The last two decades have witnessed a global expansion of social protection programmes, initially in middle income Latin American countries, and later in low-income countries (LICs) including Africa. The expansion has mirrored a growing influence of international multilateral and bilateral donor agencies in the development agenda of poorer countries in the post Washington consensus era. Social protection programmes in the developing world have assumed various guises and included among others conditional cash transfers which have grown popular on a growing stock of evidence of their role in improving households’ livelihoods and welfare through improved food security, health, nutrition, and schooling. Tanzania is one of several developing countries committed to a nation-wide social protection through its flagship programme, the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN), implemented since 2012. This policy brief attempts to explore the challenges behind the shifting in the responsibility of financing PSSN from external funding to the government. Specifically, this policy brief focuses on PSSN/PSSN I (2012-2019).
