World Bank suspends $500m loan for Tanzania as government bans pregnant girls from public schools

the world Bank succumbed to pressure from activists and withheld a $500 million loan from Tanzania following protests against the government’s ban of pregnant girls and young mothers from public schools.

According to CNN, the bank’s board of directors was due to meet on Tuesday to deliberate on the loan. However, the meeting was postponed the day before following a member’s request.

The delay is believed to have come after an emergency meeting was held on Monday between the bank, Tanzanian activists and international human rights organisations.

CNN also reports that Tanzanian civil society groups last week sent a letter to the bank’s board asking them to suspend disbursement of funds until the country passes laws allowing pregnant students to remain in public schools. They also called for a ban on mandatory pregnancy tests.

This is not the first time that Tanzania has had problems obtaining funds from the World Bank due to its strict laws against pregnant schoolgirls.

The country lost on a $300 million college loan on the aforementioned policy in 2018. The funding was expected to help the East African country improve the status of education in secondary schools. The loan was reportedly withdrawn due to fears of education disruption once a girl becomes pregnant in the country.

In June 2017, the President John Magufuli upheld a controversial 2002 law that bars pregnant schoolgirls from returning to school after giving birth. He also added that men who impregnate schoolgirls should be jailed for 30 years.

Following the 2018 standoff, the World Bank said it would continue to advocate for girls’ education in its dialogue with the East African nation.

“The economic and social returns to girls who complete their education are very high in all societies for current and future generations. Together with other partners, the World Bank will continue to advocate for girls’ access to education through our dialogue with the Government of Tanzania,” the World Bank said in an official statement sent by e -email to CNN.

A World Bank spokesperson for Tanzania also told the media that they had been in contact with the country since 2018 to reach an amicable consensus, adding that the reworked loan was aimed at “improving the quality and ‘provision of education’.

“The program has been redesigned…to ensure that girls and boys who drop out, including pregnant girls, have other education options for themselves.”

About 5,500 teenage girls were unable to complete high school due to early pregnancy and childbearing.

The government of Sierra Leone, which maintains a similar policy, recently ordered by an ECOWAS court to lift its policy barring pregnant girls from school.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) tribunal, in the landmark ruling, called the policy discriminatory, ordering the government to revoke it immediately.

Since April 2015, pregnant students from Sierra Leone weren’t allowed to sit in the same class as their peers because the government considers them a bad influence.

The government of Sierra Leone has instead set up alternative schools for these young mothers, where they are taught a reduced version of the regular school curriculum.