	Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process																																																									Elections and Political Participation																																																																																	Section 4. Corruption in Government																															Section 5. Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights																															Section 6. Discrimination and Societal Abuses																																																									Women																																																																											Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination																																																																											Indigenous Peoples																																																																											Children																																																																											Antisemitism																																																																											Trafficking in Persons																																																																											Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics																																																																											Persons with Disabilities																																																																											Other Societal Violence or Discrimination																																																																																	Section 7. Worker Rights																																																									a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining																																																																											b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor																																																																											c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment																																																																											d. Discrimination (see section 6)																																																																											e. Acceptable Conditions of Work																																																																																																							EXECUTIVE SUMMARY				There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Tanzania during the year.Significant human rights issues included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by or on behalf of the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of criminal libel laws; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operations of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; refoulement of refugees to a country where they would face a threat to their life or freedom or other mistreatment of refugees that would constitute a separate human rights abuse; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child, early, and forced marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting, and other forms of such violence; existence and enforcement of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.In some cases, the government took credible steps to investigate and prosecute officials who committed human rights abuses, but impunity in police and other security forces and civilian branches of government was common.There were isolated reports of abuses by peacekeepers, and authorities took steps to identify and investigate officials who committed alleged abuses.																														Section 1.													 Respect for the Integrity of the Person												    																																																a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings										There were several reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings, most often at the hands of police or prison guards. Members of marginalized racial and ethnic communities were not disproportionately impacted or overrepresented among victims of abuse.On October 5, local media reported police fired on citizens in Kazuramimba village in Kigoma region, resulting in the death of three citizens. The incident occurred when police intervened as a group of villagers led by a traditional healer was searching the village for witches.On March 31, police arrested a fellow officer in Tarime, Mara region. According to a police statement, the officer allegedly shot and killed N’ondi Marwa, a motorcycle taxi (bodaboda) driver and Tarime resident.																																				b. Disappearance										There were no credible reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities.																																				c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Other Related Abuses										The constitution prohibited such practices; however, the law did not reflect this constitutional restriction nor define torture. There were reports police officers, prison guards, and soldiers abused, threatened, or otherwise mistreated civilians, suspected criminals, and prisoners. These abuses often involved beatings. In June Acting Regional Police Commander Mairi Mikori confirmed Mwanza police detained one of its officers for allegedly brutally beating a student at Saint Augustine University.According to a range of human rights and advocacy organizations, the government evicted Maasai communities from areas in the north they had long inhabited, which violated their rights to land, livelihood, and culture. Since June 2022, authorities allegedly engaged in abusive and unlawful tactics, including beatings, shootings, sexual violence, and arbitrary arrests to forcibly evict residents from their land.																Prison and Detention Center Conditions						Prisons and prison conditions were harsh and life threatening due to gross overcrowding, physical abuse, and inadequate sanitary conditions.Abusive Physical Conditions: Physical abuse of prisoners was common according to nongovernmental organization (NGO) members, and there were reports of mistreatment. Women prisoners reported they were subject to sexual harassment and beatings by prison authorities. Members of marginalized racial and ethnic communities were not disproportionately impacted or overrepresented among victims of abuse.Prison staff reported a lack of electricity, inadequate lighting, and insufficient medical supplies. Prisons were unheated, but prisoners in cold regions reportedly received blankets and sweaters. Sanitation was insufficient. While some prisons provided prisoners with food, the Ministry of Home Affairs reported some prisoners were growing food for themselves. The Board of Prison Force Production Agency was responsible for ensuring prisons had sufficient food supply from their own cultivation projects. Other prisoners, however, reported receiving no food from prison authorities and relied solely on what family members provided.Medical care was inadequate. The most common health problems were malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, respiratory illnesses, and diseases related to poor sanitation. Prison dispensaries offered only limited treatment, and friends and family members of prisoners generally had to provide medications or the funds to purchase them. Transportation to referral health centers and hospitals was limited. In addition, requests for medical care were often met with bureaucracy that delayed prisoners’ access to health care. While doctors conducted routine checkups in the prison clinics, they did not have adequate testing equipment or medicine.Administration: Judges and magistrates regularly inspected prisons and heard concerns from convicts and detainees. In addition, relatives of inmates made complaints to the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG), which investigated reports of abuse. The results of those investigations were not made public.On the mainland prisoners could submit complaints to judicial authorities. The CHRAGG also served as the official ombudsperson. For the union of Tanganyika (mainland Tanzania) and Zanzibar, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Public Complaints Department, as well as a prison services public relations unit, responded to public complaints and inquiries regarding prison conditions sent to them directly or through media.Independent Monitoring: The law prohibited members of the press from visiting prisons. Generally, access to prisoners was difficult for outside organizations, and the process for obtaining access was cumbersome.																										d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention										The constitution prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention, although regional and district commissioners had authority to detain a person for up to 48 hours without charge. This authority was reportedly used to detain persons criticizing the government.The law allowed persons arrested or detained, regardless of whether on criminal or other grounds, the right to challenge in court the legal basis or arbitrary nature of their detention and obtain prompt release and compensation if found to have been unlawfully detained. The law, however, required detainees to file a civil case to make such a challenge, and detainees rarely made such filings.																Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees						On the mainland the law required that an arrest for most crimes, other than crimes committed in the presence of an officer, be made with an arrest warrant based on sufficient evidence; however, authorities did not always comply with the law. Police often detained persons without judicial authorization. The law also required a person arrested for a crime, other than a national security detainee, be charged before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest, excluding weekends and holidays, but authorities failed to comply consistently with this requirement. There were reports of police detaining individuals without charge for short periods on the orders of local authorities.The law did not allow bail for suspects in cases involving murder, treason, terrorism, drugs, armed robbery, human trafficking, money laundering, other economic crimes, and other offenses where the accused might pose a public safety risk. In some cases, courts imposed strict conditions on freedom of movement and association when they granted bail. In the primary and district courts, persons sometimes reportedly bribed officials to grant bail.The law gave accused persons the right to contact a lawyer or talk with family members, but police often failed to inform detainees of this right. Indigent defendants and suspects charged with murder or treason could apply to the registrar of the court to request legal representation. Prompt access to counsel was often limited by the lack of lawyers in rural areas, lack of communication systems and infrastructure, and accused persons’ ignorance of their rights.																										e. Denial of Fair Public Trial										The constitution provided for an independent judiciary, but many components of the judiciary remained underfunded, corrupt, inefficient (especially in the lower courts), and subject to allegations of executive influence. Judges and senior court officers were political appointees of the president, which government critics argued left them open to instruction and intimidation by the president.Court clerks reportedly took bribes to open cases or hide or misdirect the files of those accused of crimes. Magistrates of lower courts reportedly accepted bribes on occasion to determine the outcome of cases. There were instances in which the outcomes of trials appeared predetermined by the government or where the government generally did not appear to respect judicial independence or impartiality. Authorities respected and enforced court orders.																Trial Procedures						The law provided for the right to a fair and public trial, but a weak judiciary often failed to protect this right. Trials could last for months or even years because they might start, break for an indeterminate amount of time, then resume, perhaps multiple times.The law provided for the presumption of innocence, and the standard for conviction in criminal cases was “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Despite such provisions, executive branch entities regularly accused political parties, civil society organizations, and international organizations of breaking the law and demanded the accused clarify or defend their innocence. Courts that held closed proceedings (for example, in cases of drug trafficking or sexual offenses involving juveniles) generally were required to provide reasons for closing the proceedings. In cases involving terrorism, the law stated everyone, except the interested parties, could be excluded from court proceedings, and witnesses could be heard under special arrangements for their protection.In Zanzibar the government sometimes provided public defenders in manslaughter cases. Authorities did not always allow detainees sufficient time to prepare their defense, and access to adequate facilities was limited. Prosecutors had no disclosure obligations in criminal cases, and often the defense would not know what evidence the prosecutor would rely upon when the trial began.						Political Prisoners and Detainees						There were no new reports of political prisoners or detainees. Under orders from President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the director of public prosecutions dropped charges against various political detainees. There was an unknown number of political prisoners on the mainland and Zanzibar who remained in prison. The government threatened to charge opposition leaders with nonbailable offenses. There were no reports of the government denying access to political detainees by human rights organizations.																										f. Transnational Repression										Not applicable.																																				g. Property Seizure and Restitution										Not applicable.																																				h. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence										The law generally prohibited such actions without a search warrant, but the government did not consistently respect these prohibitions. While only courts could issue search warrants, the law also authorized searches of persons and premises without a warrant if necessary to prevent the loss or destruction of evidence or if circumstances were serious and urgent. The law relating to terrorism permitted police officers at or above the rank of assistant superintendent or in charge of a police station to conduct searches without a warrant in certain urgent cases. It was widely believed government agents monitored the telephones and correspondences of some citizens and foreign residents. The nature and extent of this practice were unknown, but due to fear of surveillance, many civil society organizations and leaders were unwilling to speak freely over the telephone. According to Freedom House, the government reportedly acquired social media monitoring and spyware technology and admitted that it monitored social media in previous years.																																					Section 2.													 Respect for Civil Liberties												    																																																a. Freedom of Expression, Including for Members of the Press and Other Media										The constitution provided for freedom of speech but did not explicitly provide for freedom of expression for members of the press and other media. There were criminal penalties for libel and defamation, and authorities used these laws to stifle freedom of expression. The rights of free expression were further limited through several formal (legislative, regulatory) and informal (executive, government, and police statements) actions. These included laws that gave the government the authority to shut down media outlets.Freedom of Expression: Public criticism of the government resulted in punitive action in some cases. Authorities used the Cybercrimes Act to bring criminal charges against individuals who criticized the government on a variety of electronic media.As of June 10, authorities arrested at least 22 persons for allegedly criticizing the National Assembly regarding its Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the United Arab Emirates for Dubai Ports World (DP World) to develop the Dar es Salaam port.On May 1, a court sentenced a resident of Geita, Dawa Juma, to six years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10 million Tanzanian shillings ($4,170) after he was found guilty of insulting President Samia on social media.Violence and Harassment: Authorities harassed and intimidated journalists during the year.On April 11, police arrested and later released a lawyer named Odero Odero and four journalists after they visited Msomera village in Tanga region to report on the condition of Ngorongoro residents who were relocated by the government. The journalists were from Habari Maalum, Star TV, and KTN News Kenya.On July 22, Fortune Francis and Sunday George, two journalists from the newspaper Mwananchi, were assaulted while covering an opposition political rally in the Temeke area of Dar es Salaam.Censorship or Content Restrictions for Members of the Press and Other Media, Including Online Media: Media reporting related to security matters was censored under President Samia, although tactics were less overt than in the past. Authorities required a permit for reporting on police or prison activities both on the mainland and in Zanzibar, and journalists needed special permission to cover meetings of the National Assembly or attend meetings in the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Anyone publishing information accusing a Zanzibari representative of involvement in illegal activities was liable to a monetary fine, three years’ imprisonment, or both. The government could fine and suspend newspapers without warning. Journalists and media outlets frequently self-censored to avoid government retribution.The government of Zanzibar controlled content on the radio and television stations it owned but allowed discussions on media policy reform to take place. There were government restrictions on broadcasting in tribal languages, and broadcasts in Kiswahili or English were officially preferred.Several media outlets shared they received calls from government officials warning them not to run reports on sensitive subjects, particularly reports on the IGA for DP World to develop Dar es Salaam port.On April 17, Minister of Information, Communication, and Information Technology Nape Nnauye announced hundreds of social networking accounts were banned for allegedly promoting same-sex relationships, and on July 8, ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party expelled Ali Karume, a former diplomat, for publicly stating President of Zanzibar Hussein Mwinyi was not legally appointed to office.As of July 25, the National Art Council banned four songs the government claimed did not adhere to Tanzanian norms and values. The banned songs were largely critical of the government regarding human rights and corruption.Libel/Slander Laws: The law provided for arrest, prosecution, and punishment for the use of seditious, abusive, or derogatory language to describe the country’s leadership. The law made defamation a criminal act. Defamation was defined as any matter likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing them to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in their profession or trade by an injury to their reputation. The law prohibited a person from taking any action or making any statement with the intent of insulting the religious beliefs of another person. Anyone committing such an offense could be punished with a year’s imprisonment. Blasphemy laws were in effect in areas under sharia.																Internet Freedom						The government restricted access to the internet. Online material deemed “offensive, morally improper” or that “causes annoyance” was prohibited, and those charged with violating the regulations faced a substantial monetary fine or a minimum sentence of 12 months in prison. The law criminalized publication of false information, defined as “information, data, or facts presented in a picture, texts, symbol, or any other form in a computer system where such information, data, or fact is false, deceptive, misleading, or inaccurate.” While the number of arrests of individuals who made critical comments on electronic media regarding the government diminished under President Samia, individuals were still publicly threatened for publishing critical remarks or opinions, even if they were factually true. There were widespread reports of the banning of a popular social media app for audio live chats, Clubhouse, since February.Beginning in October, the Communications Regulatory Authority required organizations and individuals to register their destination IP addresses with the government if they were using virtual private networks to anonymize their online activity.																										b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association										The constitution provided for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, but the government generally did not respect these rights. Despite lifting the ban on opposition political rallies, the government limited freedom of peaceful assembly for opposition political parties. For example, demonstrations were deemed to be different from political rallies, and thus not allowed. Additionally, government attacks on human rights defenders and the arrest of opposition leaders calling for peaceful, democratic protests restricted freedom of assembly and association.																Freedom of Peaceful Assembly						The government restricted freedom of peaceful assembly, including through bans decreed by authorities but not supported by law. The 2016 government ban on political parties organizing political activities and rallies outside of election periods was lifted. The government required organizers of political rallies to obtain police permission. Police could deny permission on public safety or security grounds or if the permit seeker belonged to an unregistered organization or political party. The government and police limited the issuance of permits for public demonstrations and assemblies to opposition political parties, NGOs, and religious organizations. Authorities prohibited organization of demonstrations or rallies online. The government restricted nonpolitical gatherings deemed critical of the government.On August 13, police arrested lawyer Andrew Mwambukusi and opposition party CHADEMA leader Mpaluka Nyangali for allegedly planning to organize a nationwide demonstration aimed at overthrowing the government. Both individuals were involved in efforts to challenge the government regarding the IGA for DP World to develop Dar es Salaam port.						