Facing pressure from rights groups, World Bank suspends funding for Tanzania tourism project

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The World Bank has suspended funding for a tourism project in Tanzania that caused the suffering of tens of thousands of villagers, according to a U.S.-based rights group that has long urged the global lender to take such action.

The World Bank’s decision to suspend the $150 million project, which aims to improve the management of natural resources and tourism assets in a remote part of southern Tanzanian, was “long overdue,” the Oakland Institute said in a statement Tuesday, charging that the bank’s “failure to take immediate action resulted in serious harms for the local communities.”

At least $100 million has already been disbursed for the project, which started in 2017. The suspension of World Bank financing took effect April 18.

The Oakland Institute, a California-based rights watchdog whose work focuses on marginalized communities, for years led calls for the World Bank to stop funding the project known by the acronym REGROW, documenting serious rights abuses suffered by Indigenous communities in the area.