Research and Development report no. 6/2002

The Local Government Re-form Process in Tanzania:

Towards a greater interdependency between localgovernment and civil society at the local level?

Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevikwith

James Obama and Nazar Sola

Title The Local Government Reform in Tanzania:Towards a greater interdependency betweenlocal government and civil society at the lo-cal level ?

Authors Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevikwith James Obama and Nazar Sola

Report Research and Development report no.6/2002

ISBN-number 82-7602-076-3

ISSN-number 0803-8198

Printed Edgar Høgfeldt, 4626 Kristiansand

Price NOK 200, -

Ordering information

Published byAgderforskningServiceboks 415,N-4604 Kristiansand

Telephone 38 14 22 00Telefax 38 14 22 01E-mail post@agderforskning.no

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Preface

This study on civil society and local government was initiated by NORAD.The study attempts to investigate aspects of the complex and often unclearinterdependence between civil society and local government, with a particu-lar focus on the local, small town level. The motives for carrying out theproject were twofold: First, because we saw interesting research questionswhich would hopefully complement our on-going work on the small town is-sue in Tanzania. Second, because the research may help to improve devel-opment policies as these are pursued both by donor agencies and by nationalactors in Tanzania and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

The team consisted of Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevik. The local con-sultants involved were James Obama from PRIDE Tanzania and Nazar Solafrom the Institute of Development Management (IDM). Their contributionsare gratefully acknowledged. Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevik have re-sponsibility for the final report. We would like to express our appreciation toOle Kurt Ugland, Ellen Linde and Jørn Cruickshank for their advice and as-sistance in various ways.

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Table of Contents

PREFACE ................................................................................................. ITABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................. IIIINTRODUCTION........................................................................................1

1.1 Theoretical considerations: The concepts of civil society andgovernance..............................................................................4

1.2 Why focus on the Small Town Level? .......................................62 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM : A RADICAL DEPARTURE FROM

EARLIER REFORM EXERCISES? .............................................................92.1 The reformed Local Government in Tanzania – outlining some

changes...................................................................................92.2 The local government reform programme in operation .............122.3 The Link Between the Regional Secretariat and the LGAs .......182.4 A review of some major shortcomings at the district and sub-

district levels. ........................................................................242.5 Further challenges to the smooth implementation of the local

government reform................................................................273 LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM AND CIVIL SOCIETY AT THE LOCAL

LEVEL 333.1 Local government reform and the stated role of civil society.....333.2 Civil Society in Tanzania – a brief overview............................363.3 Traditional Socio-economic Associations at the Local Level....383.4 Informal networks – important coping strategies for women.....49

4 TOWARDS A GREATER INTERDEPENDENCY.........................................554.1 Areas of concern ...................................................................554.2 Concluding remarks ...............................................................59

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................61RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION ........................................67

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Introduction

There is a trend in African countries to reinforce the local government insti-tution, and consequently processes of decentralisation and local governmentreform are presently taking place in many African countries. This also inclu-des Tanzania, which over the last few years apparently has become a moreopen and democratic society. Tanzania is presently undertaking an ambitiousand nation-wide local government reform programme. In this process thereis a specific focus on democratisation and liberalisation, and efforts arebeing made to establish and sustain good governance; these features arecentral components if meaningful social and economic development is tooccur.

There are, however, two elements, which are considered crucial for a moreopen and democratic society, as well as for meaningful development. First,democratic representation and participation which is articulated best througha reformed local government, and second, a flourishing civil society. It isbelieved that a strong and effective institution at the local level in activecollaboration with civil society will handle challenges posed to developingcountries, such as poverty alleviation, in a better way. It is also believed thata democratic local government and a flourishing civil society appear to bemutually interdependent.

However, there has been a tendency to view both the experience of the localgovernment system and civil society organisations from a Western perspec-tive. There is a tendency to forget that civil society first flourished undercertain historical and political conditions. And, as a result, there may be adanger in converting such models to other social contexts. Hann and Dunn(1996) argue along these lines when they say that the term civil society hasin recent years enjoyed something of a vogue, and it seems odd that an elusi-ve idea that is clearly European in origin has gained the status of a universalprescriptive model (Hann and Dunn, 1996).