Freedom of Association						The constitution provided for freedom of association, and the government generally respected this right, although organizations regarding the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons experienced difficulty registering (see section 6, Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics). Thousands of NGOs and societies operated in the country. Political parties were required to register and meet membership and other requirements. Freedom of association for workers was limited (see section 7.a.).As of January 24, the registrar of NGOs deregistered three LGBTQI+ advocacy organizations for suggested failure to comply with laws regulating NGOs: Stay Awake Network Activity, Ignite Youth Mind of Tanzania, and Connect Community with Advocacy and Empowerment. Some stakeholders suggested these organizations were deregistered due to allegations they were promoting homosexuality. The deregistration of these organizations hindered continuity of health-focused projects and programs.On April 2, the National Council of NGOs Executive Committee began investigating 29 civil society organizations for what they alleged to be promoting homosexuality. Former Minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs Harrison Mwakyembe made the accusations while addressing a conference in Mbeya region on March 27.According to legal advocacy organizations, freedom of association for NGOs was jeopardized by the law, which reduced the autonomy of NGOs and provided for excessive regulation of the NGO sector. The government’s registrar of NGOs, a presidential appointee, stated the process of deregistration underscored the need for NGOs to comply with the law and provide transparency and accountability in their activities. Under existing law, however, the registrar of NGOs was granted sweeping powers to suspend and deregister NGOs, leaving loopholes that could be used to obstruct political opposition and human rights NGOs (see section 3, Political Parties and Political Participation, and section 5, Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights).The law made a distinction between NGOs and societies and applied different registration procedures to the two. It defined a society as any club, company, partnership, or association of 10 or more persons, regardless of its purpose, and noted specific categories of organizations not considered societies, such as political parties. The law defined NGOs to include organizations whose purpose was to promote economic, environmental, social, or cultural development; protect the environment; or lobby or advocate on topics of public interest. Societies and NGOs could not operate until authorities approved their applications.																										c. Freedom of Religion										See the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report at  https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/.																																				d. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Leave the Country										The constitution provided for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights.In-country Movement: Refugees were confined to camps. The government limited refugee movement and enforced its encampment policy, including the arrest of refugees caught moving outside the camps without official permission. With permits more difficult to obtain and livelihood opportunities inside the camps heavily constrained, police apprehended and arrested refugees who left the camps in search of work. Authorities usually prosecuted and sentenced these persons in local courts to six months’ detention or payment of a fine.Foreign Travel: In June the government reinstated its outright denial of exit permits for Burundian refugees to depart the country for third country resettlement. The government argued conditions in Burundi were conducive to voluntary repatriation.																																				e. Protection of Refugees										The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, or asylum seekers, as well as other persons of concern.Access to Asylum: The law provided for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government had an established system for providing protection to refugees; however, the National Eligibility Committee, which made determinations on asylum applications, reportedly had not convened since 2018, stalling the status determination process. The asylum rejection rate was more than 70 percent. The protection environment for refugees, particularly from Burundi, was a concern. Additionally, the government did not grant UNHCR or diplomatic missions access to the southern border to assess the status of refugees entering from Mozambique. The government denied asylum seekers crossing into the country from Mozambique merited refugee status.UNHCR intervened in cases of irregular migrants in need of international protection following their arrest by authorities in Dar es Salaam or other urban centers to ensure the migrants had access to national asylum procedures and were protected from forced return to their country of origin.Refoulement: There were reports of asylum seekers from Mozambique who were returned without access to UNHCR assessments of the voluntariness of the returns. In addition, there were reports some long-standing Mozambican migrants living in the southern part of the country, including those with Tanzanian family members, were also expelled from the country. The government did not accept Mozambican asylum seekers fleeing violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado into the southern part of the country. According to an agreement with the Government of Mozambique, the government returned Mozambicans who crossed into Tanzania back to unknown locations in Mozambique.There was a significant increase in Burundians returning from Tanzania as of August, and there were reports refugees faced intimidation or pressure by Tanzanian authorities to return home. UNHCR expressed concerns regarding validating the voluntariness of the returns. Some refugees who were pressured into returning to Burundi became refugees in other countries or returned to Tanzania. The government did not allow UNHCR to reregister those who returned, preventing them from accessing humanitarian assistance or basic services.Abuse of Refugees and Asylum Seekers: According to NGOs working in the camps, there was an increase in gender-based violence and other problems due to the loss of livelihoods, reduction of food assistance, and other stress factors. There were reports of refugees found outside the camps being detained, beaten, abused, raped, or killed by officials or citizens.Gender-based violence against refugees continued, including allegations of violence and sexual abuse against officials who worked in or around refugee camps. Service providers identified nearly 800 survivors of gender-based violence in the Nduta and Nyarugusu camps. Some of the cases were women who were forced to repatriate to Burundi by their spouses and who returned to the camps due to lack of shelter and services in Burundi, or spousal abuse or neglect. UNHCR worked with local authorities and residents in the two refugee camps to strengthen coordination and address violence, including sexual violence, against vulnerable persons. The public prosecutor investigated, prosecuted, and punished perpetrators of abuses in the camp, while international NGOs assisted the legal team when requested by a survivor. Local authorities and the public prosecutor handled most cases of refugee victims of crime and abuse outside the camp. Residents of the refugee camps suffered delays and limited access to courts, common problems also faced by citizens.Freedom of Movement: Refugees apprehended farther than 2.5 miles outside their camps without permits were subject by law to sentences ranging from a fine up to a three-year prison sentence. Policy restrictions limiting refugee freedom of movement and access to livelihoods left the refugee population almost totally dependent on humanitarian assistance and vulnerable to a range of protection risks, including gender-based violence.Employment: There were credible reports the government imposed restrictions on refugees’ ability to work after their status as refugees was official.Durable Solutions: The government focused on repatriation as the only durable solution for Burundian refugees, and it did not support naturalization or local integration as a durable solution. UNHCR assisted voluntary returns under the framework of a tripartite agreement among the Governments of Burundi and Tanzania and UNHCR, while stressing conditions inside Burundi were not yet conducive for large-scale returns because many Burundian refugees remained in need of international protection.																																					Section 3.													 Freedom to Participate in the Political Process												    																						The constitution provided citizens the ability to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on universal and equal suffrage, but it allowed parliament to restrict this right if a citizen was mentally infirm, convicted of certain criminal offenses, or omitted or failed to prove or produce evidence of age, citizenship, or registration as a voter. Citizens residing outside the country were not allowed to vote.																										Elections and Political Participation										Abuses or Irregularities in Recent Elections: International and local observers noted the 2020 elections were marred with numerous credible reports of irregularities, along with internet and social media outages. CHADEMA, the main opposition party, did not participate in a September by-election, citing intimidation and ballot stuffing.Political Parties and Political Participation: The registrar of political parties had sole authority to approve registration of any political party and was responsible for enforcing regulations. A 2019 amendment expanded the registrar’s powers, a move opposition members of parliament asserted would cement one-party rule. Under the amended law, the registrar could prohibit any individual from engaging in political activities and request any information from a political party, including minutes and attendee lists from party meetings. During the 2020 elections, the political opposition faced difficulty forming a coalition due in part to the legal requirement that all minutes, areas of agreement, and strategic plans be shared with the registrar. As the government was primarily composed of one party, membership in the dominant party could confer advantages, including appointments to government jobs. President Samia maintained at least one opposition party member as a regional commissioner but did not appoint any other opposition party members to high-level government positions. The government in Zanzibar appointed two opposition party members to ministerial positions and maintained a first vice president from the opposition, primarily through its establishment of a government of national unity, which included members of the opposition.The law required political parties to support the union between Tanganyika (mainland Tanzania) and Zanzibar; parties based on ethnic, regional, or religious affiliation were prohibited.In August Zanzibar President Mwinyi formed the new Zanzibar Election Commission, which included two members from the opposition parties. President Mwinyi had previously formed a 12-person inter-party reconciliation committee in line with the recommendations of the national reconciliation committee.On September 5, the Women Media Association issued a press release claiming a political leader barred a woman member of the Zanzibar Election Commission from talking or expressing her views regarding her first appointment as a member of the election management body.																																					Section 4.													 Corruption in Government												    																						The law provided criminal penalties for corruption by officials, but the government did not implement the law effectively. There were numerous reports of government corruption.Corruption: Reports indicated corruption by government officials was increasing, despite President Samia’s initiatives to minimize corruption. The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) historically reported that most corruption investigations concerned government involvement in mining, land, energy, and investments.In March the Controller and Auditor General published a report noting substantial misuse of public resources. For example, the report asserted the Director of Public Prosecutions failed to enforce collection of compensation resulting from plea-bargaining agreements amounting to 170.61 billion Tanzanian shillings ($71.2 million). The report also noted deficiencies in the procedures for tracking confiscated assets and funds. The report additionally found certain large-scale infrastructure projects, primarily related to the Standard Gauge Railway construction, were not in the national interest – noting the tender for the relevant contracts were not competitively bid.NGOs reported allegations of corruption involving the Revenue Authority, local government officials, police, licensing authorities, hospital workers, and media.On August 22, the PCCB arrested seven government officials in Katavi for alleged misappropriation of one billion Tanzanian shillings ($417,000) in public funds by transferring the funds to vendors who had not been contracted by the Mpimbwe Local Government Authority.On August 29, police apprehended 40 suspects following allegations of embezzling approximately 450 million Tanzanian shillings ($188,000) in government revenue after they developed and deployed a parallel local government revenue collection scheme.For additional information about corruption in the country, please see the Department of State’s Investment Climate Statement for the country and the Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which includes information on financial crimes.																											Section 5.													 Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights												    																						A variety of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials were somewhat cooperative and responsive to the views of these groups. The government delayed work and residency permits for some international organizations. Some human rights NGOs complained of a negative government reaction when they challenged government practice or policy. The government in June 2022 accused NGOs of stoking tensions between authorities and residents of the Loliondo division of Ngorongoro district following the demarcation of 371,000 acres purportedly for tourism and conservation efforts (see section 1.c.). The government made similar allegations when NGOs released reports on the situation.Government Human Rights Bodies: The union parliamentary Committee for Constitutional, Legal, and Public Administration was responsible for reporting and making recommendations regarding human rights.The CHRAGG operated on both the mainland and Zanzibar, but its effectiveness was limited. The commission had no legal authority to prosecute cases but could make recommendations to other offices concerning remedies or call media attention to human rights abuses and other public complaints. It also had authority to issue interim orders preventing actions in order to preserve the status quo, pending an investigation. Human rights stakeholders expressed concerns the government was censoring the human rights body, citing failure of the CHRAGG to condemn human rights abuses.CHRAGG received complaints regarding human rights abuses from NGOs and community members about the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority forcefully relocating persons from the conservation area. Civil society members stated the CHRAGG did not release its report, although it conducted its investigation.																											Section 6.													 Discrimination and Societal Abuses												    																																																Women										Rape and Domestic Violence: The law provided for life imprisonment for persons convicted of rape of women and men younger than age 18, including spousal rape during periods of legal separation. The law did not mention rape of men older than 18. The law stipulated persons wishing to report a rape needed to do so at a police station, where they needed to receive a release form before seeking medical help. This process contributed to medical complications, incomplete forensic evidence, and failure to report rapes. Survivors often feared cases reported to police would be made public.The law prohibited assault but did not specifically prohibit domestic violence. Domestic violence against women remained widespread, and police rarely investigated such cases.Authorities rarely prosecuted persons who abused women. Persons close to the survivors, such as relatives and friends, were most likely to be the perpetrators. Many defendants who appeared in court were set free because of corruption in the judicial system, lack of evidence, poor investigations, or poor evidence preservation.There were some government efforts to combat gender-based violence. Police increased the number of gender and child desks in regions throughout the country to support survivors, address relevant crimes, and address mistrust between members of key populations and police. Their effectiveness, however, varied widely. Police validated a referral guide to improve the quality and consistency of responses to cases of gender-based violence. Despite government efforts, reports of gender-based violence increased. The Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) released a statement that condemned an increase in gender-based violence within the community and called for enactment of a law to combat the problem.On August 14, Minister of Community, Development, Gender, Women, Children, and Special Groups Dorothy Gwajima launched a call center to collect reports of gender-based violence, including domestic abuse. The call center was based in the political capital of Dodoma region but was intended to increase the provision of services to historically underserved areas.In prisons the government also coordinated policies, strategies, and guidelines in reference to gender matters. The government introduced gender desks within the prison department as a reporting mechanism for gender-based violence in prisons.Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): The law prohibited FGM/C from being performed on girls younger than 18, but it did not provide for protection to women 18 or older.Prosecutions were rare. Many police officers and communities were unaware of the law, survivors were often reluctant to testify, and some witnesses feared reprisals from FGM/C supporters. Anti-FGM/C NGOs reported perpetrators were increasingly targeting children younger than 12 months to evade enforcement of the law. In 2019 the Ministry of Health reported approximately 10 percent of women underwent FGM/C, representing a decrease compared to previous years.Other Forms of Gender-based Violence or Harassment: The law prohibited sexual harassment of women in the workplace. According to the Women’s Legal Aid Center, police rarely investigated reported cases and the government rarely enforced applicable laws. Those cases that were investigated were often dropped before they got to court – in some instances by the plaintiffs due to societal pressure and in others by prosecutors due to lack of evidence. The LHRC’s 2020/2021 Human Rights and Business Report found the matter of sexual harassment was among the most pressing matters facing women in the business sector. Women reported experiencing sexual exploitation in order to obtain relief and privileges at work.Discrimination: The law provided the same legal status and rights for women and men, including in employment, housing, education, and health care, and the government generally enforced the law; however, the law also recognized customary practices that often favored men.While women faced discriminatory treatment in marriage, divorce, inheritance, and nationality; overt discrimination in education, credit, business ownership, and housing was uncommon. There were no legal restrictions on women’s employment in the same occupations, tasks, and working hours as men. Nevertheless, women, especially in rural areas, faced significant employment disadvantages due to cultural, historical, and educational factors, such as cultural norms discouraging women from asserting opinions to men and from pursuing higher education.Reproductive Rights: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities.According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey 2022, Key Indicator Report, one in five women would like to prevent pregnancy but lacked access to family planning. Family planning services, including access to contraceptives, were covered in the national health system. Twenty-two percent of adolescent girls between ages 15 and 19 were already mothers or were pregnant with their first child. The adolescent pregnancy rate was disproportionately higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. Adolescence was associated with a high frequency of child marriage, insufficient knowledge concerning sexually transmitted infections, and restricted access to sexual and reproductive health services. Persons with disabilities (especially adolescents) had greater unmet sexual and reproductive health needs than the general population due to lack of information and increased risk for sexual abuse and rape, HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and stigma.Access to sexual and reproductive health services was hindered by communication and environmental barriers, physical inaccessibility, and negative interaction with service providers, including lack of confidentiality, mistreatment and disrespect, and inadequacy of service delivery.Despite government efforts to improve the availability and quality of postabortion services, women and girls who suffered complications avoided seeking treatment due to the perceived risk of being prosecuted, and many health-care providers were not aware they were legally allowed to provide treatment and that women had the right to such service.Within the Reproductive and Child Health Unit in the Ministry of Health and implemented by the President’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government, the government had national guidelines managing the health sector response to and the prevention of gender-based violence. Health facilities trained on sexual and gender-based violence and provided sexual and reproductive health information, as well as emergency contraceptive and prophylaxis to survivors of sexual violence, per clinical guidance.The country saw a dramatic decrease in the maternal mortality rate, from 556 in 2015 to 194 per 100,000 births, according to the 2022 census. Eighty-five percent of pregnant women delivered with a skilled birth attendant, a marked increase from 66 percent in 2015. A recent study conducted in Lindi and Mtwara Regions in the southern part of the country found traumatic and nontraumatic postpartum hemorrhage was the most common cause of maternal deaths: 51 percent of maternal deaths occurred within 24 hours of delivery; 60 percent of those who died were ages 25 to 36; and 63 percent of those who died were lower-income rural inhabitants.Many women had untreated obstetric fistula (a hole in the birth canal caused by obstructed labor), a situation resulting in large part from deficiencies in the health system. Women attributed fistula development to negative experiences such as disrespectful maternity care. Multiple studies reported women also perceived their fistula resulted from prolonged wait times in the primary health-care facility due to nurses’ negligence and failure to make decisions to transfer them to a better prepared facility in a timely manner. Moreover, mothers reported persistent systematic barriers and dismissive institutional norms and practice, including poor communication, denial of husbands’ presence at birth, denial of mobility, denial of safe traditional practices, no respect for their preferred birth positions, and poor physical condition of facilities. Community stigma was another major factor that delayed women seeking obstetric fistula treatment. In July, President Samia launched the nationwide M-Mama program in partnership with Vodacom and the Vodafone foundation to provide maternal and neonatal health-care solutions, including an emergency transport system.Menstrual hygiene also remained a prohibitive factor for girls’ access to education, as most girls did not have access to feminine hygiene products and decided to remain home during their menstrual period. Schools did not provide comprehensive sexuality education, and students reported they did not have adequate information to prevent pregnancy. In addition, an NGO reported many girls became pregnant as a result of rape. Under the Education and Training Policy launched by the government in 2015, pregnant girls could be reinstated in schools. In 2017, President Magufuli declared girls would not be allowed to return to school after giving birth; however, in November 2021, the government announced it would allow persons who had dropped out of school, including pregnant school-age girls and adolescent mothers, to return to the formal education system. On June 28, the government announced 1,907 girls who dropped out of school due to pregnancy or childbirth had returned to school since November 2021, representing more than 20 percent of the estimated total who had dropped out.																																				Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination										There were isolated reports of systemic racial or ethnic violence or discrimination. There were no laws for the specific protection of racial or ethnic minorities.																																				Indigenous Peoples										The country did not recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples or those who self-identified as Indigenous. Indigenous persons could face forcible evictions from traditionally Indigenous lands for conservation or development efforts.																																				Children										Education: Girls represented approximately one-half of all children enrolled in primary school but were absent more often than boys due to household duties and lack of sanitary facilities. At the secondary level, child, early, and forced marriage and pregnancy often prevented girls from finishing school.Child Abuse: Violence against and abuse of children were major problems. The law prohibited infringing upon the rights of the child, including causing physical, moral, or emotional harm, as well as neglect, sexual abuse, and exploitive labor. Corporal punishment was employed in schools, and the law allowed head teachers to cane students. The National Violence against Children Survey, conducted in 2009 (the most recent data available), found almost 75 percent of children experienced physical violence prior to age 18.Child, Early, and Forced Marriage: The law set the legal age for marriage at 18 for boys and 14 with parental consent for girls. The law made it illegal to marry a primary or secondary school student. To circumvent these laws, individuals reportedly bribed police or paid a bride price to the family of the girl to avoid prosecution. According to Human Rights Watch, girls as young as seven were married. Zanzibar had its own law on marriage, but it did not specifically address child, early, and forced marriage. The government provided secondary school-level education campaigns to prevent gender-based violence, which included information on child, early, and forced marriage.In April police arrested Maulid Athuman because he intended to marry a girl age 15. The matchmaker and sheikh involved in the intended marriage were also arrested. The girl said she agreed to get married to avoid turmoil at home, although she wanted to continue her studies.The Women’s Legal Aid Center reported increasing patterns of early marriage within refugee camps, further complicated by laws of the child, which referred to children as younger than 18. The marriage law, however, allowed girls to marry at 14.Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law criminalized commercial sexual exploitation of children, including child sex trafficking, sexual exhibitions, and child pornography, but there were no reported prosecutions based on this law. The law provided that sexual intercourse with a child younger than 18 was rape unless within a legal marriage. The law was not always enforced because cases were not always reported or because girls, facing pressure, dropped charges. For example, there were accounts of statutory rapes of girls that went unreported in Zanzibar. There were unofficial reports from civil society members that the number of cases of statutory rapes in Zanzibar increased, but there were no official statistics to substantiate those claims.On August 29, a Zanzibar government statistician said 80 percent of 168 cases of gender-based violence, child abuse, and women’s abuse reported during July involved children.Infanticide, Including Infanticide of Children with Disabilities: Infanticide continued, especially among poor rural mothers who believed themselves unable to afford to raise a child. Nationwide statistics were not available.																																				Antisemitism										The Jewish population was very small, and there were no reports of antisemitic incidents.																																				Trafficking in Persons										See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at  https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.																																				Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics										Criminalization: Consensual same-sex sexual conduct was criminalized. The law on both the mainland and Zanzibar punished “gross indecency” by up to five years in prison or a fine. The law punished any person convicted of having “carnal knowledge of another against the order of nature or permits a man to have carnal knowledge of him against the order of nature” with a prison sentence on the mainland of 30 years to life and in Zanzibar of imprisonment up to 14 years. In Zanzibar, the law provided for imprisonment up to five years or a fine for “acts of lesbianism.” These laws were enforced, including at least four individuals who received the maximum 30-year sentence.Courts disproportionately enforced facially neutral laws against LGBTQI+ persons, such as charging individuals suspected of same-sex sexual conduct with loitering or prostitution. On January 20, a group of 14 LGBTQI+ persons were found guilty of illegal assembly and loitering; they were each ordered to pay a fine of approximately 215,000 Tanzanian shillings ($90) or serve a two-month jail sentence. The group was arrested during a raid of an LGBTQI+ community meeting in Morogoro and were originally charged with “promoting homosexuality,” which was a false charge, as the law prohibited homosexual acts but not the promotion of homosexuality.Authorities arrested and later released at least 23 individuals under suspicion of same-sex sexual conduct. Three individuals, including one U.S. citizen, were arrested in April and threatened with invasive procedures. The three individuals were later released without undergoing examination, and charges were dropped.LGBTQI+ persons were afraid to report violence and other crimes, including those committed by state agents, due to fear of arrest for same-sex sexual conduct. LGBTQI+ persons reported continued harassment from police and solicitation of bribes.Violence and Harassment: Incidents of violence against LGBTQI+ persons occurred, but reporting was limited because individuals feared identification, arrest, or discrimination or violence from police, family members, or strangers. The government did not systematically track reports of violence or discrimination against LGBTQI+ persons.On April 26, four persons were arrested in connection with the death of Kemilembe Seleman, whose body was found mutilated. Although the investigation was not finished, social media comments linked Seleman’s death to a 2017 video clip on the internet of her kissing another woman.During the year, prominent activists were silent amid a surge in arrests of individuals suspected of same-sex sexual conduct due to fear of government and community reprisal.Discrimination: The law did not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics, and it did not recognize LGBTQI+ couples or their families. Police verbally and sometimes physically harassed or intimidated persons perceived to be LGBTQI+ based on their clothing or behavior. LGBTQI+ persons faced discrimination in accessing health care (including access to information regarding HIV), housing, education, and employment. There were no known government efforts to combat such discrimination.Availability of Legal Gender Recognition: There was no legal means for individuals to change gender identity markers on government identification documents. The inability to obtain legal identity documents that aligned with their gender expression created significant problems for transgender and nonbinary persons in employment, education, housing, and virtually all aspects of life.Involuntary or Coercive Medical or Psychological Practices: There were reports of the use of involuntary or coercive practices in an effort to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, primarily through nonphysical means such as coercive talk “therapy” by medical or mental health practitioners or religious or community leaders. There were no efforts by government or medical associations to condemn such practices.Restrictions of Freedom of Expression, Association, or Peaceful Assembly: LGBTQI+ individuals could not freely assemble, associate, or express themselves publicly due to fear of identification, arrest, and discrimination or violence by police or family members.NGOs reported difficulty registering organizations with explicitly LGBTQI+-focused names, often needing to use aliases or vague language. While NGOs feared their ability to operate freely and openly could be curtailed, they reported less targeting or deregistration by authorities under President Samia.Freedom of expression was restricted by state agents. In February Minister of Education, Science, and Technology Adolf Mkenda banned 16 books from schools for “endangering the upbringing of children and young people in the country.” The banned books included some related to LGBTQI+ identity and sex education, as well as several from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.																																				Persons with Disabilities										Persons with disabilities sometimes could not access education, health care, and transportation on an equal basis with others. The law provided equality in status and prohibited discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental disabilities. The government, however, did not effectively enforce these provisions. Few public buildings were accessible to persons with disabilities. New public buildings, however, were built in compliance with the law to provide access. The law provided for access to information and communication in accessible formats, but not all persons with disabilities had such access.Limits to the political participation of persons with disabilities included inaccessible polling stations, lack of accessible information, limited inclusion in political parties, failure of the National Election Commission to implement directives concerning disability, and prejudice toward persons with disabilities.On April 16, police in Geita region arrested Elias Bakumye for allegedly killing his own child, who had a disability, claiming he failed to raise the child properly.																																				Other Societal Violence or Discrimination										The law prohibited discrimination against any person “known or perceived” to be HIV-positive and established medical confidentiality standards to protect persons with HIV and AIDS. Police abuses of HIV-positive persons, particularly in three key populations (persons engaged in commercial sex, drug users, and LGBTQI+ persons), were not uncommon and included arbitrary arrest, extortion, and refusal to accept complaints from victims of crime. In the health sector, these key populations experienced denial of services, verbal harassment and abuse, and violations of confidentiality. In May in response to community complaints, police conducted a crackdown on persons engaged in commercial sex in Dar es Salaam. During the operation, there were credible reports of arbitrary arrests, in addition to prolonged detention, extortion, rape, sexual assault, and other physical violence. Similar crackdown operations were reported in the Iringa region in June.Since 2017, the government prohibited the free distribution of lubricant as an HIV harm reduction strategy and the establishment of key population drop-in centers to offer HIV care and treatment services to marginalized populations.Despite efforts by the government and NGOs to reduce mob violence through educational outreach and community policing, mob violence continued.Witchcraft-related attacks and killings continued to be a problem and were largely underreported, according to Under the Same Sun, a Christian organization advocating for the rights of persons with albinism. According to the LHRC’s 2022 report, there were 115 witchcraft-related killings in 2022. The majority of victims or targets of such killings were often children or elderly women. In 2015 the government outlawed witchdoctors in an attempt to curtail killings of persons with albinism. Persons with albinism were at risk of violence, however, especially during election times, since some ritual practitioners sought body parts from persons with albinism in the belief that they could be used to bring power, wealth, and good fortune. In 2022, the LHRC documented the attack and killing of Joseph Mathias, a person with albinism, who was cut by unknown assailants, causing him to bleed to death. The incident occurred in Kwimba District Mwanza region.Farmers and pastoralists sometimes argued over traditional animal grazing areas, and violence occurred during some disputes.																																					Section 7.													 Worker Rights												    																																																a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining										The mainland and Zanzibari governments had separate labor laws. The mainland’s law provided for the right of workers to form and join independent trade unions, bargain collectively, and conduct legal strikes, except for workers in the categories of “national service” and prison guards. The law prohibited some forms of antiunion discrimination but did not require employers to reinstate workers fired for trade union activity nor prevent retribution against workers taking part in legal strikes. The law required trade unions in the private sector to consist of more than 20 members and register with the government, while public-sector unions needed a minimum of 30 members. Five organizations were required to form a federation. Trade union affiliation with nonunion organizations could be annulled by the Labour Court if it was obtained without government approval or if the union was considered an organization whose remit was broader than employer-worker relations. A trade union or employers association needed to file for registration with the registrar of trade unions in the Ministry of Labour within six months of establishment. The law, however, did not provide for specific time limits within which the government needed to register an organization, and the registrar had the power to refuse registration on arbitrary or ambiguous grounds. The government prescribed the terms of office of trade union leaders. Failure to comply with government requirements was subject to fines, imprisonment, or both.The law required unions to submit financial records and a membership list to the registrar annually and to obtain government approval for association with international trade unions. The registrar could apply to the Labour Court to deregister or suspend unions if there was overlap within an enterprise or if it was determined the union violated the law or endangered public security.Collective bargaining agreements needed to be registered with the Labour Commission. Public-service employees, except for limited exceptions, such as workers involved in “national service” and prison guards, could also engage in collective bargaining.Employers had the right to initiate a lockout, provided they complied with certain legal requirements and procedures. For a strike to be declared legal, the law required three separate notifications of intent, a waiting period of at least 92 days, and a union vote in the presence of a Ministry of Labour official that garnered approval by at least 75 percent of the members voting. All parties to a dispute could be bound by an agreement to arbitrate, and neither party could then engage in a strike or a lockout until that process had been completed. Disputes regarding adjustments to or the terms of signed contracts needed to be addressed through arbitration and were not subject to strikes.The law restricted the right to strike when a strike involved an “essential service” that could endanger the life and health of the population. Picketing in support of a strike or in opposition to a lawful lockout was prohibited. Workers in almost 50 percent of all service sectors were defined as “essential” (water, sanitation, electricity, health services, health laboratory services, firefighting, air traffic control, civil aviation, telecommunications, and any transport services required for these services); these employees could not strike without a preexisting agreement to maintain “minimum services.” Workers in other sectors could also be subject to this limitation as determined by the Essential Services Committee, a tripartite committee composed of employers, workers, and government representatives with the authority to deem which services were essential. An employer could not legally terminate an employee for participating in a lawful strike or terminate an employee who acceded to the demands of an employer during a lockout.Penalties for violations were commensurate with penalties for similar violations but not sufficient to deter violations. Disputes concerning antiunion discrimination needed to be referred to the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration, a governmental department affiliated with the Ministry of Labour. There was no public information available regarding cases of antiunion discrimination.Ride-hailing platform Uber suspended operations in 2022 after the government published a fare guide increasing rates but resumed operations in January. Ride-hailing driver unions went on a two-day strike in late 2022 protesting high commission fees and raised concerns the government backtracked on previous regulations. In Zanzibar the law required any union with 50 or more members to be registered, a threshold few companies could meet. The law set literacy standards for trade union officers. The law provided the registrar considerable powers to restrict union registration by setting criteria for determining whether an organization’s constitution protected its members’ interests. The law applied to both public- and private-sector workers and banned Zanzibari workers from joining labor unions on the mainland. The law prohibited a union’s use of its funds, directly or indirectly, to pay any fines or penalties incurred by trade union officials in the discharge of their official duties. In Zanzibar both government and private-sector workers had the right to strike, but the right to strike was strictly regulated, requiring a long prior notice and compulsory mediation. In addition, workers in essential sectors could not strike, and picketing was prohibited. The law did not protect those taking part in legal strikes from retribution.The law in Zanzibar provided for collective bargaining in the private sector. Public-sector employees had the right to bargain collectively through the Trade Union of Government and Health Employees; however, members of the police force and prison service, and high-level public officials (for example, the head of an executive agency) were barred from joining a trade union. Zanzibar’s Dispute Handling Unit addressed labor disputes. In Zanzibar judges and all judicial officers, members of special departments, and employees of the House of Representatives were excluded from labor law protection. In Zanzibar the courts were the only venue in which labor disputes could be heard. Enforcement of labor law in Zanzibar was inadequate, especially on the island of Pemba. In Zanzibar managerial employees did not have the right to bargain collectively on salaries and other conditions of employment.The government did not effectively enforce the law protecting the right to collective bargaining on the mainland or in Zanzibar. On both the mainland and in Zanzibar, private-sector employers adopted antiunion policies or tactics, although discriminatory activities by an employer against union members were illegal.																																				b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor										See the Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report at  https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.																																				c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment										See the Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at  https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings .																																				