One UN Joint Programme: Managing Transition from Humanitarian Assistance to Sustainable Development in Northwestern Tanzania

National context

Northwestern Tanzania is facing a unique situation. For decades, the region has been a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict in the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Progress in achieving solutions for these refugees has resulted in a significant decline in the number of refugees living in Tanzania. As the refugees return to their home countries, the large-scale humanitarian operation to assist the refugees in Northwestern Tanzania is gradually downscaling.

The humanitarian operation, however, makes a significant contribution to the regional economy through, for example, local markets, employment, construction and maintenance of roads, airstrips and other infrastructure. Many Tanzanians in the refugee hosting communities also benefit from health services and other programmes implemented for the refugees. 

The new Joint Programme on Managing Transition, which is a component of the One UN programme, addresses development needs and negative consequences that could result from the withdrawal of humanitarian actors from Northwestern Tanzania. It builds on the needs and priorities expressed by the Regional, District and Local Government Authorities and capitalizes on the combined advantages of the UN agencies present in the region to forge a coordinated UN response to the challenges faced in Northwestern Tanzania.  

The presence of UN agencies - mainly UNHCR, WFP and UNICEF - in the region has been largely designed to support the Government in managing the humanitarian operation for refugees. UNDP, UNICEF, UNIDO, FAO, WFP and UNHCR have been implementing a Human Security Programme. The Programme, which began in 2005 and is to be completed in December 2007, covered five main sectors: strengthening local governance, reducing the threat from illicit small arms and light weapons, increasing food security, mitigating and reversing environmental degradation and providing complementary basic education to out of school youths.

Objectives and outcomes 

For the new joint programme, the six UN agencies, the Regional Government Authorities in the region, host communities and other stakeholders have outlined priority areas for the regional development in Kigoma and Kagera Regions. These priorities can be summarized as follows:         
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Strengthening local governance: aimed at enhancing good governance by strengthening mechanisms in local governments, enhancing capacities for planning and managing projects, socio-economic data as well as budgeting. Furthermore, it includes management of community level policing/human security, managing borders, enabling the government to adequately take over the facilities in former refugee camps and addressing the needs of the host communities which previously benefited from services provided in the camps.

Also, the programme will support the Tanzanian Government to collect and destroy illegal arms and to protect the victims of arms related crimes.
     •    Mitigating and reversing environmental degradation by reducing environmental health security threats through protection of environmental assets, rehabilitation and improvement of existing water supply systems and sanitation.
     •    Providing complementary basic education to out of school youths to equip them with life and survival skills in addressing HIV/AIDS. Also, to support secondary schooling by ensuring access to education and improvement of the quality of education – with special attention given to girls (to ensure  their protection, reduce early marriages/pregnancy, drop-outs and petty crimes among teens – during the critical ages of 14-18 years).
     •    Health: improved health status by ensuring access and services at village and community levels (such as village health centres, dispensaries, etc).
     •    Wealth Creation and economic empowerment: to reduce poverty levels through exploitation of the immense natural resources and potential strategic economic location of Kigoma and Kagera Regions. Assistance will be provided to farmers to link them to markets for their products and to equip them with skills to reduce post harvest losses and improve household food security.

Deliberations on common goals and dialogue among UN agencies, Government authorities and other key stakeholders are ongoing. The aim is to define key strategic areas for coherent UN support to the region within the areas defined above. Experts and consultants will be engaged to develop concrete result-based plans with deliverable targets, monitoring and evaluation indicators and timelines for achieving the jointly set objectives for 2007-2008.