The Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) is a community-driven development operation launched by the government of the United Republic of Tanzania in 2000, as one of the instruments to fight poverty. The second phase of the projectTASAF II began in 2005. The program's financing targeted three main groups: service poor communities (improvement of social services and infrastructure), food insecure households (public works programs where beneficiaries receive cash for work) and vulnerable groups the elderly, people with disabilities, widows, orphans, and those living with HIV/AIDS (income generation projects such as animal husbandry, tailoring, milling, vegetable growing, etc.). In 2006, it was decided that impact evaluation should focus on the vulnerable group component of TASAF II. World Bank and TASAF representatives designed a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of providing income generating projects to vulnerable groups on various outcomes, including health, nutrition, education, poverty, consumption, insurance, and social capital. The study included a random assignment of villages into treatment and control groups, where the villages in the control group receive their projects with a delay of 12 months. The first (baseline) round of the impact evaluation study was conducted from April to November 2008. Datasets from this round are documented here. The second round was carried out in 2009, and the third assessment was implemented in 2012. The first round of the study took place in five (out of 121) districts: Moshi, Kwimba, Lushoto, Makete, and Nzega. In each district, all vulnerable groups in 20 villages were evaluated. In every selected village, researchers conducted detailed surveys for 15-20 households, as well as small census. Overall, 1,544 households completed detailed household survey.