d. Discrimination (see section 6)																																														e. Acceptable Conditions of Work										Wage and Hour Laws: The government established minimum wage standards in both the public and private sectors on the mainland. The minimum wage was above the government poverty line and was updated early in the year for the private sector, but in many industries it was below World Bank standards for what constituted extreme poverty. In May, President Samia committed to also increase salaries of public sector employees, but workers expressed concern regarding delays implementing these increases. The law allowed employers to apply to the Ministry of Labour for an exemption from paying the minimum wage. The labor laws covered all workers, including foreign and migrant workers and those in the informal sector. The minimum wage on Zanzibar was above the poverty line.The standard workweek was 45 hours, with a maximum of nine hours per day or six days per week. Any work in excess of these limits was compensated with overtime pay at one-and-a-half times the employee’s regular wage. Under most circumstances it was illegal to schedule pregnant or breastfeeding women for work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.The law stated employees with 12 months of employment were entitled to 28 days of paid annual leave, and it required employee compensation for national holidays. The law prohibited excessive or compulsory overtime and restricted overtime to 50 hours in a four-week period or in accordance with previously negotiated work contracts. The law required equal pay for equal work.Human rights groups pointed out some employees believed they were pressured to work longer than normal hours due to the risk of losing their jobs. Some employment contracts required employees to work 10 hours per day in violation of labor laws and standards. Employees on the mainland reported they were required to work until their employer told them to leave, even past normal working hours; in Mbeya and Geita workers reported being forced to work on weekends and holidays, according to a 2020/2021 large scale survey conducted by the LHRC.Violations occurred most frequently in the hospitality, transportation (bus and truck drivers), construction, and private-security sectors, according to the LHRC survey. All employees in the survey indicated they worked overtime at some point, but only 38 percent reported receiving overtime pay.Occupational Safety and Health: Several laws regulated occupational safety and health (OSH) standards in the workplace. According to the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania, OSH standards were appropriate for the main industries and enforcement of these standards improved, but challenges remained in the private sector. OSH standards, however, were not effectively enforced in the informal economy. The Occupational Safety and Health Authority did not employ sufficient inspectors. Most inspections were routine and planned, although inspectors had authority under the law to conduct unannounced inspections. OSH experts rarely identified unsafe conditions, including lack of protective equipment against COVID-19, in addition to responding to workers’ OSH complaints. In dangerous industries such as construction, employees often worked without protective equipment such as helmets, gloves, and harnesses.According to the 2008 Accident Notification Survey (the latest available), the sectors with the highest rates of fatal accidents were construction and building, transport, and mining and quarrying. Domestic workers suffered injuries after being abused by their employers; physical abuse of domestic workers occurred frequently. By law workers could remove themselves from situations that endangered health or safety without jeopardy to their employment, but authorities did not effectively enforce this protection.Workers could sue an employer if their working conditions did not comply with the Ministry of Labour’s health and environmental standards. Disputes were generally resolved through the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration. There were no exceptions for foreign or migrant workers.Wage, Hour, and OSH Enforcement: Minimum wage compliance was regulated through the Labour Administration and Inspection Services Department, which worked under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. On the mainland, labor officers working in the Ministry of Labour monitored employment contracts, wages, and working time. The Division for Labour, Youth, Employment, and Persons with Disability in the Office of the Prime Minister reported there were 87 labor inspectors on the mainland. The Zanzibar labor commissioner reported 11 labor inspectors. The number of inspectors was insufficient to enforce compliance. In Zanzibar the Labour Commission had direct responsibility over labor inspection matters. On both the mainland and Zanzibar, labor officers could issue a compliance order to require employers to comply with labor laws under penalty of fines, imprisonment of up to three days, or both. On the mainland, labor officers working in the Ministry of Labour monitored employment contracts, wages, and working time. The government did not effectively enforce minimum wage, overtime, and OSH laws. The OSH Authority did not employ sufficient inspectors. Most inspections were routine and planned, although inspectors had authority under the law to conduct unannounced inspections. In the case of a violation, inspectors could issue improvement notices with a deadline, issue a stop work order, or prohibit the use of dangerous equipment. There was no sanction or fine, however, that labor inspectors could directly apply on the mainland or in Zanzibar. Penalties for violations were not commensurate with those for similar crimes, such as fraud or negligence.The government did not adequately enforce labor standards, particularly in the informal sector, where most workers were employed, or for part-time workers. The International Labor Organization reported 76 percent of nonagricultural workers in the country were in the informal sector. Approximately 5 percent of the working population (mostly women and girls) was employed in informal domestic work. Domestic workers were covered by some laws setting minimum wages and some terms of employment, but Ministry of Health researchers indicated domestic workers were unaware of their rights and remained vulnerable to excessive working hours, extremely low pay or no pay, and exploitative conditions.Some informal worker associations privately arranged unregulated social protections for their members, such as rotational savings groups or schemes offering limited protection against health problems or death in some particularly hazardous professions such as transportation and construction. Although the law provided for enrollment of self-employed persons, stringent contribution conditions excluded many informal workers from joining and accessing benefits. The National Informal Sector Scheme for pension, health care, and loans served the informal sector to foster productive activities.																																				    							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Respect for the Integrity of the Person																																							a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings																																																						b. Disappearance																																																						c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Other Related Abuses																																																				Prison and Detention Center Conditions																																																																																				d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention																																																				Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees																																																																																				e. Denial of Fair Public Trial																																																				Trial Procedures																																												Political Prisoners and Detainees																																																																																				f. Transnational Repression																																																						g. Property Seizure and Restitution																																																						h. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence																																																			Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties																																							a. Freedom of Expression, Including for Members of the Press and Other Media																																																				Internet Freedom																																																																																				b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association																																																				Freedom of Peaceful Assembly																																												Freedom of Association																																																																																				c. Freedom of Religion																																																						d. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Leave the Country																																																						e. Protection of Refugees																																																			Section 3. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process																																							Elections and Political Participation																																																			Section 4. Corruption in Government																Section 5. Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights																Section 6. Discrimination and Societal Abuses																																							Women																																																						Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination																																																						Indigenous Peoples																																																						Children																																																						Antisemitism																																																						Trafficking in Persons																																																						Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics																																																						Persons with Disabilities																																																						Other Societal Violence or Discrimination																																																			Section 7. Worker Rights																																							a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining																																																						b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor																																																						c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment																																																						d. Discrimination (see section 6)																																																						e. Acceptable Conditions of Work																																																									Tags																					Bureau of African Affairs																								Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor																								Tanzania
- FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity for NGO Programs Benefiting Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda Bureau of Population, Refugees, and MigrationBasic InformationFunding Opportunity Number: DFOP0008371Assistance Listings (CFDA) number: 19.517 &#8211; Overseas Refugee Assistance Programs for AfricaAnnouncement issuance date: Monday, February 12, 2024Announcement type: Cooperative AgreementProposal application submission deadline: Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 11:59:59 p.m. (23:59:59) EDT. Proposals submitted after this deadline will not be considered.Anticipated timeframe to award for selected proposals: Pending the availability of funds, PRM anticipates, but makes no guarantee, that awards will be made less than six months from the proposal submission deadline.Advisory: All applicants must submit proposal application packages through the website Grants.gov. PRM strongly recommends submitting your application packages early to allow time to address any technical difficulties that may arise on the Grants.gov website.If you are new to PRM funding, the Grants.gov registration process can be complicated. We urge you to refer to PRM’s General NGO Guidelines “Application Process” section for information and resources to help ensure that the application process runs smoothly. PRM also strongly encourages organizations that have received funding from PRM in the past to read this section as a refresher.PRM strongly recommends application narratives be submitted in Adobe PDF, as Microsoft Word documents may sometimes produce different page lengths based on software versions and configurations when transmitted. Tables and budget documents should be submitted as Excel documents. Page limits are strictly adhered to, and PRM will not review pages of the narrative beyond the stated limit, which may negatively impact the concept note’ score. All documents must be in English and should avoid the use of jargon and should spell out all acronyms upon first use.Organizations can retrieve PRM’s-recommended templates and NGO guidelines on PRM’s website and in this opportunity’s grants.gov page.Program DescriptionSummaryThis announcement is designed to accompany PRM’s General NGO Guidelines, which contain additional information on PRM’s priorities and NGO funding strategy with which selected organizations must comply. Please use both the General NGO Guidelines and this announcement to ensure that your submission is in full compliance with PRM requirements and that the proposed activities are in line with PRM’s priorities. Submissions that do not reflect the requirements outlined in these guidelines will not be considered.Geographic Regions / PopulationsProposed activities must primarily support refugees and asylum seekers in Rwanda, Tanzania, or Uganda. Because of PRM&#8217;s mandate to provide protection, assistance, and sustainable solutions for refugees and victims of conflict, PRM will consider funding only those programs that include a target program participant base of at least 50 percent refugees/asylum seekers.Program areaProposals must align with one or more of the following program areas.Humanitarian Protection and AssistanceInterim and Durable SolutionsProgram Sectors and ModalitiesProposals must focus on one or more of the programmatic sectors listed in the country-specific guidance below (see PRM’s General NGO Guidelines for sector descriptions).Note: In order to ensure greater accountability for protection outcomes in all overseas assistance program proposals, three indicators are required for all programs regardless of design or sector. If the proposed program will not contribute to one or several of these mandatory indicators, the indicator must still be included in the proposal indicator table but with a target of zero.PRM-1. Number of individuals directly reached through PRM funding.PRM-2. Amount of humanitarian funding distributed to local, national, or refugee-led organizations (in USD) – This amount should include any sub-awards or contracts with local, national, or refugee-led organizations. If the prime applicant is a local, national, or refugee-led organization, they should put the full proposal budget total as the target value. Refer to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) working definition of “local” and “national” organizations. Applicants should put a target of zero for this indicator if it does not apply to them; it will not affect their eligibility.PRM-3. Percentage of participants who report that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner – This is a protection mainstreaming indicator developed by the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and adopted by the Grand Bargain. Research or coordination awards that don’t involve community implementation are exempt from this indicator. Please refer to the PRM Performance Indicator Reference &amp; Definition Sheets (PIRS) for a sample questionnaire and analysis guidance.Note: Cash and Voucher Assistance programs must include the relevant indicator(s) from the selection contained in the NGO Guidelines Appendix D.Number of Proposal ApplicationsOrganizations may submit a maximum of one application per country only. Any subsequent submissions received will be disqualified. (Note: Submissions by organizations as part of a consortium do not count toward an individual organization’s submission limit.)Country-specific GuidelinesRwanda Country-Specific GuidanceGeneral GuidanceProposals should explain how they align with UNHCR’s 2024 Strategic Vision in Rwanda, including the shift from a humanitarian approach to a developmental focus in the refugee response. We expect applicants to coordinate with UNHCR in planning, implementation, and reporting within the overall Rwanda Refugee Response Plan framework and respective sectors. PRM seeks to support programming oriented towards refugees likely to remain in Rwanda, rather than repatriation activities. Applicants should submit a letter of support from UNHCR for their proposal. Applications without a letter of support may have their panel review score impacted. Proposals must focus on one or more of the following sectors:Protection (Child Protection or GBV)HealthLivelihoods using the Graduation Approach (full proposals must include a market analysis, or will be disqualified)Duration of ActivityProgram plans for two or three years will be considered.Period of PerformancePrograms period of performance of one-year (12 months) cycles for a period not to exceed three years (36 months) will be considered.Funding limitsProgram proposals must not be less than the funding floor and not more than the funding ceiling per year or they will be disqualified.Funding floor per year (lowest $ value): $800,000Funding ceiling per year (highest $ value): $3,000,000Note: Funding ceilings and floors pertain to the PRM cost per year.Anticipated Number of AwardsThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined once final FY 2024 appropriations have been made.  This NOFO will be cancelled if FY2024 appropriations are insufficient to support new awards.Anticipated Amount to be Awarded TotalThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined as part of the application review process based on applications received and funding made available through appropriations.Tanzania Country-Specific GuidanceGeneral GuidanceProposals must focus on the Congolese and Burundian refugee and asylum seeker populations located in camp-based settings in Tanzania. We encourage proposals to demonstrate how the program will support Burundian refugees participating in UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation program, such as providing services that will help refugees reintegrate upon return. We expect applicants to coordinate with UNHCR when planning, implementing, and reporting on its programs. Applicants should submit a letter of support from UNHCR for their proposal. Applications without a letter of support may have their panel review score impacted. Proposals must focus on the following sectors in the refugee camps:HealthChild ProtectionEducationDuration of ActivityProgram plans for one or two years will be considered.Period of PerformancePrograms period of performance of one-year (12 months) cycles for a period not to exceed three years (24 months) will be considered.Funding limitsProgram proposals must not be less than the funding floor and not more than the funding ceiling per year or they will be disqualified.Funding floor per year (lowest $ value): $600,000Funding ceiling per year (highest $ value): $1,750,000Note: Funding ceilings and floors pertain to the PRM cost per year.Anticipated Number of AwardsThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined once final FY 2024 appropriations have been made.  This NOFO will be cancelled if FY2024 appropriations are insufficient to support new awards.Anticipated Amount to be Awarded TotalThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined as part of the application review process based on applications received and funding made available through appropriations.Uganda Country-Specific GuidanceGeneral GuidanceProposed activities must explain how they align with Uganda’s Global Refugee Forum pledges and UNHCR’s 2024 Strategy. We expect applicants to coordinate with UNHCR in planning, implementation, and reporting within the overall Uganda Refugee Response Plan framework and respective sectors. Applicants should submit a letter of support from UNHCR for their proposal. Applications without a letter of support may have their panel review score impacted. All proposals must have a clearly defined localization plan that includes at least one of the following: 1) a transition plan with national or local-level government entities, 2) a local or refugee organization as a grantee or sub-grantee, or 3) an agreement to progressively strengthen the capacity of a local or refugee organization over the course of the award. Localization strategies must also demonstrate how they increase the project’s sustainability and the representation of local actors in Uganda’s broader refugee response. Proposals must focus on one or more of the following sectors:ProtectionProtection: LegalProtection: Child ProtectionProtection: GBVLivelihoods (full proposals must include a market analysis, or will be disqualified)Mental health and psychosocial supportCapacity Strengthening: Local/ Refugee-Led OrganizationsHealthDuration of ActivityProgram plans for two or three years will be considered.Period of PerformancePrograms period of performance of one-year (12 months) cycles for a period not to exceed three years (36 months) will be considered.Funding limitsProgram proposals must not be less than the funding floor and not more than the funding ceiling per year or they will be disqualified.Funding floor per year (lowest $ value): $1,000,000Funding ceiling per year (highest $ value): $3,250,000Note: Funding ceilings and floors pertain to the PRM cost per year.Anticipated Number of AwardsThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined once final FY 2024 appropriations have been made.  This NOFO will be cancelled if FY2024 appropriations are insufficient to support new awards.Anticipated Amount to be Awarded TotalThe amount of funding available per award for this NOFO will be determined as part of the application review process based on applications received and funding made available through appropriations.Federal Award InformationProposed program start dates: July 1, 2024 – September 15, 2024Duration of Activity: See country-specific guidelines above. Applicants may submit multi-year proposals with activities and budgets that do not exceed three years from the proposed start date. Actual awards will not exceed three years in duration and activities and budgets submitted in year one can be revised/updated each year. Continued funding after the initial 12 month period of performance requires the submission of a noncompeting single proposal and will be contingent upon available funding, strong performance, and continuing need. In funding a program one year, PRM makes no representations that it will continue to fund the program in successive years and encourages applicants to seek a wide array of donors to ensure long-term funding possibilities. Please see Multi-Year Funding section below for additional information. Livelihoods programs are encouraged to be multi-year, and livelihoods proposals must include a market analysis or will be disqualified.Eligibility InformationEligible Applicants:Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education (U.S.-based NGOs must be able to demonstrate proof of non-profit tax status).Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education (overseas-based NGOs must be able to demonstrate proof of registration in country of domicile); andInternational Organizations. International multilateral organizations, such as United Nations agencies, should not submit proposals through Grants.gov in response to this NOFO. Multilateral organizations that are seeking funding for programs relevant to this announcement should contact the PRM Program Officer (as listed below) on or before the closing date of the funding announcement.Cost Sharing or Matching: Cost sharing, matching, or cost participation is not a requirement of an application in response to this funding announcement.Proposals for consideration should describe the sources and amounts of additional funding that may be utilized to complement PRM funding, and meet the following criteria:Are not paid by the Federal Government under another Federal award.Are verifiable from the non-Federal entity&#8217;s records.Are not included as contributions for any other Federal award; andAre necessary and reasonable for accomplishment of project or program objectives.Please include this information in the Budget Summary, Budget Detail, and Budget Narrative of the proposal, and separated from the PRM share of the proposed budget.Note: Though favorably looked upon, inclusion will not result in a competitive ranking increase when evaluated.OtherProposals must have a concrete implementation plan with well-conceived objectives and indicators that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and reliable, time-bound, and trackable (SMART), and have established baselines; objectives should be clearly linked to the sectors.Proposals must adhere to relevant international standards for humanitarian assistance, especially Sphere Standards. See PRM’s General NGO Guidelines for a complete list of sector-specific standards including guidance on proposals for programs in urban areas.PRM strongly encourages programs that target the needs of vulnerable and underserved groups among the program participant population (such groups may include women; children; adolescents; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTQI+) individuals; older persons; the sick; persons with disabilities; and members of minority communities) and can demonstrate what steps have been taken to meet the specific and unique protection and assistance needs of these vulnerable groups effectively.PRM will accept proposals from any NGO working in the above-mentioned sectors although, given budgetary constraints, priority will be given to proposals from organizations that can demonstrate:a working relationship with UNHCR.a proven track record in providing proposed assistance both in the sector and specified location.evidence of coordination with international organizations (IOs) and other NGOs working in the same area or sector as well as – where possible – local authorities.an emphasis on the outcome or impact of program activities.a strong sustainability plan, involving local capacity building, where feasible.where applicable, adherence to PRM’s Principles for Refugee Protection in Urban Areas; andan understanding of and sensitivity to conflict dynamics in the program location.Application and Submission InstructionsWhere to Request Application Package: Application packages may be downloaded from the website www.Grants.gov.Consortia: Organizations may apply to this call as part of a consortia; however, for consortia, one organization must be designated as the lead applicant.For purposes of consortia applying for PRM funding, PRM’s considers consortium to be a group of no less than three NGOs that comprise an agreement, combination, or group formed to undertake, or proposing to undertake, an assistance activity beyond the resources of any one member. PRM may request to review and approve of substantive provisions of proposed sub-awards. Applicants may form consortia in order to bring together organizations with varied expertise to propose a comprehensive program in one proposal. The consortium arrangement may allow for greater geographic coverage, inclusion of technical and sectoral strengths from multiple organizations, increased inclusion of local and national organizations, and/or the potential of much greater impact through collaboration.Submissions by organizations as part of a consortium do not count toward an organization’s individual submission limit. If the applicant is applying as a consortium, a description of how the consortia will be organized and how lines of authority and decision-making will be managed across all team members and between the lead applicant and associate awardees should be included in the concept note. The prime applicant would be responsible for overall implementation of the proposed program activities, preparation/presentation of annual work plans, M&amp;E planning, and required reporting to PRM. The prime applicant should designate a single individual to be the liaison with PRM, although PRM would reserve the right to communicate with sub-grantees.Content and Form of Application: Organizations may submit a maximum of one (1) proposal per country only. Any subsequent submissions received will be disqualified. PRM strongly recommends using the proposal and budget templates that are available on PRM’s website.Single-Year Proposals:Single-year program proposal page limits: Single-year proposals using PRM’s templates must not exceed 15 pages in length (Times New Roman or Calibri 12-point font, letter sized paper, one-inch margins on all sides). If the applicant does not use PRM’s recommended templates, proposals must not exceed 10 pages in length. Organizations may choose to attach work plans, activity calendars, and/or logical frameworks as addendums/appendices to the proposal but are not required to do so. These attachments do not count toward the page limit total; however, annexes cannot be relied upon as a key source of program information. The proposal narrative must be able to stand on its own in the application process. For multi-year funding application instructions, see below.PRM strongly recommends application narrative be submitted in Adobe PDF, as Microsoft Word documents may sometimes produce different page lengths based on software versions and configurations. Tables and budget documents should be submitted as Excel documents.Page limits are strictly adhered to, and PRM will not review pages of the narrative beyond the stated limit, which may negatively impact the proposal’s score.All documents must be in English and should avoid the use of jargon and should spell out all acronyms upon first use.Multi-Year Proposals:Applicants proposing multi-year programs should adhere to the following guidance: Applicants may submit proposals that include multi-year strategies presented in one-year (12 month) cycles for a period not to exceed three years (36 months) from the proposed start date as outlined in the country-specific guidance sections. Fully developed programs with detailed budgets, objectives and indicators are required for each year of activities. Applicants should use PRM’s recommended multi-year proposal template for the first year of a multi-year application.Multi-year funding applicants may use PRM’s budget templates, and must disaggregate budget by year, per year, and for each program year. Multi-year proposal narratives and budgets can be updated yearly upon submission of new noncompeting single year proposal narrative template with an updated budget.Multi-year program proposal page limits: multi-year proposals using PRM’s multi-year template must not exceed 17 pages in length (Times New Roman or Calibri 12-point font, letter sized paper, one-inch margins on all sides). If the applicant does not use PRM’s recommended templates, proposals must not exceed 15 pages in length. Organizations may choose to attach work plans, activity calendars, and/or logical frameworks as addendums/appendices to the proposal but are not required to do so. These attachments do not count toward the page limit total however annexes cannot be relied upon as a key source of program information. The proposal narrative must be able to stand on its own in the application process.PRM strongly recommends application narratives be submitted in Adobe PDF, as Microsoft Word documents may sometimes produce different page lengths based on software versions and configurations. Tables and budget documents should be submitted as Excel documents.Page limits are strictly adhered to, and PRM will not review pages of the narrative beyond the stated limit, which may negatively impact the proposal’s score.All documents must be in English and should avoid the use of jargon and should spell out all acronyms upon first use.Multi-year applications selected for funding by PRM will be funded in one-year (12-month) increments based on the proposal submitted in the initial application as approved by PRM. Continued funding after the initial 12-month award requires the submission of a noncompeting single-year proposal narrative and will be contingent upon available funding, strong performance, and continuing need. Follow-on applications are submitted annually for years two through three of proposals through non-competed directed announcements for the continuation funding. It is strongly recommended that NGOs submit as early as possible after the directed announcement for continuation funding has been issued. Late submissions will jeopardize continued funding.In the proposal narrative, please include an explanation of why multi-year funding may be necessary for this program to succeed, how longer periods of consultation with program participant populations will inform programming and enable interventions to be studied and improved, and how the proposed activities in year one will contribute to outcomes and impacts in years two and three. Please, articulate and quantify cost efficiencies that could not otherwise be attained through single year programs as well.Application PackageTo be considered for PRM funding, organizations must submit a complete application package, including:Proposal Narrative not exceeding stated page limits.Indicator Table: Including all required PRM indicators and targets for each year (if multi-year).Cash and voucher assistances (CVA) modality must report on CVA indicatorsCompleted Budget table including summary and detail tabsdisaggregated by year and for each year of the program period (for multi-year proposals).Include total costs by objective and estimated costs by sector,Total costs divided by country (if applicable)Budget Narrative disaggregated by year and for each year of the program period.Completed and signed SF-424 andSF-424A. PRM requires that Box 21 of the SF-424 be checked.If the applicant organization has an active registration in SAM.gov that was either created or updated on or after February 2, 2019, then the applicant does NOT need to submit the SF-424B as they will be prompted to complete the representations and certifications in SAM.gov.Risk Assessment and Security Plan.Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Code of Conduct and a country or regional implementation plan specific to the country of region of the application. Note: Codes of Conduct must be consistent with the updated 2019 IASC Task Force’s Six Core Principles. The country/regional implementation plan should outline how employees are trained and otherwise made aware of the Code of Conduct, how violations of the Code of Conduct against program participants are reported and followed up on in a safe and confidential manner, how program participants are made aware of the Code of Conduct and a mechanism to report any violations, and whether there is a focal point in the country or regional office for the Code of Conduct.Key Personnel for award applicant and sub-recipient(s)Applicants must furnish names, titles, and brief biographical information on the education and experience of key personnel in implementing the program and key supervisory personnel; (i.e., the members of the professional staff in a program supervisory position engaged for or assigned to duties under the award).A Market Analysis and a Participant Competency/Capacity Assessment for all proposals that include at least one livelihoods sector objective (or will be disqualified), if applicable. Please see the General NGO Guidelines for more details.Most recent Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA), if applicable, or a de minimis rate calculation of Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) if the applicant is eligible and elects to use the de minimis rate.Most recent external audit report is required prior to issuance of an award, if proposal is chosen for implementation.Information in support of any cost-sharing/cost-matching arrangements, if applicable.Information detailing the source of any in-kind contributions, if applicable.Details on any sub-agreements associated with the program including the budget detail (must be part of the budget submission as noted above), if applicable.Organizational Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) Framework (is required prior to issuance of an award, if proposal is chosen for implementation)Additionally, organizations must consider the following considerations as part of their proposal package:To be considered a competitive proposal, the Proposal Narrative, Indicator Table, and Budget Detail should include the following information:Focus on outcome or impact indicators as much as possible. At a minimum, each objective should have one outcome or impact indicator.Include specific information on locations of programs and participants (GPS coordinates highly recommended) to increase PRM’s ability to track the impact of PRM funding.Outline how the NGO will acknowledge PRM funding. If an organization believes that publicly acknowledging the receipt of USG funding for a particular PRM-funded program could potentially endanger the lives of the program participants and/or the organization staff, invite suspicion about the organization&#8217;s motives, or alienate the organization from the population it is trying to help, it must provide a brief explanation in its proposal as to why it should be exempted from this requirement.PRM expects each proposal, regardless of sector, to demonstrate protection mainstreaming, including by identifying potential protection risks associated with the program and how they will be mitigated. Assistance activities should mainstream protection by analyzing the protection risks in relation to each specific programming sector. An analysis of the risks should inform how assistance is designed to minimize them and maximize protection of program participants. Applicants may introduce gender-specific risks in this section but should provide a full analysis in the gender analysis.PRM partners must complete a gender analysis in the proposal narrative that briefly explains:Experiences of men, women, boys, and girls with a focus on the different familial roles, community privileges, and gender dynamics within the target population;Associated risks and threats experienced by women, girls, and other vulnerable populations based on their gender;Power imbalances and needs that arise based on gender inequalities that exist within the family or community; andProposed responses that will address the above and mitigate any gender differences in access, participation, or decision-making that may be experienced by at-risk groups, particularly women and girls. The gender analysis should aim to specify and target specific at-risk sub-populations of women and girls, such as women and girl heads of households, out-of-school girls, women and girls with disabilities, women and girl survivors of violence, married girls, adolescent mothers, as well as people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTQI+), and those who are often unaware of and excluded from programs and services and who may be the hardest to reach based on their gender.The budget should include a specific breakdown of funds being provided by UNHCR, other USG agencies, other donors, and your own organization.Applicants whose proposals address gender-based violence (GBV) through their programs must estimate the total cost of these activities as a separate line item in their proposed budgets (see PRM’s budget template). Proposals and budgets must include details of any sub-agreements associated with the programs.For consortia only, a description of how the partnership will be organized and how lines of authority and decision-making will be managed across all team members and between the lead applicant and associate awardees should be included in the proposal.Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and System for Award Management (SAM)Note: On April 4, 2022, the formerly used DUNS Number was replaced by the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) UEI. For more information on the process, visit GSA&#8217;s website on the UEI transition.Each applicant is required to:be registered in SAM before submitting its application.provide a valid UEI number in its application; andcontinue to maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during which it has an active PRM award or an application or plan under consideration by PRM.No federal award may be made to an applicant until the applicant has complied with all applicable UEI and SAM requirements and, if an applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the PRM award is ready to be made, PRM may determine that the applicant is not qualified to receive a PRM award and use that determination as a basis for making a PRM award to another applicant.Applications must be submitted via Grants.gov. Grants.gov registration requires a UEI number and active SAM.gov registration. If you are new to PRM funding, the Grants.gov registration process can be complicated. We urge you to refer to PRM’s General NGO Guidelines “Application Process” section for information and resources to help ensure that the application process runs smoothly. PRM also strongly encourages organizations that have received funding from PRM in the past to read this section as a refresher. Applicants may also refer to the “For Applicants” page on Grants.gov for complete details on requirements.Do not wait until the deadline to attempt to submit your application on Grants.gov. Organizations not registered with Grants.gov should register well in advance of the deadline as it can take several weeks to finalize registration (sometimes longer for non-U.S. based NGOs to receive required registration numbers). We also recommend that organizations, particularly first-time applicants, submit applications via Grants.gov no later than one week before the deadline to avoid last-minute technical difficulties that could result in an application not being considered. PRM has extremely limited ability to correct or facilitate rapid resolution to technical difficulties associated with Grants.gov, SAM.gov or UEI number issues. PRM partners must maintain an active SAM.gov registration with current and correct information at all times during which they have an active federal award or an application under consideration by PRM or any federal agency.When registering with Grants.gov, organizations must designate points of contact and Authorized Organization Representatives (AORs). Please note that as of December 2022, organizations based outside of the United States that do not intend to apply for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awards are no longer required to have a NATO CAGE (NCAGE) code to apply for non-DoD foreign assistance funding opportunities. If an applicant organization is mid-registration and wishes to remove an NCAGE code from their sam.gov registration, the applicant should submit a help desk ticket (“incident”) with the Federal Service Desk (FSD) online to seek guidance on how to do so. Applicants experiencing technical difficulties with the SAM.gov registration process should contact the Federal Service Desk online or at 1-866-606-8220 (U.S.) and 1-334-206-7828 (International).Applications must be submitted under the authority of the Authorized Organization Representative at the applicant organization. Having proposals submitted by agency headquarters helps to avoid possible technical problems.If you encounter technical difficulties with Grants.gov please contact the Grants.gov Help Desk at support@grants.gov or by calling 1-800-518-4726.Applicants who are unable to submit applications via Grants.gov due to Grants.gov technical difficulties andwho have reported the problem to the Grants.gov help desk.received a case number.have completed UEI and SAM.gov registrations.and had a documented service request opened to research the problem.Applicants may contact the PRM NGO Coordinator before the submission deadline to determine whether an alternative method of submission is appropriate. However, PRM makes no guarantee to accept an application outside of the grants.gov system.It is the responsibility of each applicant to ensure the appropriate registrations are in place and active. Failure to have the appropriate organizational registrations in place or are experiencing issues resulting from discrepancies across registration platforms is not considered a technical difficulty and is not justification for an alternate means of submission.In accordance with 2 CFR §200.113, Mandatory disclosures, the non-Federal entity or applicant for a federal award must disclose, in a timely manner, in writing to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity all violations of Federal criminal law involving fraud, bribery, or gratuity violations potentially affecting the Federal award. Non-Federal entities that have received a federal award including the term and condition outlined in Appendix XII—Award Term and Condition for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters are required to report certain civil, criminal, or administrative proceedings to SAM. Failure to make required disclosures can result in any of the remedies described in 2 CFR §200.338 Remedies for noncompliance, including suspension or debarment. (See also 2 CFR part 180, 31 U.S.C. 3321, and 41 U.S.C. 2313.)Submission Dates and TimesAnnouncement issuance date: Monday, February 12, 2024Proposal submission deadline: Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 11:59:59 p.m. (23:59:59) EDT. Applications submitted after this deadline will not be considered.Intergovernmental Review: Not ApplicableFunding Restrictions: Federal awards will not allow reimbursement of Federal Award costs without prior authorization by PRM.Other Submission RequirementsBranding and Marking StrategyThe following provisions will be included whenever assistance is awarded:The Recipient shall recognize the U.S. Government’s funding for activities specified under this award at the project site with a graphic of the U.S. flag accompanied by one of the following two phrases based on the level of funding for the award:Fully funded by the award: “Gift of the United States Government”Partially funded by the award: “Funding provided by the United States Government”PRM highly encourages recognition of U.S. Government funding on social media and website platforms to be included in proposals branding and marking strategy. Recipients should tag PRM’s Twitter account @StatePRM and/or Facebook account @State.PRM (rather than using hashtags). Additionally, the applicable U.S. Embassy should be tagged as well.Updates of actions taken to fulfill this requirement must be included in quarterly program reports to PRM.All programs, projects, assistance, activities, and public communications to foreign audiences, partially or fully funded by the Department, must be marked appropriately overseas with the standard U.S. flag in a size and prominence equal to (or greater than) any other logo or identity. The requirement does not apply to the Recipient’s own corporate communications or in the United States.The Recipient must appropriately ensure that all publicity and promotional materials underscore the sponsorship by or partnership with the U.S. Government or the U.S. Embassy. The Recipient may continue to use existing logos or project materials; however, a standard rectangular U.S. flag must be used in conjunction with such logos.Do not use the Department of State seal without the express written approval from PRM.Sub non-Federal entities (sub-awardees) and subsequent tier sub-award agreements are subject to the marking requirements and the non-Federal entity shall include a provision in the sub non-Federal entity agreement indicating that the standard, rectangular U.S. flag is a requirement. Exemptions from this requirement may be allowable but must be agreed to in writing by the Grants Officer. (Note: An exemption refers to the complete or partial cessation of branding, not use of alternative branding). Requests should be initiated with the Grants Officer and Grants Officer Representative. Waivers issued are applied only to the exemptions requested through the Recipient’s proposal for funding and any subsequent negotiated revisions.In the event the non-Federal entity does not comply with the marking requirements as established in the approved assistance agreement, the Grants Officer Representative and the Grants Officer must initiate corrective action with the non-Federal entity.PRM Standardized Indicators: Partners must refer to PRM’s indicator list in Appendix D of the NGO Guidelines and include any mandatory and required indicators as part of the application. PRM has two categories of indicators:Required: Indicators marked as “required” in Appendix D must be included in the proposal as applicable. Each sector and sub-sector has at least one required PRM indicator; these must be included in the indicator table if the partner is proposing any activities or budget for that sector/sub-sector. In addition, three indicators are required for all programs regardless of design or sector.  