As for local government, Sjøgren (1998) argues that the term governance,perhaps to an even greater extent, has been burdened with a variety of mea-nings. He distinguishes between the academic discourse on governance andthe donor use, with the academics criticising the donor use of the governanceagenda. He states that the governance agenda has been criticised for being “naive and technocratic, launched from a populist managerial perspective, anddetached from power struggles and conflict of interest. Within the fra-mework of assumed consensus, buzzwords such as accountability, transpa-

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rency, participation and empowerment have been said to be left unexplainedand unproblematised, and insufficiently contextualised” (Sjøgren, 1998:20).

The two concepts, “good governance” and “civil society” often appear to-gether, but there is no consensus on the concepts. They are catch-all phrasesused in various ways and have been made conceptual containers for variousresearch and policy agendas (Sjøgren, 1998). It is believed that participationof civil society contributes to good governance. Civil society is seen as animportant agent for change, and as a driving force to reach development go-als (St.prp.nr 1, 2001/2002). However, development will depend on strategicrelations between the state and the civil society. This report touches upon as-pects of the relationship between local government and civil society in Tan-zania, focusing on the local level.

The project was designed as a desk study. The work also included two field-trips to Tanzania (in November, 2001 and January-February, 2002) in com-bination with other assignments. During these trips we had discussions witha range of individuals who, in one way or another, are involved in the localgovernment reform process, including elements within civil society. In con-nection with the student study tour from Agder University College to Tanza-nia in early 2002, a number of lectures were given on the theme of democra-tisation by people who are closely involved in local government, and theselectures are referred to in the text and bibliography. These lectures also pro-vided room for discussions of aspects of the reforms, as well as the link withcivil society.

Local consultants were also involved in this work in order to provide someempirical findings from the local level. James Obama was asked to contrib-ute to the study because he has wide experience of managing PRIDE Tanza-nia (Promotion of Rural Initiatives and Development Enterprises) - the mostsuccessful micro-credit NGO in Tanzania. Consequently, he was able tohighlight the experiences of PRIDE as a financial development institutionfor low-income groups in civil society and to demonstrate, more generally,some of the characteristics of local organisations of a more informal nature.Nazar Sola is Head of the Local Government Centre at the Institute of De-velopment Management (IDM) and contributed with his knowledge on theongoing local government reform programme. Both Obama and Sola wrotepapers for the present study (the titles are listed in the bibliography) whichprovided material for incorporation in the report.

We also draw upon empirical findings from earlier work and especially fromour fieldwork in Mbulu (October 2000), and Hege Wallevik’s ongoing re-

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search in Zanzibar, both of which were conducted under the auspices of theNorwegian Research Council financed project entitled Managing the UrbanTransition at the Local Level. This accounts for the specific references toMbulu and Zanzibar in the text.

In this introductory section, a short literature review of the concepts of civilsociety and governance is discussed. There is a vast literature in this fieldand we have limited ourselves to some of the readings. Indeed, regarding ci-vil society there is a large body of anthropological literature on social orga-nisation at the local level that would have been fruitful to review, but is bey-ond the scope of this study.

In Section 2 we focus upon the local government reform in Tanzania. A de-scription of the reformed local government structure is given and discussed.Furthermore, some major shortcomings at the district and sub-district levelsare elaborated on. The overall goal of the LGRP is to improve the quality ofand access to public services facilitated by local authorities. In order for thatto materialise there is a need for greater funding. Towards the end of thesection we briefly describe how local revenue raising powers are structured.In addition we focus on the time delays and the gender dimensions of the re-form.

In Section 3 we focus on the link between local government and civil soci-ety. In a study of such a vast field of inquiry it is quite clear that we have hadto restrict ourselves to some specific topics. Consequently, in this section wefocus on aspects of more loosely organised civil societies vis-à-vis localgovernment. First, we give a brief account of how civil society and its role inthe reform has been described in the reform documents. Furthermore, wegive a short description of civil society in Tanzania before focusing on theinformal networks, which are of crucial importance to women at the locallevel. Second, we focus on a few traditional socio-economic associationspresent in Tanzania today.

