Tanzania
Through long-standing partnerships with government and communities, Global Communities drives locally led solutions that strengthen systems, improve service delivery, and create lasting opportunities for children, families, and future generations.
The United Republic of Tanzania is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, rich in natural resources and agricultural diversity. Yet, nearly half of its population lives below the poverty line, with many families facing challenges in health, nutrition, and economic opportunity.
Since 2008, Global Communities has partnered with the Government of Tanzania, local communities, and the private sector to improve health and nutrition, empower women, advance early childhood development, and promote climate-smart agriculture and school feeding programs that strengthen family resilience and food security.
Through IntraHealth International, the organization has been working for over 25 years to strengthen the health system, expand access to high-quality health services, improve health workforce response and capacity, and improve outcomes in HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, primary health care, and gender-based violence response.
Together, these efforts reflect a shared commitment to locally-led, sustainable, community-centered development and systems strengthening that improves the lives of Tanzanians today and for generations to come.
Digitalizing Community Health Worker Payments
The Digitalizing Community Health Worker (CHW) Payments Program supports the Tanzania Ministry of Health’s Integrated and Coordinated Community Health Worker (ICCHW) program, which aims to recruit, train, and deploy over 137,000 health workers across the country by 2028, each receiving a monthly digital stipend.
With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IntraHealth and the Government of Tanzania (GoT) collaborated to design, test, and roll out a scalable, unified digital payment system for government contract workers – starting with CHWs as the first use case – by strengthening existing GoT Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and taking a user-centered design approach.
IntraHealth is now working closely with GoT to support CHW registration, tracking, and digital payments using the national CHWs digital payment system in 12 regions. This includes strengthening the capacity of national and subnational users to use the systems, working with the GoT technology support, and conducting monitoring activities such as tracking CHWs onboarding to mobile money platforms or formal banking systems to receive stipends and other inclusive financial services.
Empowering Families Through Health Worker-Led Peer Support and Behavior Change
EFFECTS Plus is a powerful next step in transforming the lives of families in Tanzania. It builds on the success of the original EFFECTS trial, which demonstrated significant improvements in child nutrition and development, as well as reductions in intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against children (VAC). The trial showed that when parenting and nutrition support are bundled together, families thrive — children eat more diverse diets, develop better, and women feel more empowered. EFFECTS Plus now aims to scale this impact by reaching more families and embedding these practices into national systems.
Over ten months, trained community health workers (CHWs) will lead peer group sessions separately for mothers and fathers, with some joint sessions for couples. These sessions will use a rich set of tools including a training guide, facilitator’s manual, flipchart, storybook, recipe book, and a play and communication guide. The approach centers on behavior change through storytelling, coaching, skill-building, and commitment setting.
CHWs will be mentored by field supervisors using scaffolding techniques to ensure high-quality delivery, while project managers and supervisors will provide ongoing coaching and support. Ultimately, EFFECTS Plus seeks to improve child dietary diversity and development, reduce IPV and VAC, and integrate its curriculum into government guidelines, creating lasting change for generations to come.
Empowering Women Farmers in Tanzania: A Climate-Smart Commitment with Rick Steves
Global Communities is proud to partner with Rick Steves to support women-led agricultural enterprises in Tanzania. Recognizing that food security and climate resilience go hand in hand, the Rick Steves-supported project focuses on empowering women from previously established savings and lending groups to launch climate-smart agricultural input micro-enterprises.
These women are not only increasing household incomes and food security, but they’re also becoming leaders in their communities and helping families adapt to environmental changes. The project integrates Global Communities’ Women Forward approach, a gender-transformative model that promotes women’s empowerment, market access, and inclusive food systems. Through business training, access to the resources needed to grow crops or raise animals, and mentorship, women are equipped to thrive as entrepreneurs and stewards of sustainable farming practices. By investing in women and climate-smart agriculture, the Rick Steves partnership is helping Tanzanian families secure a healthier, more sustainable future.
