While important improvements in public financial management systems and expenditure management have been achieved in recent years in Tanzania, significant challenges remain. These include the need to link medium-term strategies to annual budgets. Tanzania’s capacity to implement such national strategies needs to improve if climate change is to be effectively managed in the future. Climate change expenditure related to infrastructure investment in particular will require multi-year planning and management and the effectiveness of this expenditure risks being compromised by weak management systems [1].
Moreover, both the Tanzanian Government and the international community presently do not have sufficient ways of measuring public flows of climate finance, nor of promoting effective practice in the delivery of financial support for climate change-related actions. The financing of climate change actions appears to be treated primarily as a budgetary rather than a policy issue, with the national strategy providing only the briefest of references to the financing mechanisms required to implement climate change actions [1].
Key policies and governance approach
Tanzania’s institutions are still at an early stage in responding to this new challenge. There is a lack of delineation between climate change and environmental-related issues that is also reflected in the current institutional architecture[1].
Successes and remaining challenges
Delivering public financial resources for climate change-relevant actions depends critically on the strength of the public finance management system. The national system is weak and will lessen the effectiveness of climate finance delivery until some structural challenges are addressed. The long-term nature of climate change investments places particular demands on this system. Considerable investments in system strengthening will therefore continue to be necessary to allow for an effective national response to climate change[1].
Initiatives and Development Plans
The CEO Roundtable of Tanzania (CEOrt) in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), through its SUSTAIN-Africa Initiative are working out a financing model that will give priority to projects that will not have negative impacts on the environment while at the same time helping Tanzania’s financial inclusion endeavors [2]. In September 2019, partners drawn from financial institutions, development agencies, government and experts on sustainable finance took part in a workshop organized by the CEO Roundtable and IUCN in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The workshop aimed to: Strengthen the business case for investing in business opportunities that prioritize environmental and social sustainability; discuss the draft Sustainable Financial Principles (SFPs) for Tanzania; agree on a process for adoption and implementation of the proposed Sustainable Banking Principles; get commitment from Tanzanian banks in support of the Sustainable Banking Principles [2].
The draft of the SFPs is a first step towards implementing the joint Business and Sustainability Strategy (2019/2021) of CEOrt and IUCN. When the banking principles become applicable, they will guide the finance sector to support sustainable development. The principles have been inspired by a number of national, regional and global initiatives striving to guide financial sector contributions to sustainable development especially the Nigerian, South African and Kenyan Banking principles as well as the UNEP FI principles for responsible banking [2].
Moreover, CRDB Bank Plc has officially unveiled, in 2021, a $200 million (about Sh459.9 billion) facility to finance climate-resilient and adaptation projects in the country, targeting six million beneficiaries in Tanzania's agriculture sector[3].
In November 2019, CRDB Bank Plc was accredited by the United Nations Green Climate Fund (GCF) as the financial intermediary for the implementation of green financing in Tanzania, making it only the 4th commercial bank in Africa to obtain such an accreditation, after Ecobank Ghana and Attijariwafa Bank of Morocco [3].
- Securing information on climate finance
- Strengthening the policy setting for effective climate finance delivery
- Securing the institutional capacity for effective climate finance delivery
- Supporting PFM environment for effective climate finance delivery
- Actions at the local government level