If the proposed program will not contribute to one or several of these mandatory indicators, the indicator must still be included in the proposal indicator table but with a target of zero.PRM-1. Number of individuals directly reached through PRM funding.PRM-2. Amount of humanitarian funding distributed to local, national, or refugee-led organizations (in USD) – This amount should include any sub-awards or contracts with local, national, or refugee-led organizations. If the prime applicant is a local, national, or refugee-led organization, they should put the full proposal budget total as the target value. Refer to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) working definition of “local” and “national” organizations. Applicants should put a target of zero for this indicator if it does not apply to them; it will not affect their eligibility.PRM-3. Percentage of participants who report that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner – This is a protection mainstreaming indicator developed by the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and adopted by the Grand Bargain. Research or coordination awards that don’t involve community implementation are exempt from this indicator. Please refer to the PRM Performance Indicator Reference &amp; Definition Sheets (PIRS) for a sample questionnaire and analysis guidance.Recommended if applicable: Partners may consider using these indicators to monitor any related activities as they are aligned with humanitarian standards and best practices. However, inclusion of recommended indicators is not mandatory and will not affect the proposal scoring. Please note that in rare cases PRM may request for a partner to use a particular recommended indicator if there is a strong technical/thematic need to track information on that indicator, or if a similar custom indicator was proposed by the partner.Application Review and Selection ProcessApplication Review ProcessPRM is committed to ensuring a competitive and standardized process for awarding funding. Applications will be screened initially in a Technical Eligibility Review stage to determine whether applicants meet the eligibility requirements and have submitted all required documents. Applications that do not meet these requirements will not advance beyond the Technical Eligibility Review stage and will be deemed ineligible for funding under this NOFO.PRM reserves the right to have all applications deemed to be technically eligible undergo a Subject Matter Expert (SME) review prior to the Merit Review Panel to determine whether an application is responsive to the information in this NOFO.All applications that proceed to the Merit Review Panel will be evaluated by a panel of at least three people based on the below-referenced programmatic criteria and PRM priorities in the context of available funding. Department of State review panels may provide conditions and recommendations on applications to enhance the proposed program, which must be addressed by the applicant before further consideration of the award. To ensure effective use of limited PRM funds, conditions or recommendations may include requests to increase, decrease, clarify, and/or justify costs and program activities.Application Evaluation CriteriaEligible submissions will be those that comply with the criteria and requirements included in this announcement. In addition, the Merit Review Panel will evaluate the proposals based on the following criteria:Gap/Analysis (10)Profile of Target Population (5)Program Description (25)Objectives &amp; Indicators (10)Monitoring &amp; Evaluation Plan (10)Accountability to Affected Populations (5)(Note: The AAP section of a NOFO proposal narrative is specific to the program being proposed, is the criterion listed above being evaluated, and is distinct from the organization-level AAP framework.)Coordination (5)Sustainability and Capacity-Building (5)Management and Past Performance (5)Risk Management (10)Budget/Budget Narrative (10 points)Prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, PRM is required to review and consider any information about the applicant that is in the U.S. government designated integrity and performance system accessible through SAM.gov (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);An applicant, at its option, may review and comment on any information about itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered. Currently, federal agencies create integrity records in the integrity module of the Contractor Performance Assessment and Reporting System (CPARS) and these records are visible as responsibility/qualification records in SAM.gov;The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in making a judgment about the applicant&#8217;s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in §200.206 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants.Federal Award Administration InformationFederal Award AdministrationA successful applicant can expect to receive a separate notice from PRM stating that an application has been selected before PRM actually makes the federal award. That notice is not an authorization to begin performance. Only the notice of award signed by the Grants Officer is the authorizing document. Unsuccessful applicants will be notified following completion of the selection and award process.Administrative and National Policy Requirements.PRM awards are made consistent with the following provisions in the following order of precedence: (a) applicable laws and statutes of the United States, including any specific legislative provisions mandated in the statutory authority for the award; (b) Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); (c) Department of State Standard Terms and Conditions of the award; (d) the award’s specific requirements; and (e) other documents and attachments to the award.ReportingSuccessful applicants will be required to submit:Program Reports: PRM requires program reports describing and analyzing the results of activities undertaken during the validity period of the agreement. A program report is required within thirty (30) days following the end of each three-month period of performance during the validity period of the agreement. The final program report is due one hundred and twenty (120) days following the end of the agreement. The submission dates for program reports will be written into the cooperative agreement. Partners receiving multi-year awards should follow this same reporting schedule and should still submit a final program report at the end of each year that summarizes the NGO’s performance during the previous year.The Bureau suggests that NGOs receiving PRM funding use the PRM recommended quarterly program report template and annual/final report template. The suggested PRM NGO reporting templates are designed to ease the reporting requirements while ensuring that all required elements are addressed.Financial Reports: Financial reports are required within thirty (30) days following the end of each calendar year quarter during the validity period of the agreement (January 30th, April 30th, July 30th, October 30th). The final financial report covering the entire period of the agreement is required within one hundred and twenty (120) days after the expiration date of the agreement. For agreements containing indirect costs, final financial reports are due within sixty (60) days of the finalization of the applicable negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA).Reports reflecting expenditures for the recipient’s overseas and United States offices should be completed in accordance with the Federal Financial Report (FFR SF-425) and submitted electronically in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Payment Management System (HHS/PMS) and in accordance with other award specific requirements. Detailed information pertaining to the Federal Financial Report including due dates, instruction manuals and access forms, is provided on the HHS/PMS website.Audit Reports: When a recipient-contracted audit is not required because the Federal award amount is less than the $750,000 threshold, the Department may determine that an audit must be performed, and the audit report must be submitted to the responsible grants office(r) for review, dissemination, and resolution as appropriate. The cost of audits required under this policy may be charged either as an allowable direct cost to the award or included in the organizations established indirect costs in the award’s detailed budget.PRM Points of ContactApplicants with technical questions related to this announcement should contact the PRM staff listed below prior to submission. Please note that responses to technical questions from PRM do not indicate a commitment to fund the program discussed.PRM Program Officer: Emily Gallagher, GallagherEE@state.gov, Washington, D.C.Regional Refugee Coordinator: Chris Jones, JonesCA@state.gov, Kampala, UgandaDisclaimerExternal websites linked above may not be supported or accessible by all web browsers. If you are unable to link to a referenced website, please try using a different browser or update to a more recent one. If you continue to experience difficulties to reach external resources, please contact PRM NGO Coordinator.Section 508Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, charges the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (US Access Board) with developing and promulgating standards address that access to information and communication technology (ICT) Accessibility Standards (36 CFR part 1194). Section 508 requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use ICT. Federal employees with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. Section 508 also requires that individuals with disabilities, who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to the public who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. These standards are part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The complete text of the Section 508 Final Provisions can be accessed at https://www.access-board.gov/ict/.The Section 508 accessibility standards applicable to this contract or order are identified in the following paragraph. If it is determined by the Government that ICT supplies and services provided by the Contractor do not conform to the described accessibility standards in the contract, remediation of the supplies or services to the level of conformance specified in the contract will be the responsibility of the Contractor at its own expense.The Section 508 standards applicable to this contract are: 1194.205 WCAG 2.0 Level A &amp; AA Success Criteria302 Functional Performance Criteria502 Inoperability with Assistive Technology504 Authoring Tools602 Support Documentation603 Support ServicesIn the event of a modification(s) to this contract or order, which adds new ICT supplies or services or revises the type of, or specifications for, supplies or services, the Contracting Officer may require that the contractor submit a completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) 2.4 or greater, 508 revision (Rev 508) or another format approved by the Department, and any other additional information necessary to assist the Government in determining that the ICT supplies or services conform to Section 508 accessibility standards. If it is determined by the Government that ICT supplies and services provided by the Contractor do not conform to the described accessibility standards in the contract, remediation of the supplies or services to the level of conformance specified in the contract will be the responsibility of the Contractor at its own expense. Information about VPAT can be accessed at the ITIC Website.If this is an Indefinite Delivery contract, a Blanket Purchase Agreement or a Basic Ordering Agreement, the task/delivery order requests that include ICT supplies or services will define the specifications and accessibility standards for the order. In those cases, the Contractor may be required to provide a completed VPAT and any other additional information necessary to assist the Government in determining that the ICT supplies or services conform to Section 508 accessibility standards.
- Bukoba Combination Prevention Evaluation: Effective Approaches to Linking People Living with HIV to Care and Treatment Services in Tanzania WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?Many HIV-infected people do not enroll early in HIV care after their diagnosis, particularly if they are diagnosed in community settings. It is critical to identify effective linkage to care strategies for achieving control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially for people diagnosed in community-based settings . This need is particularly great for country programs  with significant difficulty reaching men and linking them to treatment.FULL SOLUTIONWHAT IS THE SOLUTION?The Bukoba Combination Prevention Evaluation (BCPE) in Tanzania has an innovative, peer-delivered, linkage-case-management (LCM) program for people 18-49 years old who are diagnosed in community and clinical settings.  Through LCM, HIV-positive patients receive a package of peer-delivered linkage services recommended by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The standard set of linkage-to-care recommendations helps ensure all people living with HIV (PLHIV) enroll in care in a timely manner. Implementing these recommendations significantly increased linkage to care (90%) compared to the standard of care.  Initiated at the point of HIV diagnosis, and lasting for up to 90 days, the program takes a people-to-people approach to supporting these individuals and keeping them on treatment.WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?Of 4,205 patients who participated in the program from October 2014 to March 2017,  BCPE enrolled 3,918 (93%) in HIV care within 90 days. During the test and start era (from Oct 2016), 97% of 752 closed cases enrolled in care within 90 days.The BCPE LCM intervention has been adapted and scaled-up by ICAP as part of their community-based KVP program. It will be implemented in 9 regions across Tanzania.  CDC-Tanzania implementing partners will include the LCM program as part of their FY18 activities.  Facility implementing partners are currently working on establishing one or two demonstration sites to inform program adaption.HOW DOES IT WORK?IDENTIFY THE TARGET POPULATIONBCPE introduced the LCM program in Bukoba municipality, including in nine participating HIV-care facilities providing antiretroviral therapy (ART). The program links consenting individuals to care and treatment. They can be either newly diagnosed with HIV or HIV-positive individuals who have not received HIV care in more than 90 days.The LCM intervention targeted all residents of Bukoba Municipal aged 18-49 years.  Located in Kagera region of Tanzania, Bukoba was chosen for this program evaluation because, compared with other urban and rural areas in Tanzania, it has a high prevalence of HIV and tuberculosis (TB). Additionally, the HIV prevention and clinical infrastructure in Bukoba was deemed adequate to achieve combination-prevention targets with available scale-up resources. LCM clients were recruited from 11 health facilities. These 11 health facilities included all eight governmental health facilities in the municipality (excluding facilities for police and military) and 3 ministry-based private health facilities.IMPROVING LINKAGES TO CAREInitiated at the point of HIV diagnosis and lasting for up to 90 days, the program takes a people-to-people approach to supporting these individuals and keeping them on treatment. Expert client (EC) counselors who are HIV-positive and ART-adherent provide individualized, peer-delivered counseling. They encourage problem-solving about HIV care, disclosure, and resolving real and perceived barriers to care. These EC counselors help arrange first-visit escorts or transportation, if needed, and expedited registration and treatment at HIV-care facilities. The program also integrates with provider-initiated testing and counseling (PITC) in several medical facilities. Taken together, the activities effectively increase the number of individuals linked to care.The BCPE Linkage Case Management ModelDEVELOPING PEER NAVIGATORS AND CASE MANAGERSEarly access to HIV care optimizes individual and public health outcomes. Trained, dedicated, and well-managed EC counselors are essential to the success of the linkage program.Peer navigators assist individual patients to navigate the continuum of care, ensuring barriers to care and treatment are resolved and each stage of care is as seamless as possible. People living with HIV can be trained to act as peer navigators for other patients, particularly in settings with a severe shortage of human resources for health. The benefit provided by patient navigators in relation to linkage to care is also well documented. Newly diagnosed HIV-positive persons have been more successfully linked to care when supported or encouraged by a peer patient navigator.Case managers can strengthen patient outcomes throughout the HIV care continuum, including early linkage to care, retention in care, and sustained ART adherence. Lastly, models of community-based support and ART delivery to complement facility-based ART programs can be effective strategies for enhancing psychosocial support, and improving access to and outcomes across the HIV care continuum. The cost-effectiveness and potential relevance of this approach in countries with a high HIV burden have been documented.WORKING TOGETHERExceptional collaboration among all partners (CDC Tanzania, CDC Atlanta, ICAP, local health authorities, and the Tanzania Ministry of Health ) was critical to the success of LCM. ICAP established a strong relationship with facility staff who embraced the intervention. Also, ICAP routinely met with the partners to provide updates on the interventions and discuss challenges.Regional and municipal health authorities were engaged in the early planning and implementation phases of the intervention. Additionally, the LCM intervention was endorsed by MOH, and featured as a key service delivery model in the Mapping HIV Service Delivery Strategies released in June 2017. The interventions featured in this report will inform recommendations for service delivery models that are included in the 2017 National Guidelines for the Management of HIV and AIDS.The package of services provided through LCM align with the linkage-to-care recommendations from the 2013 Tanzania National HTC guidelines. According to the guidelines, the following interventions should be implemented to strengthen linkage to care services:Strengthen partnerships between HTC and HIV care and treatment (C&amp;T).Provide additional counselling or social support services from an expert client or PLHIV who can share their experience with HIV C&amp;T, offer practical guidance, and help clients overcome real and perceived barriers to care.Seek consent to continue tracking patients through SMS reminders, phone calls, or home-visits to follow-up on referrals.Strengthen measurement and evaluation systems to track linkages.WHAT’S NEXT?BCPE LCM intervention has been adapted and scaled-up by ICAP as part of their community-based KVP program, which is being implemented in 9 regions. CDC-Tanzania facility implementing partners will implement the LCM intervention as part of their FY18 activities. Facility IPs are currently working on establishing 1-2 demonstration sites to inform program adaption in 2018.RESOURCESBCPE Methods &amp; Outcomes Flyer (PDF) BCPE Linkage Case Management Program Forms (PDF) Bukoba Combination Prevention Project Linkages Program Register (PDF) BCPE Process Indicators Summary (xls) BCPE LCM Methods Outcomes Costs Article (PDF) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: Increases in Population HIV VLS &#8211; Bukoba Municipal Council (PDF) Revised by the PEPFAR Solutions Team, September 2020DISCLAIMER:The Department of State assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the written content or visual images of this site. The information contained in this site is provided on an &#8220;as is&#8221; basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness.
