By Ere-ebi Agedah Imisi
The World Bank has suspended funding for a tourism project in Tanzania that has caused the suffering of tens of thousands of residents.
As a US-based rights group, Oakland Institute that has long encouraged the global lender to take such action, noted that the World Bank’s decision to halt the $150 million project was long overdue.
In a statement on Tuesday, Oakland Institute maintained that a project that has forced communities away from their settlement to increase tourism potentials of the country should not be funded by the World bank.
According to Oakland Institute, despite the fact that the project aims to enhance the management of natural resources and tourism assets in a remote area of southern Tanzania, resulted in serious harms for the local communities.
The initiative began in 2017 and has already received at least $100 million in funding.
For years, the oakland institute, a rights advocacy organization based in california that works with underprivileged groups, has been leading calls for the world bank to discontinue funding the regrow project, which documents grave violations of indigenous people’ rights in the region.
The group in a report released in November accused the World Bank of failing to hold Tanzanian authorities accountable for extrajudicial killings and sexual assaults relating to the expansion of Ruaha National Park.
However, in a report published by the associated press, the World Bank stated in a recent correspondence with the oakland institute that more funding for the regrow will not be provided ‘‘until it was confident that the project is upholding our environmental and social standards.”
Similarly, the Oakland Institute’s executive director, Anuradha Mittal, stressed that the world bank’s move to halt financing for “a dangerous project” is a win for the nation’s underprivileged areas in east africa.
