Situated on the Eastern Coast of Africa, Tanzania is one of Africa’s politically stable countries. The country is categorised as a least developed and low-income food-deficit country, with almost 80 percent of its total population dependent on mainly subsistence agriculture for their livelihood. Poverty remains widespread and recent statistics indicate that over 39 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line. More than 40 percent of the population lives in chronic food-deficit regions where irregular rainfall causes recurring food shortages. 
With an estimated 2.5 million people already living with HIV/AIDS, this epidemic is exacerbating the country’s poverty level and has reduced agricultural productivity and the availability of farm labour in several districts. The epidemic is seriously undermining the capacity of poor households to sustain their livelihoods and remain food secure. As a result of these debilitating forces, many households are highly susceptible to repeated climatic and economic shocks, which make them vulnerable to food insecurity. According to the 2004/05 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, 38 percent of children under five in the country are chronically malnourished (i.e. stunted height for their age) while over 30 percent of all regions in the country have stunting rates of over 50 percent.

WFP’s presence in Tanzania dates back to 1963. Since then, it has provided substantial   food assistance through emergency, relief operations and development activities. WFP works in partnership with the Government of Tanzania, other United Nations agencies and NGOs.
Current operations of WFP in Tanzania are broadly divided into three categories: i) Assistance to about 350,000 refugees in 12 camps in northwestern Tanzania (under the Great Lakes Region’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, PRRO) ii) Assistance to food-insecure and destitute population (as a result of the prolonged drought during the 2005/06 cropping season  and iii) Food for Development activities under the Tanzania Country Programme (CP), which aims to address the chronic vulnerabilities in the central and north eastern regions of the country.

Summary Of WFP Programmes And Activities In Tanzania
Drought Emergency Operation EMOP 10519
In August 2005, a Rapid Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) identified 600,000 people as being food insecure.  In October, the Government started the sale of grain from the Strategic Grain Reserve to this caseload. The results of a January 2006 RVA revealed a drastic deterioration in the food situation and identified 3.7 million people requiring emergency food aid. This caseload required about 99,600 tons of food aid from March through to May 2006, when the harvest season in unimodal areas normally begins.
During February, March and April 2006, the Government provided free food assistance alongside the continued sale of subsidized food, to vulnerable people in drought-affected areas. Government stocks for this distribution were expected to be depleted by the end of April.  WFP’s Emergency Operation aims to assist 565,000 people with a distribution of 33,900 metric tons of maize between May and September 2006.
WFP EMOP distributions in the targeted regions will bridge the gap to meet critical food shortages and preserve assets and livelihoods for communities between the end of the Government distributions and the end of the harvesting season in September.
The duration of WFP’s EMOP will be determined by the further assessment of the agricultural season and the vulnerability of the drought-affected households.
Refugee Operation
WFP's Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 10062.2) supports more than 350,000 refugees from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 12 refugee camps in western Tanzania. 
Under this PRRO, WFP provides assistance to the refugees through general food distribution as well as nutritional support to malnourished individuals (mainly pregnant/nursing mothers and children). WFP also provides support to 10,000 people in refugee-host communities in the form of food for work, food for training, food for hospital patients, home-based care of HIV/AIDS patients, orphanage centres, support to vulnerable and destitute families and the feeding of complementary basic education institutions that enroll children who were previously out-of-school.

Development Activities

WFP operates the following three development activities in its 2002-2006 Country Programme:
Under the Country Programme, providing school meals to 190,000 school children at 330 schools in food insecure areas in the regions of Dodoma, Singida, Arusha and Manyara has proved to be a strong incentive for children to enrol, attend and concentrate in schools. Giving household rations to 10,500 food-insecure households affected by HIV/AIDS has enabled people living with HIV/AIDS to participate in care and treatment programmes and enabled food-insecure orphans to continue attending school. Food for work activities have helped the agricultural sector through the participation of 5,200 households in construction and rehabilitation of irrigation systems, land rehabilitation and promotion of good post-harvest practices.

The overall strategic focus of the Country Programme is to contribute to improved food security and to mitigate the effects of structural poverty and the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the most vulnerable in the central, southern highlands and northeastern regions of the country.

Head Office:
Dar Es Salaam

Address:
Plot No. 113, Ada Estates, Burundi Street/Mwindu Lane, Kinondoni. PO Box 77778, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Tel:+255 22 2197300
Fax:+255 22 2197306
Mail:
WFP.DarEsSalaam@
wfp.org

Sub-offices:
Isaka, Kasulu, Kibondo, Kigoma, Ngara, Dodoma, Arusha