- Ariel Adherence Clubs: Increasing Retention in Care and Adherence to Life-Saving Antiretroviral Therapy among Children and Adolescents Living with HIV in Tanzania WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?Retention in care and adherence to life-saving antiretroviral treatment among children and youth remains challenging in Tanzania. Programs and models of care should be developed that address the unique needs of these populations to improve clinical outcomes and ensure achievement of epidemic control.FULL SOLUTIONWHAT IS THE SOLUTION?Ariel Adherence Clubs (AACs) have been implemented across 6 regions in Tanzania, at 105 facilities, since 2007 by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). AACs were designed to address the social and behavioral barriers to HIV treatment, retention, and adherence faced by children and adolescents. All participants in AACs are required to know their HIV status. As such, trained providers work with caregivers to facilitate disclosure of HIV status to children and adolescents. Psychosocial support groups for HIV-positive children and adolescents aged 5–19 are provided at AACs. Clubs are grounded in the belief that children and adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) will achieve improved health outcomes when clinical services are complemented by high-quality social support and age-appropriate information about HIV infection, treatment, adherence, HIV status disclosure, positive living, and life skills needed for growing and aging into healthy, HIV-positive adults. The purposes of AACs are to improve participant antiretroviral treatment (ART) adherence and clinic retention, and provide psychosocial supports to adjust to living with HIV and transitioning into adulthood and adult HIV care.Higher-volume sites are chosen to start AACs, where the number of children/adolescents in care is sufficient to justify the service model. AACs are facility-based and offer a package of psychosocial activities, which include individualized counseling sessions by trained service providers, dedicated and age-appropriate facility spaces, and monthly support-group meetings where trained providers facilitate discussions on drug adherence, the experiences of children and ALHIV, and stigma reduction.WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?Programmatic data show that HIV viral suppression among patients 5–19 attending sites with AACs is higher (60%) compared to those attending sites with no AACs (49%). This association becomes statistically significant for patients 5–19 attending health centers with Ariel Adherence Clubs (60%) compared to health centers without Ariel Adherence Clubs (35%, p&lt;.02). Overall, however, viral suppression rates are lower than expected. This is probably explained by the fact that clinicians may be prioritizing those with more advanced disease progression for HIV viral load (VL) testing at facilities where VL testing has been recently introduced.An evaluation of patients at selected AAC sites showed that monthly visit attendance, as a proxy for ART adherence, was also significantly higher for those who attended AACs (91%) compared to those who did not attend AACs (82%, p&lt;.0001). An notable challenge, however, is that participation rates are lower than desired overall, with fewer than half of adolescents 10–19 attending AAC meetings. In addition, AAC attendance appears to be associated with beginning enrollment at a younger age. Participation is significantly higher among those who enrolled under the age of 15 years (37%), compared to those entering HIV care at 15–19 years (12%, p&lt;.0001). This suggests that adolescents over 15 years of age who are diagnosed and linked to care have distinct psychosocial needs compared to those who were enrolled in care as children. For the latter group, the AAC service model requires further differentiation to better meet the needs of adolescents, particularly those entering HIV care at 15–19 years. Data show that children diagnosed at a later age need more active follow up, counseling, and HIV treatment education. Thus, AAC for ALHIV should pair up ALHIV with an experienced treatment buddy or adolescent peer educator to support their treatment outside of the clinic and club. This is intended to extend adherence at home, during school, and in the community.AAC benefits for children and youth living with HIV include:Improved adherence to ART, retention, and viral suppression among participants.Increased capacity of service providers to effectively communicate with and provide quality HIV services to children and adolescents.Support and guidance for caregivers of children and ALHIV, particularly for disclosure and retention in care.Psychosocial support for children and ALHIV.Age-appropriate discussion and information-sharing on healthy living and nutrition.Gender and age-sensitive information and discussion on sexuality and sexual health, including HIV transmission risk reduction.Development of peer educators to improve HIV support among adolescents and in preparation for transition to adult care.Provision of a safe, fun and socially-engaging space for children and ALHIV.Medication dispensing to decongest facilities.HOW DOES IT WORK?First, disclosure among children and youth requires involvement of the caregiver. AACs provide support and guidance for caregivers through the process and to help support their child’s treatment. This support is provided via health education sessions and individual counseling sessions. Additionally, the clubs meet in safe spaces to enable participants to engage with other children and ALHIV to have fun, play, and normalize their experience of living with the virus. The normalization of the experience of living with HIV in safe spaces is an evidence-based intervention that has proven successful with other HIV-positive populations (Carrasco et al., 2017).The psychosocial and adherence support provided at AACs is based on the National Guidelines on the Management of HIV and AIDS in Tanzania and the National Guideline for Health Care Workers on ALHIV. Multiple communication materials and job aids support club discussions, which have been endorsed by the Ministry of Health, PEPFAR, and UNICEF. It is also important that through club activities participants discuss internalized HIV stigma, so they can learn to address it in a constructive way. It is common for club members to become friends and to support each other in routine activities, outside of meetings. For older adolescents, some have initiated their own networks through mobile phones and accessible social media. Recently, efforts have been made to increase the proportion of older adolescents in care. Adaptations to increase enrollment among 10-19 year olds include adding peer facilitation to AACs and having younger children meet separately from older adolescents at sites with adolescent-focused AACs.In Tanzania, EGPAF supports districts to plan and implement HIV and health activities with support provided by PEFPAR. A district-level approach empowers and facilitates health leadership to take responsibility for priority activities, which often include AACs. When this happens, EGPAF provides technical support and assistance with training of key staff, monitoring systems, and on-going supportive supervision to ensure high-quality implementation. In start-up and new sites, on-site coaching of health care workers and peers has been beneficial.AAC GROUP SIZE AND SCHEDULINGAACs work best when there is a large group to utilize the skills of a multi-sectoral team at a facility, including a clinician, counselors, pharmacist, peer educators, and reproductive health nurse. If the club is too small, the result is an inefficient use of staff time (i.e. too much staff time focused on too few patients). At the same time, too many patients can cause long waits, unless activities are planned to accommodate this. Generally, sites with over 25 patients organize sub-groups to stagger appointments so that younger adolescents arrive earlier, followed by older adolescents, to reduce waiting times and to increase time for client counseling and psychosocial support. With this setup, sub-groups can wait together and engage in discussions or education around care.INTEGRATING AACS INTO COMMUNITIES &amp; SYSTEMSAACs promote the involvement of local leaders, civil society, and communities in HIV planning and implementation by responding to the needs of families affected by perinatal HIV infection. AACs were originally designed by working with parents and caregivers needing help to better support their children, and have evolved to assist ALHIV to prepare for adult HIV care. AACs include ALHIV and past members as champions for the clubs.In Tanzania, national systems recognize youth peer educators as a lay cadre of support staff at health facilities for peer-led HIV prevention information, as well as sexual and reproductive health education. EGPAF utilizes this structure, including standardized training, to enhance AACs. AACs have recruited ALHIV to serve as facilitators during club meetings and integrate peer education. Additionally, peer educators, accompanied by health care workers, provide outreach and health education to schools and can sometimes help to reach out to adolescents in the community who have missed their appointments. Through informal group participation and dynamics, the AAC members are continuously providing input on how to organize the groups and ideas for discussion topics.AACs in Tanzania have been strengthened to include clinical services, providing ART refills, clinical consultations, and laboratory testing to all club participants on the same day as the monthly club meetings. Key design elements of AACs include integrated clinical service delivery (ART refill, labs, and clinical care) with psychosocial support and group/peer health education. Additionally, in order to address barriers to treatment success, such as recurring adherence problems, enhanced services through caregiver counseling are an important component.AACs in Tanzania are connected to health facilities and integrated into systems to increase access to integrated services for children and adolescents , including medication, reproductive health services, and psychosocial support. This is a differentiated service delivery model that fits children and adolescents who are required to attend monthly clinic appointments for ART refills, as per the national guidelines. In some cases, multi-disciplinary teams of facility staff (clinician, counselors, lab staff, pharmacist and a reproductive health nurse) work overtime on Saturdays to accommodate adolescent patients who are in school. This is planned at the district level, reflecting and the volume and needs of patients in boarding or remote schools, to prevent them from missing school to access care and treatment.AACs in Tanzania are implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children. EGPAF has worked closely with the Ministry to develop the AAC training package, which focuses on the improvement of health service providers’ capacity to provide psychosocial services for children and adolescents. Additionally, AAC components are aligned to Tanzanian national guidelines and standards for HIV care and treatment, which recommend making clubs available to children and ALHIV.  With training, the capacity of providers is built to recognize children and adolescents as clients in need of focused and age-appropriate care. In addition the trainings build provider confidence to discuss HIV care and health directly with children and adolescents, and to work with caregivers to provide appropriate adherence regimens and support to their children and adolescents.SCALING UP AACSAACs are continually scaled-up to new sites meeting the children/adolescent patient volume criteria, particularly when EGPAF programs shift to new regions. EGPAF staff provides supervision to AACs when possible, but AACs are primarily supported through sub-grants to districts and integrated into annual site and district work plans. This helps to promote sustainability and also to develop local ownership of AACs, which are seen as local structures. Health care workers with roles in adherence counseling and the clinical management of children and adolescents are designated focal persons for facilitating the AACs. In most cases, they have received training in pediatric psychosocial support. AAC activities are included within quarterly supportive supervision to sites. In addition, there is a bi-annual meeting to share experiences across AACs. Beyond in-person communication, EGPAF also utilizes WhatsApp group communication mechanisms for quick and easy communication.Scaled up AACs have the potential to promote effective and efficient HIV programming at the national level by increasing children’s and adolescent’s access to integrated HIV services at high volume sites. Enhanced models for AACs can be designed based on  patient volume and needs. In Tanzania, clubs segment adolescents into sub-populations (such as older adolescents) to accommodate to their specific needs. In other countries, support groups are also targeted to pregnant and breastfeeding adolescents and young women, and even split by sex, so groups of young females or males can discuss topics openly. AACs also often work alongside facility-community linkage mechanisms to conduct home visits, link to social service and protection, and contribute to HIV and stigma-reduction outreach.In scaling up Ariel Clubs, key considerations include:Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children and other appropriate Ministries to ensure alignment with national HIV guidelines in the development of training materials for service providers.Building sustainability through engagement with local government authorities, to ensure that Ariel Adherence Clubs are incorporated into annual budgets and plans.Identifying health facilities that are most suitable to implement the AAC model, such as those with a high volume of HIV patients aged 5–19 years.Ensuring that health care providers selected to support AAC activities are appropriately trained and sensitized to work with children and ALHIV, and receive appropriate oversight and supervision.Engaging peers, especially stable and successful adolescent clients, to conduct support group discussions and share their own experiences growing up with HIV in the local environment.Facilitating linkages from AACs to other social protection and community development opportunities, such as education and nutrition support, spiritual guidance, and to livelihood/income generation assistance.AACs are currently being implemented by EGPAF in nine countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Ivory Coast, and Democratic Republic of Congo). AACs are contextualized for the specific country to ensure they address local challenges and realities of young patients in care. A success story from similar work conducted in Uganda can be found here.MONITORING AAC IMPLEMENTATION &amp; ATTENDANCEA number of EGPAF tools are used to monitor key indicators of AACs on a monthly basis. While integrated, the national systems are not required to report on the joint package, and so, the partner is responsible for this role. In addition, health management teams conduct a data review of the health facility, each quarter, which includes AACs. On-going quality improvement approaches are also applied to AACs and standard operating procedures for facilities, monthly tracking of service provision, quarterly site-supportive supervision, and mentorship for health care workers have been used as management strategies for AACs.Each AAC uses an attendance register. Caregivers or parents sign a form to support their child’s commitment to attend the AACs once each month, and they also provide a phone number for follow-up. Club members sign-in at each visit, which tracks attendance. This tool is also used to track participants who miss meetings and to them assign friends from the club, peer educators, or community volunteers to conduct a home visit and encourage them to return to the clinic for medication. Attendance at meetings and a receipt of various services is tracked to determine AAC membership and the types of services received by each member. Output indicators collected include:Number of attendees by age, sex and dateNumber of new attendeesNumber of repeat attendeesNumber of services provided to attendees by type (disclosure support, counseling, adherence, ART refill, reproductive health service, etc)COSTSThe implementation of Ariel Adherence Clubs includes two cost drivers: the training and orientation of club service providers and the support to monthly AAC meetings. The costs for orientation and refresher trainings for service providers include travel, accommodation, and per diem costs for participants, facilitators, and EGPAF staff. Additional costs may include venue fees and materials. Costs for hosting monthly AACs include meals and refreshments for participants, overtime allowances for health providers, venue costs (if applicable), materials for play and fun such as video or audio games, sports equipment and toys, and EGPAF staff travel costs. The main costs include some one-off purchase such as play materials, and extra-duty/overtime allowances for clinical staff to provide services to clients on Saturday.RESOURCESCarrasco, M. A., Barrington, C., Kennedy, C., Perez, M., Donastorg, Y., &amp; Kerrigan, D. (2017). &#8216;We talk, we do not have shame&#8217;: addressing stigma by reconstructing identity through enhancing social cohesion among female sex workers living with HIV in the Dominican Republic. Cult Health Sex, 19(5), 543-556. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2016.1242779\AAC Adherence Support Tree AAC Brochure AAC Case Study Revised by the PEPFAR Solutions Team, May 2018&nbsp;
- Enhancing Community Engagement to Reach Men: Working with volunteer community advocates to sustain voluntary medical male circumcision demand in Tanzania WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM? Since its inception in Tanzania in 2009, voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services for HIV prevention supported by Jhpiego have reached more than 870,000 clients. Subnational units reaching 80 percent male circumcision coverage shift from a scale up phase (where services are focused on achieving high targets) to a sustainability phase (where the focus is on maintenance of the 80 percent circumcision coverage over time). During the scale-up phase, more than 90 percent of the clients are served through periodic outreach activities supported by aggressive demand creation. Typically lasting two to four weeks at a time, the outreach activities are implemented by mobile teams of health care providers and community health promoters distributed over multiple sites close to population hubs in places far from health facilities. The remaining 10 percent of clients are served in facilities providing routine health services. In the sustainability phase, the service model shifts to focus the bulk of service provision in health facilities instead of at outreach sites. It was expected that during the sustainability phase uptake at routine health facilities would increase. This, however, did not happen: uptake of VMMC at health facilities remained low. There was an urgent need to devise a new strategy to increase uptake at health facilities.FULL SOLUTIONWHAT IS THE SOLUTION?Through the AIDSFree program, Jhpiego has supported VMMC services in three regions since fiscal year (FY) 2015 and in two additional regions since FY 2017. Between April 2015 and March 2016, the AIDSFree project engaged Community Health Promoters (CHPs) to lead VMMC demand creation efforts. Previously, CHPs were typically not from the area where they were working and they typically focused on supporting outreach sites.A study to explore how to motivate older men to access VMMC services (conducted by the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research and Jhpiego) revealed that older men are more receptive to health promoters from their own communities as they are more likely to trust them and engage in conversations with them.Following the study’s findings, and to address the need to increase uptake in health facilities, AIDSFree replaced CHPs with Volunteer Community Advocates (VCAs) in April 2016. This solution focuses on the impact of introducing VCAs on VMMC service uptake. Unlike CHPs, VCAs are required to originate from and be residents of the communities where they are assigned to work. VCAs are embedded within existing community networks to drive community-led, sustainable demand at health facilities offering integrated VMMC services in three regions in Tanzania (Njombe, Iringa, and Tabora). VCAs are assigned to a health facility in their community and only support that facility. They attend a two-day training after which they prepared a plan to volunteer the equivalent of 24 hours a week distributed in a flexible arrangement to accommodate their personal activities. VCAs are encouraged to incorporate VMMC promotion in their day-to-day activities, local routines, and schedules. VCAs receive a small stipend to cover their transport, meals, and airtime on the days they volunteered. They are mentored by Community Cluster Leaders (CCLs) who are employed by Jhpiego and oversee the activities of 5-10 VCAs in “a cluster”. A cluster is usually equivalent to a district with 2-6 health facilities providing VMMC services. CCLs hold biweekly scheduled meetings with their VCAs and provide supportive supervisions in the community sometimes incorporating accompanied activities on a monthly basis.WHAT IS THE IMPACT? VCAs increased VMMC uptake at health facilities by 484 percent in Iringa, Njombe, and Tabora regions between April and September 2016, six months after VCA introduction. Figure 2 shows uptake in Iringa, Njombe and Tabora regions six months before and six months after the roll out of VCAs. As demonstrated in Figure 2, there were significant increases in VMMC uptake in all regions. This increase in adolescent boys and men receiving VMMC services in health facilities also continued after 12 months of implementation. Increases in VMMC uptake continued 12 and 18 months after VCA roll out, with uptake increasing from 2,333 VMMCs 6 months before VCA implementation to an additional 11,296 VMMCs in the 6 months after VCA introduction, an additional 14,880 VMMCs at 12 months, and an additional 19,006 VMMCs at 18 months of VCA implementation.  This represents a cumulative total of 45,182 male circumcisions performed in the 18 months after VCA introduction.Figure 2. Large increases in VMMC in the 6 months after VCA introductionAccording to the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Decision-Maker’s Program Planning Toolkit 2 (DMPPT2), cumulative VMMC services uptake has reached 80 percent coverage among adolescent boys and men ages 15-29 in Iringa and Njombe regions. Figure 4 shows progress in coverage of VMMC in Iringa, Njombe, and Tabora regions since 2009 when VMMC services started, with projected full coverage by the end of 2018. This success has been reached through closely monitoring coverage data to determine when new demand creation strategies were needed.Dramatic increase in VMMC coverage in 3 scale-up regions (Tabora, Njombe, and Iringa) from 2009 to projected results for 2018.During the first year that AIDSFree deployed VCAs exclusively (October 2016 to September 2017), the project served 144,989 clients at a unit cost of US$74 per VMMC performed, as compared to the previous year where 78,826 clients were served at a unit cost of US$85 per VMMC performed. Therefore, between FY 2017 and FY 2018, the VCA strategy helped to double the number of clients served and drive them to a more sustainable service delivery model with a unit cost reduction of US$11 per VMMC performed.The project also noted that utilizing VCAs supported sustainable demand creation where they continued promoting VMMC services through their other personal activities and social networks even in their “off days”. VCAs remained resident in these communities for the long term while paid CHPs who did not usually reside in these communities also left the regions when their employment ended.HOW DOES IT WORK? INDIVIDUAL LEVELMale and female VCAs target HIV-negative adolescent boys and men ages 10-29, who reside in the same neighbourhood located on the outskirts of catchment areas served by health facilities that offer VMMC. VCAs employ a settings-based approach utilizing person-to-person communication. Working in settings in which adolescents, older youth, and young men spend most of their time (e.g., schools, work places, places of worship, community hubs, and households) has enabled VCAs to integrate demand creation into their local routines and schedules. Personalized interaction between the VCA and a potential VMMC client, client’s peers, partner, and parent occurs multiple times. VCAs leverage the power of opinion leadership and social networks to help individuals make a decision about VMMC.VCAs receive an initial two-day training where they learn about HIV prevention and VMMC and gain skills in active listening and “walking in the shoes of clients” to provide person-to-person support. The person-centred approach aims to optimize client interaction and empathize with a client’s position in order to be able to help them to address individual and service barriers to accessing VMMC.SYSTEMS AND SERVICES LEVEL AIDSFree assigned 91 VCAs to 29 health facilities in the area where they reside ranging from 2-4 VCAs per health facility, depending on size of catchment area. VCAs were introduced to VMMC health care providers at their assigned facility establishing two-way communication to facilitate direct referrals. VCAs work with health facilities to achieve their set targets contributing to PEPFAR’s subnational unit targets. Volunteering 24 hours per week in a flexible format, VCAs recruit clients, register them, issue referrals, arrange appointments, escort clients on request and follow up with referrals before and after VMMC. As part of follow up, VCAs check in to find out if their referrals have accessed VMMC services and communicate with missing referrals to explore barriers.Being a resident of the same communities where they serve provides VCAs with intimate local knowledge about how services are perceived, who has not used them, and what deterrents exist for individuals, groups, or within certain localities. VCAs channel their community insights back to facilities, which helps to address VMMC service barriers within the health care providers’ control. These include long waiting times, lack of privacy, harsh language and handling, and turning away of clients. VCAs close the feedback loop informing their communities that outstanding issues have been addressed, which further improves VMMC uptake.MANAGEMENT &amp; OVERSIGHTImplementing PartnerAIDSFree Tanzania developed a flexible structure to manage VCAs. Volunteering up to 24 hours per week, VCAs were allowed to distribute their time to fit in with their personal activities using a biweekly planning and assessment form on which they would plan. VCAs were supported by CCLs with oversight of 5-10 VCAs within their cluster. CCLs meet with VCAs biweekly for about 30 minutes supplemented by monthly community-based supportive supervision. AIDSFree developed and uses four key tools to support the VCA program, namely: (a) Daily Referral Register maintained by VCAs; (b) Biweekly Planning and Assessment Form filled by VCAs during planning and by CCLs during assessment; (c) Biweekly Time Log maintained by VCAs; and, (d) Local Leaders’ Community Activity Certification Form filled by VCAs and countersigned by a local leaders in localities or settings where an activity takes place. Tools are reviewed by CCLs during supportive supervision and the scheduled meeting.Cost of SolutionVCAs are paid an allowance (US$105 per month) to cover transport, meals, and airtime. They are supported by CCLs through two scheduled meetings and one supportive supervision every month, which includes VCA transport and transport, accommodation, and per diems for CCLs.&nbsp;