In Section 4 we provide a brief overview and focus upon some main areas ofconcern; democratisation at the grassroots, financial constraints, links intoinformal networks, gender and lack of commitment. We also point to areas,which in our opinion need to be further investigated in order for a successfulcollaboration between civil society and local government to occur.

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1.1 Theoretical considerations: The concepts of civil so-ciety and governance

The idea of civil society is based on the ideal of improved qualities in inter-action between people, and in relations between individuals and society(Ahrne, 1998). Although the concept of civil society has a long heritage, thevogue for using it as an analytical tool to discern political realities is quiterecent. Regarding the African debate, much current research focuses on themultiplicity and range of forces which operate within society, including thestate-society relationship (Sjøgren, 1998). This is not the place to discuss indetail the historical and philosophical background to the concept. The mainstands of current thinking have recently been dealt with by Sjøgren (1998)and by Tostensen et al (2001). It is therefore sufficient to say that the usageof the concepts lacks clarity and that civil society has proven to be a vagueconcept, which is hard to define. Many scholars have discussed it in detail(e.g. Azarya, 1994, Bayart, 1986, Bratton, 1994, Chazan, 1992, Gibbon,1992, Harbeson, 1994) and the resulting picture is one of great ambiguityand considerable confusion, and even more important: the idea of civil soc i-ety resonates very differently in different cultures (Seligman, 1992).

It is possible to reconstruct a common ground consisting of a neutral locatio-nal definition. Civil society is then seen as “the public realm between thestate and family, and more specifically as the associational life within thatrealm – formally autonomous from, yet engaging with, the state” (Sjøgren,1998:9). Beyond this common ground there are various suggestions in thetwo main traditions; the liberal and the Marxist, as to what comprises civilsociety, and how it can best be understood. What is clear is that the way onechooses to understand civil society will have implications for analysis.

There is an on-going discussion on how to best use the concepts, from intui-tive shorthand conceptions to theoretically conscious elaborations (Sjøgren,1998) and also whether civil society can be captured in one concept (see, forexample, Beckman, 1993; and Mamdani, 1995). Robinson and White (1997)remind us that “actual civil societies are complex associational univer-ses…they contain repression as well as democracy, conflict as well as coo-peration, vice as well as virtue, they can be motivated by sectional greed asmuch as social interest” (Robinson and White, 1997:3).

In the same way the relationship between civil society and the state is up fordebate. The common way of thinking is that civil society is in opposition tothe state. However, Gibbon (1992) argues that there are many ways that civilsociety can act towards the state ranging from a co-operating relationship to

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being in opposition to the state. Many voluntary associations also depend onthe state in their activity (Ahrne, 1998) and they cannot be understood wit-hout considering their relations with, and dependence on, the state.

We argue that attention needs to be given to the co-operation between civilsociety and local authorities. A body of literature exists on the state-societyrelationship in developing countries (e.g. Azarya, 1988, Rotchilds et al.1988, Harbeson et al. 1994, Chazan, 1994, Bratton, 1994, Gibbon, 1996).Research on local government issues has been approached from variousangles. For instance, at lower levels research often focuses on specific as-pects of government, concentrating on such issues as accountability, transpa-rency, and efficient management as to how services are offered (e.g. Helm-sing et al., 1990, UNDP, 1991). Studies have also been conducted on thegrassroots level, where local participation in matters surrounding governancehave been discussed (e.g. Allen, 1990, Brand, 1991, Crook and Manor, 1991,Migdal et al., 1994).

