Evaluation Report 2012:3: Country Programme between Finland and Tanzania

Evaluation Report 2012:3 (Opens New Window) (PDF, 3,7 MB, 144 pages.)

ISBN 978-951-724-993-5 (printed)
ISBN 978-951-724-994-2 (PDF)
ISSN 1235-7618

The study explores links between Finnish development policy and cooperation programming with Tanzania since 2002. Key factors were identified with reference to 14 evaluation criteria.

Until 2007, there was close dialogue with government and other donors, and cooperation was consistent with Paris Declaration principles. The latter were and remain a higher priority of government than good governance and anticorruption measures.

Finnish support focused on:

  • debt relief and general budget support, with a positive impact on public spending in pro-poor sectors such as education and health
  • programmatic support for education and local government reform, thus improving service delivery in poor rural areas
  • bilateral projects on forestry/land-use issues with most relevance to poverty; and
  • support to civil society through an embassy-managed Local Cooperation Fund, which proved by far the most effective modality for addressing cross-cutting issues.

Apart from education, these themes continued after 2007 while Finland also contributed strongly to ongoing donor coordination and leadership, established a best-practice partnership on forest inventory with the United Nations, and supported an effective forest conservation advocacy campaign.

Meanwhile, however, national capacity constraints and weakening dialogue with government encouraged donors, including Finland, to revert to the increased use of projects. Some of these lacked grounding in policy, were not plausibly linked to poverty, and were founded on inadequate dialogue and analysis. One lesson is that programming should be based on rigorous analysis and collective decision making.

The country programme is meanwhile in need of renewed strategic planning to allow its consolidation.

Key words: Tanzania, programming, fragmentation, consolidation, Finland

Presentation on Slideshare:(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)