World Bank alleged to be funding human-rights abuses in Tanzania

World Bank development finance in Tanzania faces criticism in a new report. Unaccountable & Complicit: The World Bank Finances Evictions & Human Rights Abuses in Tanzania is published by the Oakland Institute, an independent think tank in California.

The bank’s $150 million Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) programme aims to develop “protected areas” to promote tourism in southern Tanzania.

The report details extra-judicial killings, rapes, forced displacements and cattle seizures alleged to have been carried out by government rangers with World Bank funding in the Ruaha National Park. A government announcement of evictions to expand Ruaha development contradicts World Bank’s assurances that the project would not lead to any forced resettlement, Oakland says.

The response from the World Bank given to Oakland does not address the substance of the alleged human rights violations, but says that the bank’s mandate “does not extend to overseeing the conduct of Member countries’ government agencies or to intervening in the event of alleged wrongdoing unrelated to a World Bank-financed project.”

The bank has said it will respond to my questions on this, so more to follow in The Africa Report.