Even though research on the relationship between the local government andthe civil society is not new ”there remains a serious gap in our understandingof the various dimensions of decentralisation” (Parker, 1995: 42). Parkerconcludes that more knowledge on the issue is needed before proper advicecan be given to policymakers. This means going behind the western-styleorganisational way of thinking around civil society (Lange et al, 2000). Lan-ge et al. (2000) state that civil society tends to be understood by donors asNGOs, and NGOs only. Furthermore, several of these organisations are ur-ban and elite based, and therefore tend to be working for the grassroots in-stead of with them. Consequently, an understanding of the magnitude of civilsociety and the dynamics of it as well as the co-operation with the local go-vernment is important.

The most natural organisational form to be associated with civil society isprobably voluntary associations. Forms of interaction that are seen as naturalelements of civil societies include “communities, friendship networks, soli-daristic workplace ties, spontaneous groups and movements” (Wolfe,1989:20 in Ahrne, 1998). Rosanvallon (1988:205 in Ahrne, 1998) also men-tions neighbourhood groups, and Alberto Melucci (1988:248 in Ahrne,1998) talks about new social movements as “networks submerged in every-day life”. Gullestad (1999) sees civil society as everyday practises, concepti-ons, values and informal rules.

Tostensen et al (2001) elaborate on various typologies on civil society andassociational life. However, they claim that although several typologies have

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been put forward, none actually captures the associational life as manifestedin real African contexts. All cover important dimensions but they do “notcapture more loosely knit networks, which may be crucial elements for thesurvival strategies of the poor” (2001: 15). These networks are characterisedby a low degree of formalisation even though they do constitute organisedactivity. They are flexible, can even be dormant and only active in times ofneed etc. or they can be operational permanently.

Finally, civil society may be defined as “the public realm of organised socialactivity located between the state and the family, regardless of normativeorientation” (Tostensen et al 2001:13). It encompasses both formal organi-sations in a variety of fields, and less structured and enduring associationsand movements. It includes the more informal and unorganised part of civilsociety, such as the set of relational networks formed for the sake of family,faith, interest and ideology. Governance refers to “practices rather than for-mal institutions and can be understood as the general manner in which pe-ople are governed, but not exclusively by the institutions of government butalso within informal activities and civil society” (Tostensen et al., 2001: 19).

1.2 Why focus on the Small Town Level?

The processes of urbanisation are producing deep rooted and inexorabletransformations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed the ThirdWorld. The international research and donor communities feel that the quan-tity and quality of urban research declined in the 1980s and the 1990s (Strenand McCarney, 1992). While “the dramatic changes in urban growth and thecomposition of urban activities over the past decade have put much of the e-arlier work out of date” (World Bank, 1991). The neglect of the urban issueby policy makers has been due to two reasons. First, poverty was consideredoverwhelmingly as a rural problem, and not an urban concern. Second, itwas argued that investment in urban infrastructure and services wouldstrengthen urban bias and further deprive rural areas of resources, (see forexample the seminal work by Lipton on urban bias from 1977). It was furt-her postulated that making urban areas more attractive would merely rein-force the already high levels of rural-to-urban migration.

Much of the urban research that has been conducted in Third World countri-es (and this is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa) has focussed on thelarge and primate cities. Comparatively little is known about the dynamicsand structures of small and intermediate urban centres including the way thatthey are managed and financed. Indeed in Sub-Saharan Africa the very largecity is not a common phenomenon in the urban landscape. The majority of

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the region’s population has most contacts with small and intermediate urbancentres (Baker, 1990, 1992, Funnell 1976, Mathur, 1984, Southall 1979,1988). Hence, the great need for addressing the issue on this level.

It is stated that there often are contradictions and tensions between urban go-vernments and central governments. While most governments accept theidea of delegating responsibility for urban management to municipalities, inpractice central governments often are not prepared to transfer resources andpowers, commonly for fear of losing political control. Focussing on thesmall town level in Tanzania is of interest since district and town councilsare a part of the first phase of the reform. Furthermore, these smaller placesare at the very end of the decentralisation scheme and thus far from wheredecisions regarding the reform have been made in the first place.