- Increasing the number of voluntary medical male circumcisions (MC) using triangulated data in the Lakes Region, Tanzania WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?Male circumcision (MC) confers a significant level of protection against heterosexual HIV acquisition among men. Since 2009, voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) has been a key HIV prevention intervention in Tanzania, which has a generalized HIV epidemic. With nationwide MC prevalence nearing 80 percent among males aged 15-29 years (Tanzania PHIA, conducted 2016–2017), the Government of Tanzania (GoT) appears to be on-track to reach its target of 90 percent of MC prevalence among 10-29 year-olds by 2020. In the past, VMMC program planning was often based on regional male population and MC prevalence estimates, missing significant geographic variability within regions and leading to inefficiencies in program planning and implementation. Prior to program implementation, local community members’ and health workers’ knowledge often was not sought. However, as coverage increases, the population of uncircumcised men shrinks and it becomes increasingly difficult to reach eligible uncircumcised men with VMMC. Thus, to inform targeted VMMC program planning and implementation require innovative approaches in order to reach the remaining uncircumcised men in Tanzania.FULL SOLUTIONWHAT IS THE SOLUTION?Recognizing the increasing difficulty of reaching uncircumcised men with VMMC, in late 2016, IntraHealth began triangulating quantitative (program, survey, census, and geographic) and qualitative data (key stakeholder interviews) to drive strategic planning of targeted VMMC service delivery in the five Lakes Region (i.e., Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga, Mara, and Simiyu), which are supported through PEPFAR.IntraHealth generated ward-level MC estimates using census male population projections, MC prevalence estimates, and MC program performance data. This information was overlaid using geographic information system (GIS). This data coupled with information from community experts, enabled the identification of focused and accessible geographical areas with large numbers of uncircumcised men. With this information, comprehensive, localized strategies were developed for VMMC service delivery.WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?Program performance increased by more than 200 percent once this approach was implemented across regions supported by IntraHealth, as well as achievement against targets (Table 1). This success was sustained during 2018, when IntraHealth performed 305,718 MCs, contributing to 34 percent of all MCs conducted during a record-setting year of 905,313 MCs in Tanzania.Table 1. Annual VMMCs performance, targets, and percent achievement for IntraHealth — Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga, Mara, and Simiyu, FY2016–FY2019Q2 shows an increase in both performance and percentage of target achievement with the introduction of this solution in 2017.2016201720182019*Performance67,414225,093305,718222,632% Increase from prior yearNA234%36%NATarget138,409256,529320,509410,845% Target achievement49%88%95%54%* FY2019 data for for Q1/Q2 onlyThis strategy also resulted in more efficient resource utilization. For example, in 2017, IntraHealth observed that 61 percent of uncircumcised men were located in 40 percent of the wards in the five IntraHealth-supported regions in Tanzania, allowing it to allocate resources accordingly. Additionally, this approach has contributed to a reduction in seasonal variation in VMMCs performed, a change that improves the ability of IntraHealth to predict staffing needs and avoid VMMC kit stockouts.Because of the success of this approach, IntraHealth has seen a reduction of the VMMC unit expenditure (UE) to $31.12 USD per client in 2017. This is significantly lower than the national estimate (US$50) and IntraHealth’s for the previous year (US$39.36).HOW DOES IS WORK? This approach involved a number of steps, including:Access available data sources. Key pieces of information needed include:Population projections disaggregated by age and sex by ward level (approximately equal to seven to ten villages) from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)Alternatively, population-level data can be downloaded from the UN population database (https://population.un.org/wpp/)MC prevalence estimates (e.g., from population-based surveys such as PHIA or DHS, or smaller regional surveys that assess MC prevalence, as available)Number of VMMCs performed in the area/region (from DATIM, national databases, population-based surveys, or WHO)Geo-coded shape files with physical structures and geographic features such as ward boundaries, road networks, forests/vegetation, water bodies (obtained from NBS)Map generation. Once the shape files are gathered, import them into geographic information system software (e.g., ArcGIS Pro Esri 2017) in layers – starting with the ward boundaries shape file. The population and service delivery information listed above is then summarized into table format in excel sheets and imported into the GIS software overlaid on top of the shape files. This will produce visual maps of areas with high concentrations of uncircumcised men and facility locations where demand creation and VMMC scale-up can be prioritized.Example of a map generated with triangulated data.Stakeholder engagement and information sharing. The maps are presented at a local community-based stakeholder meeting to gain insights into the local context and to confirm accuracy of the information generated from the data triangulation activity. Useful information gathered includes religious, ethnic, and tribal composition of the areas identified in the maps; confirmation of physical structures; information about additional buildings that can serve as outreach sites; and other logistical information (e.g., road condition, availability of water/electricity for sterilization of instruments, and lodging for service providers). Additionally, information about areas where men spend most of their time during the day time while away from home is critical.Program planning. With this available information, the implementing partner management team can develop a program plan for targeted outreach campaigns for VMMC services. This data is used both at high level planning as well as day-to-day for service delivery.As a specific example of this approach, in 2018, IntraHealth began implementing VMMC in two priority areas, Tarime and Musoma district councils (DCs), in Mara region. At the regional level, Mara has one of the highest MC prevalence in the country, with less than 10 percent of the male population aged 15-29 years estimated to be uncircumcised. As is common in traditionally circumcising areas, VMMC was perceived by local influential leaders as a threat to traditional practices. Thus, overcoming community resistance to buy-in from regional and district governments to initiate a VMMC program in these two priority districts was challenging. In fact, initially IntraHealth was prohibited from offering the service in Mara.To address this challenge, IntraHealth turned to this data triangulation strategy to make the case for VMMC in Mara. During October–December 2017, ward-level MC prevalence estimates were created for Tarime and Musoma DCs using census projections, survey estimates, and VMMC program data. This granular information was mapped in ArcGIS to identify areas where MC coverage might be lower than expected in these DCs. The maps were presented to local community leaders and health staff to confirm their accuracy and provide additional context. The pockets identified as low MC prevalence corresponded to communities with a high proportion of Sukuma and Luo tribes, both of which are immigrants to Mara from traditionally non-circumcising tribes. The maps were then geo-coded with relevant features (e.g., roads, government health facilities) to plan VMMC services in these areas by establishing static sites and planning outreach camps. Over the ensuing three quarters of 2018, IntraHealth made significant progress in Mara; during January–September 2018, 13,565 men were circumcised in Mara, representing a significant achievement in an area with an estimated ~417,000 men  aged 15-29 and a high (~90 percent) MC prevalence.SCALE-UPThe entire IntraHealth VMMC program scaled this approach after initial success was evident in 2017. IntraHealth led the process, with support from the CDC-Tanzania office. It has been important for IntraHealth’s strategy development because it allowed them to improve efficiency, as remaining uncircumcised men become more difficult to reach in areas that achieve high VMMC coverage.Triangulating data improves efficiency in planning and monitoring for high-impact large-scale interventions at a minimum cost. The approach can be adopted by other implementing partners to improve VMMC program performance. Furthermore, other targeted high-impact interventions should consider using interactive GIS maps to make strategic decisions.COST OF SOLUTIONCost of solution:  The cost incurred to implement this solution was mainly for staff training, which cost around US$ 3,000 and ArcGIS Pro Esri 2017 annual license cost $100 per user (total US$ 400).  All the data and shape-files required for this exercise were available for free from various sources.RESOURCESScale-up of VMMC in Tanzania Poster (pdf) DISCLAIMER: The Department of State assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the written content or visual images of this site. The information contained in this site is provided on an &#8220;as is&#8221; basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness.
- Tanzania HomeReportsBureau of CounterterrorismCountry Reports on Terrorism 2022&#8230;Tanzania				hide	document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) {	if(window.jQuery) {		jQuery( document ).ready(function() {			if (jQuery(".bc_middle").hasClass("collapse")) {				jQuery(".bc_ellipse").click(function(){					jQuery(".bc_hide").toggleClass("visible");					jQuery(".bc_middle").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_ellipse").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_content").toggleClass("noflex");					jQuery(".block_breadcrumbs_content").toggleClass("noflex");				});				jQuery(".bc_hide").click(function(){					jQuery(".bc_hide").toggleClass("visible");					jQuery(".bc_middle").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_ellipse").toggle();					jQuery(".bc_content").toggleClass("noflex");					jQuery(".block_breadcrumbs_content").toggleClass("noflex");				});			} else {				jQuery(".bc_ellipse").hide();			}		});	}});																							Country Reports on Terrorism 2022: Tanzania																																					Bureau of Counterterrorism																																																																																																				 In this section																																												Tanzania																																												Tanzania				Overview:  In 2022 the Government of Tanzania and the United States engaged in limited but increasing counterterrorism and countering violent extremism cooperation.  Counterterrorism has risen in importance for the Government of Tanzania as terrorist organizations — namely al-Shabaab, ISIS-Mozambique (ISIS-M), and ISIS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC, locally known as Allied Democratic Forces) — have recruited and operated in Tanzania.  ISIS-M presents a significant danger to citizens of Tanzania, especially those who live along its shared border with Mozambique.  Weapons, provisions, and people from Tanzania cross the porous borders from Tanzania’s southern regions into northern Mozambique to equip ISIS-M.  In 2022, al-Shabaab increased its Swahili language propaganda and social media to recruit fighters to Somalia and Kenya, targeting disaffected youth populations throughout both countries.  Increasing numbers of youth reportedly disappeared in Zanzibar in 2022, presumably to join violent extremist groups.  ISIS-DRC was believed to have crossed frequently into western Tanzania from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.  Tanzania-Mozambique cross-border security cooperation through multilateral engagement was ongoing — primarily with coordination provided by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).  However, bilateral cooperation remained essential to protecting Tanzanian citizens and territory.2022 Terrorist Incidents:  Tanzania did not experience significant terrorist attacks in 2022.  But Tanzanians continued to fill leadership and rank-and-file roles within terrorist groups in Tanzania’s neighboring countries, where violent extremist attacks were carried out with frequency.Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security:  The Government of Tanzania did not pass or amend any laws regarding terrorism in 2022.  However, the Tanzanian Parliament voted unanimously to ratify the Dakar Declaration Against Terrorism, a protocol of the 1999 Organization of African Unity Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism, which recognized the growing threat of terrorism in Africa and the need to coordinate continental efforts in countering international terrorism.  This ratification was perhaps in response to the African Union’s call for all AU member states to scale up implementation of all relevant instruments and decisions during the 2022 Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa.In response to continued ISIS-M activity in Mozambique, the Government of Tanzania maintained a robust security personnel presence in the southern border regions of Mtwara and Ruvuma, as well as in neighboring Lindi Region.  In 2022 the Government of Tanzania deployed additional troops to Tanzania’s southern border, which are separate and independent from the SADC mission.  The Government of Tanzania granted limited access for diplomatic missions and humanitarian organizations to some areas along the southern border.  In general, the Government of Tanzania’s security forces are proactive and often heavy handed in addressing suspects of violent extremism.Charges of terrorism, terrorist financing, and money laundering, all of which result in a prohibition on the use of bail, have been used to incarcerate journalists, political party representatives, and other nationals for political reasons.  While this practice slowed under President Suluhu, who assumed the presidency in March 2021, political opposition leader Freeman Mbowe was held in custody for more than seven months on terrorism charges until the Government of Tanzania dropped all charges in April.Countering the Financing of Terrorism:  Tanzania is a member of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG).  Its FIU, the Financial Intelligence Unit &#8211; Tanzania, is a member of the Egmont Group.  Tanzania was added to the FATF “gray list” in 2022.  In October, FATF reported that Tanzania made a high-level political commitment to work with FATF and ESAAMLG to strengthen the effectiveness of its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism regime.  Since the adoption of its mutual evaluation report in 2021, Tanzania has made progress on some of the report’s recommended actions to improve its system, including by developing a legal framework for terrorist financing and targeted financial sanctions and disseminating FIU strategic analysis.  The Government of Tanzania also continued efforts to regulate the movement of foreign currency in 2022.  While the primary purpose of the regulations appeared to be reducing tax evasion, the measures also made it easier to trace transactions, including those associated with the financing of terrorism.For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2022 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Volume 2, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes.Countering Violent Extremism:  In 2022, SADC launched its Regional Counterterrorism Center in Dar es Salaam, though Tanzania’s National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) remained Tanzania’s primary liaison with international partners on CVE.  Starting in 2017, NCTC partnered with the UNDP on a CVE project that included the development of a national CVE strategy and action plan.  Since 2018, NCTC and the UNDP have assured donor countries that the national strategy and action plan would be completed imminently, though the plan has yet to materialize.In 2022, U.S. funding supported CVE programs in both southern and western border regions that provide training of community stakeholders to identify violent extremism (VE) risks and radicalization to violence trends.  These programs analyzed the VE dynamics along these borders and contributed to community resilience.  A separate program engaged with gender-based civil society organizations to provide training and capacity building on gender conflict analysis, community-level dialogue, advocacy, CVE trends, and mentorship.  Additionally, U.S. funding supported a counter-IED program that provided training and capacity building for Tanzania’s police and military forces.International and Regional Cooperation:  Throughout 2022, the Government of Tanzania engaged in multilateral efforts through SADC to address regional security and counterterrorism issues.  Tanzania maintained a contingent of troops for SADC’s Standby Force Mission in Mozambique, which also included forces from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa.  The SADC Mission joined Mozambiquan and Rwandan military efforts to combat the uprising of ISIS-M violent extremism in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique.In eastern DRC, the Government of Tanzania increased financial support to regional operations under the newly established East African Community Regional Force, but has yet to commit to sending additional troops, maintaining that its troops would undermine UN mission efforts, in which Tanzanian troops participate.  Throughout 2022, the Government of Tanzania continued to pursue training from bilateral and multilateral donors to enhance counterterrorism-related security units and efforts.																												    							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- This Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Every Week, the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Works to Build Sustainable Businesses Worldwide Bureau of Educational and Cultural AffairsCatherine MullerWhether it is an app to provide mental health services in Taiwan, a cleaning service for commercial businesses in Mexico, or an avocado oil production business in Tanzania, women around the world work to secure capital, recruit talent, and create and execute a plan that will successfully build their business.  As President Biden said, “governments, economies, and communities are stronger when they include the full participation of women.”  And so, this Global Entrepreneurship Week &#8211; and every week &#8211; the U.S. Department of State is recognizing the 25,000 women entrepreneurs globally who comprise the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).  Now in nearly 100 countries, AWE provides access to online curriculum, training, masterclasses, and networking opportunities to emerging women entrepreneurs in a wide range of industries, from tourism, to healthcare, to sustainability, to fashion, and biotechnology.   AWE Taiwan alumna Lynia Huang and her team visit a local high school to raise awareness about mental health using their app&#8217;s (Here Hear) AI technology. &nbsp;It’s encouraging to see that we are not alone trying to support the local economies of our families and communities, even in these difficult times and circumstances. Through AWE, the Department has convened alumni over the past year to expand their networks, learn new skills and resources, and engage in pitch competitions through regional summits and country-wide alumni conferences.  Earlier this year, 200 AWE alumni from across East Asia and the Pacific gathered in Kuala Lumpur for the first AWE Alumni Summit.  In July, the first East Africa AWE Summit brought together 100 women entrepreneurs from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya.  In Nicaragua, nearly 100 women entrepreneurs convened for a nation-wide conference to address obstacles in expanding their businesses to virtual platforms.  Recently, the U.S. Embassy in Manila convened a country-wide AWE alumni conference in Manila and Bacolod City to support women entrepreneurs in the Philippines.  And this week, the American Institute in Taiwan, with strong support from Taiwan’s Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has hosted 75 women from across the Indo-Pacific region at the first-ever AWE Indo-Pacific Women in Tech Summit in Taipei.  Click here to learn more.  Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alumni from across the Indo-Pacific region attend the AWE Women in Tech Summit in Taipei, Taiwan, in November 2023.Through the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, the Department of State is working to deliver upon broader U.S. foreign policy goals to expand opportunity and equity, as well as societal inclusion, worldwide.  Each and every woman should be able to reach her full potential, and this Global Entrepreneurship Week, we recognize the amazing women entrepreneurs who are building businesses and strengthening societies in communities and countries worldwide.About the Author:  Catherine Muller is the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Team Lead in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.