Previous Programs
Supporting Sustainable, Locally Led School Feeding
From 2017-2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded Global Communities to implement a Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement program called Chakula Chetu ("Our Food” in Swahili). This program complemented our McGovern-Dole program in Tanzania and built the capacity of 16 schools in Mara Region’s Butiama District to procure locally purchased foods for school meals.
We also fostered a network of stakeholders such as government leadership, market actors, schools, parents, farmers and communities, to build sustainable capacity for a complete transition to locally led school feeding.
Throughout the program, Global Communities built or rehabilitated 16 school kitchens and provided over 2.7 million meals to ensure more than 14,000 students were provided with nutritious food to help them focus at school. (Completed in 2021)
Advancing Health and Safety for Boys and Men in Tanzania
Tohara Plus was a PEPFAR/CDC-funded initiative led by IntraHealth that supported the Government of Tanzania to address its HIV epidemic by expanding access to high-quality, safe voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) to prevent HIV among adolescents and men aged 10–29. The project achieved 90% coverage across its four supported regions in reaching the critical 15-29 age group.
Over five years, Tohara Plus provided VMMC services to 1,375,707 men and boys, averting 16,575 new HIV infections according to WHO estimation guidelines. HIV testing was offered to all clients, with791,088 opting for testing and counseling and 1,664 clients who tested positive enrolled into care and treatment.
The project demonstrated strong service quality and follow-up: 96% of clients returned for post-procedure care, and fewer than 0.2% experienced adverse events—all of which were successfully managed. These results reflected the program’s commitment to safety, client-centered care, and sustainable long-term impact in HIV prevention. (Completed in 2021)
Increasing Access to Finance and Bolstering Trade for Small- and Medium-Sized Agribusinesses
From 2015-2020, Global Communities implemented the Agribusiness Investment for Market Stimulation (AIMS) program to bolster trade in key agricultural sectors in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi by increasing access to financing, markets and capacity building for small- and medium-sized agribusinesses, including cooperatives and farmer-based organizations.
AIMS was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and included a $50 million loan guarantee facility backed by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). As a result of a cross-border Business to Business forum, which brings buyers and sellers together, agribusinesses in Malawi and Tanzania reached trade deals valued at $280 million per year, which are automatically renewable if service level is satisfactory.
Participants included 45 agribusinesses from different levels of the grains value chain and service providers such as banks, insurance providers, policymakers and transporters. (Completed in 2020)
Impact
17,878,160
meals to more than 286,000 students
through program-supported food
and community contributions
2.5 million+
people tested for HIV
Resources
Integrated Fleet Management System
Women Empowered: Championing Innovative Approaches to Savings Group Programming
Advancing Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN)
First Teacher Groups – a Community-Based Early Learning Initiative, Improves Parenting Practices and Child Development in Northern Tanzania
Digitizing Savings Groups: Evidence from Tanzania
Integrated School Feeding
Tohara Journey: Integrating a Human-Centered Design Approach into a Mobile App to Enhance Uptake of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Tanzania
News
Global Communities and Partners Launch Familia Imara to Combat Violence and Support Child Development
In a major step toward scaling evidence-based solutions for domestic safety, Global Communities officially soft-launched the Familia Imara project in Dar es Salaam in February. This transformative initiative, part of the global “What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale” (What Works 2) program, convened civil society leaders, researchers, and stakeholders to align on strategies for protecting…
Digitizing Health Payments: A New Era for Community Health in Tanzania
Driving Community Health Systems Resilience Through Financial Inclusion and Smart Coordination In Tanzania, community health workers (CHWs) are often the first point of contact for care, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach communities — monitoring child growth, preventing the spread of disease, delivering critical health education, and connecting people to lifesaving services. Their support is also…
Menstrual Health Is Everyone’s Responsibility — A Global Perspective on Girls’ Education
By Leonel Arguello, Director, Integrated School Feeding Programs, Global Communities Six years ago, I had the opportunity to visit primary schools in rural Tanzania where Global Communities was implementing a McGovern-Dole Food for Education project. As someone who has spent much of my career designing and leading integrated school meals programs, I’ve long understood that…