It is argued that in order for the reform process to be successful, it needs tobe understood, accepted, owned and sustained at the local level, i.e by pe-ople themselves (Ngware, 2000). This is a huge challenge for all the districtcouncils involved in the reform. Since social services are no longer to beprovided by the state alone, and private initiatives by individuals or groupsare welcome and necessary, it is of crucial importance to mobilise the pe-ople. It is therefore interesting to look into how things work at this level.

It is common to think that in urban areas employment and provision of socialservices (e.g. schools, health service and clean water) are generally better.The major stimulus to urban growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is still migrationfrom rural areas. Migration to towns and cities is often referred to as a“search for a better life” (von Troil, 1992). Consequently, rural people leavetheir homes in search for employment in urban areas. Others come to urbancentres for trade and commerce. The growth of the urban informal sector inAfrica has been dramatic. In the late1980s, the informal sector employed anestimated 60% of the urban labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa (Grey-Johnson, 1992).

Migration obviously increases the size of the urban population, and in addi-tion an increasing number of people are being born, and stay in the urbanareas. However, in many places public authorities have failed to provide ne-cessary infrastructure for coping with the rapidly growing urban centres.This accelerates the processes leading to greater poverty and deprivation(Kironde, 2000).

In smaller urban centres survival strategies and strategies for covering needsare most probably connected to informal networks and also include the so-

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called “social dimensions of small towns”. Baker argues that an urban-ruralmilieu is “integrated through networks of friendship, kinship and family ties.And it could be added that these networks are invariably complex and oftenblur the social distinctions as to what is urban and what is rural” (Baker1990:20). It is of importance to focus on these kinds of networks and see towhat extent such institutions are important for understanding the way poorpeople organise themselves. It is also important to focus on how importantsuch networks are compared to services offered by the local government.

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2 The Local Government Reform: A radical de-parture from earlier reform exercises?

In Tanzania, the on-going local government reform is an integral part of thebroader structural reforms. The reform decentralises five areas that have pre-viously been administered by the central government: health, education, ag-riculture, water and infrastructure. Important changes will come with the re-form since different actors are supposed to play different roles in it. Both ci-vil society and the private sector are now stakeholders in the process alongwith local government.

2.1 The reformed Local Government in Tanzania – outli-ning some changes

There is an increased realisation that a country like Tanzania with scarce re-sources cannot rely on a top-down distribution of political and economic re-sponsibilities to bring about meaningful development. Moreover, the prefer-red role for the reformed local government is seen as changing from that ofacting as the principal vehicle for bringing about social and economic deve-lopment, to that of guiding and facilitating development. Ideally, local go-vernments are perceived as playing a central enabling role whereby they de-velop and improve partnerships with various actors in the civil society arenaincluding NGOs and CBOs, as well as the private sector in the process ofimplementing development policies and programmes.

Tanzania is currently embarking on a donor-supported (some would say do-nor-driven) process of political and administrative decentralisation. Decen-tralisation is being advocated and supported because it is seen as holdinggreat potential for social and economic development. Specifically, greaterpowers and responsibilities to local government authorities may bring aboutthe following:

• Greater participation of the electorate at the grassroots level to partic i-pate in local government and in the shaping of their own lives and desti-nies;

• A more efficient allocation and utilisation of scarce resources;

• Increased mobilisation of local resources;

• An improvement in the quality of local governance.

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While local governments were reintroduced in mainland Tanzania in 1984following the enactment of the 1982 Local Government Act, the expectati-ons of the population were not met in terms of the quality and quantity ofservices provided. Moreover, the system was a top-down one and local go-vernments were constrained by a tight central government bureaucracy. Theregional administrations were delegated strong powers from the centre to di-rect the affairs of local governments.

Given this state of affairs (and reflecting the growing tendency for many de-veloping countries to introduce and adopt more democratic practices, natio-nally and at the local level), the Government of Tanzania initiated a processin May 1996, which hopefully would lead to greater local participation anddemocratisation.

A National Conference held in May 1996 with the theme ”Towards a SharedVision for Local Government in Tanzania” laid down the vision of a futurelocal government structure. This vision was summarised in the Local Go-vernment Reform Agenda (LGRA) 1996-2000, and in October 1998 wasendorsed by the Government in the Government Policy Paper on Local Go-vernment Reform.

The new local government system is based on political devolution and de-centralisation of functions and finance within the framework of a unitarystate. The new local governments are holistic (i.e. multi-sectoral) units witha legal status (corporate body) operating on the basis of discretionary but ge-neral powers. In short, the new local government authorities are endowedwith wide-ranging powers and will be largely autonomous institutions, de-mocratically governed and deriving their legitimacy from the services theyprovide to the people.

The main principles of the reform as indicated in the Policy Paper on LocalGovernment Reform of October, 1998 under the auspices of the newly-created President’s Office- Regional Administration and Local Government:PO-RALG (formerly Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Go-vernment: MRALG) are the following:

1. Letting people participate in government at the local level and elect theircouncils;

2. Bringing public services under the control of the people through their lo-cal councils;

3. Giving local councils political powers over all local affairs;

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4. Improving financial and political accountability;5. Securing finances for better public services;6. Creating a new local government administration answerable to the local

councils;7. De-linking local administrative leaders from their former ministries; and8. Creating new central-local relations based not on orders but on legisla-

tion and negotiations.

Specifically, the new local government authorities (LGAs) will have thefollowing characteristics:

They should be largely autonomous institutions with the freedom to makepolicy and operational decisions consistent with government policies butwithout undue interference by central government institutions;

They should be strong and effective institutions possessing adequate re-sources (both financial and human) with the authority to perform their man-dated functions. In support of this, LGAs will have adequate numbers ofqualified and well-motivated staff, who will be recruited and promoted ex-clusively on the basis of merit;

They should be democratically governed with the leadership of the localauthorities (councillors) elected through a fully democratic process, whichextends to village councils and other grassroots organisations;

They should derive legitimacy from the quality of the services provided tothe people;They should foster participatory development by involving the people in de-ciding, planning and executing development programmes and by fosteringpartnerships with the myriad of groups which comprise civil society;They should be institutions, which reflect local demands and conditions.Each LGA will have roles and functions that correspond to the demands forits services by the local people, and to the socio-ecological conditions pre-vailing in the area. What this strongly implies is a high degree of flexibilityat the local level.

They should conduct activities affecting the people with transparency andaccountability, and this will form the basis for securing their autonomy fromcentral government interference.

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If these principles are attained in reality this would certainly represent a veryconsiderable shift of resources from the centre to the grassroots, as well as amajor empowerment of the latter. In the reform civil society is expected toplay a central role in both service delivery and the development of de-mocracy.

The overarching goal of the LGRP is to create good governance based onpolitical and financial accountability and public participation. It is important,however, to notice that the idea of local participation and mobilisation of thegrassroots have been put forward several times since independence. Localparticipation has been emphasised as a tool in development, but according toEriksen et al (1999) not much has been achieved.

Local people have been invited to participate through planning committeesas development from below where ideas should be generated from the grass-roots and through the system. TANUs political network was developed downto the village level and the local party branches were there to mobilise pe-ople and they were institutions for explaining policies. However, thesebranches laid the basis for “stronger political control of all local decisionsmaking through CCM” (Eriksen et al, 1999:55) and since independence littlelocal popular participation has been achieved. So what is new then in this re-form regarding local participation and mobilisation of the people?

2.2 The local government reform programme in operationThe Local Government Reform Programme in practice has meant somefairly dramatic reorganisation and decentralisation of authority from the re-gional levels of administration to the district and newly-empowered localgovernment authorities. As the process is still very much an on-going one, itwould be premature and indeed impossible to draw concrete conclusionsconcerning final outcomes of the reform. Moreover, the reform process hasnot proceeded as rapidly nor as smoothly as anticipated.

The following discussion will attempt to review the changes that are takingplace at the regional, district and local levels. Moreover, in order to capturethe magnitude of the changes and the problems and constraints, which haveemerged as a result of the reforms, a fair degree of detail is required. Howe-ver, in short, it can be stated that the resources at the local government levelare to be strengthened by a mixture of policies. Central to this has been theneed to reorganise regional administrations (now referred to as regionalsecretariats: established by Act No.19 of 1997) so that they become facilita-tors to local government authorities (LGAs) in their efforts at the planning

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and implementation of development initiatives, as well as the more efficientdistribution of social services. Figure 1 provides a schematic review of thereformed relationship between the central, regional, district and grassrootslevels.

Figure1: The relationship between the regional authorities and LGA’s

Source: Institute of Development Management (IDM), 2001)

LINE MINISTRIESPRESIDENT’S OFFICE

REGIONAL ADMINISTARTION ANDLOCAL GOVERNMENT

REGIONALCOMISSIONER’S

OFFICE(Regional Secretariat)

LOCALGOVERNMENTAUTHORITIES

DISTRICTCOMMISIONER’S

OFFICE

DIVISIONALSECRETARY

WARD EXECUTIVEOFFISERS

VILLAGEEXECUTIVEOFFICERS

MTAA

KITONGOJI

Boards Authorities

FacilityBoards

UrbanWaterBoards

MinisterialRegional Officer

Water Roads Labour Educ.

KEY: Relationship on Administrative Matters

Relationship on Technical Matters

Relationship on Consultative and AdvisoryMatters

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The role of the reformed regional secretariats is twofold: to provide a linkbetween the central and local governments (i.e. an administrative and controlfunction) and to provide enabling support services to the LGAs (i.e. a deve-lopment function). The primary administrative function is to ensure ”peaceand tranquillity” in the region and this is the main responsibility of the re-gional commissioner. This task is aided by the police in the region as well asthe judiciary. The development functions of the regional secretariats are as-sisted by four technical clusters and their main role is to provide technicaland capacity building support for increased expertise in the LGAs. A majorpoint of friction in the reform process appears to be the difficult and unevenrelationship between the LGAs and the technical clusters. This will bediscussed further below.

The reformed Regional Secretariats (RS)The new vision and mission of the RSs is not to implement policies and pro-grammes but to facilitate LGAs to fully implement the development pro-grammes within their districts. The key institutions and personnel within theRSs are the following:

The Regional Commissioner (RC)The RC is appointed by the President and is the principal representative ofthe government within the region. All executive functions of the governmentwithin a region are exercised by or through the RC. The RC has three mainresponsibilities:

• Maintaining law and order in the region; the RC has the power to arrestand detain;

• Determining the direction for implementing the policies of the govern-ment;

• To facilitate and assist LGAs in the region to undertake and dischargetheir responsibilities by providing a secure enabling environment.

The Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS)The RAS is also a presidential appointee and is head of the RS as well asprincipal advisor to the RC. The RAS is vested with important and wide-ranging powers in that he/she coordinates all development and administrati-ve activities in the region and has responsibility (”hiring and firing”) for allregional employees. Importantly, the RAS is responsible for all governmentrevenues sent to the region.

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Technical Support Services Staff : Technical Support OfficersThese technical support staff are employed by sector ministries (such as ag-riculture, water and education) and are attached to the RS. Their main role isto provide advice and capacity-building support to the LGAs. They aregrouped into four clusters:

Cluster 1: management support servicesIncludes the following technical staff: local government officer; economist-planner; legal officer; community development officer; local governmentauditor; and labour officer.

Cluster 2: economic development support servicesIncludes the following staff: agricultural officer; livestock officer; co-operative officer; trade officer; and natural resources officer.

Cluster 3: physical planning and engineering support servicesIncludes the following staff: civil engineer; highway engineer; draughtsman;and town planner-survey officer.

Cluster 4: social sector support servicesIncludes education officer; social welfare officer; health officer; water engi-neer; and youth officer.

The District Commissioner (DC), who is the representative of the centralgovernment at the district level, is appointed by the President to assist theregional commissioner in the discharge of his/her duties. Not surprisingly, acentral function of the DC is to maintain law and order in the district. More-over, according to the Regional Administration Act of 1997, Section 14, theDC has responsibility for providing and securing the enabling environmentfor successful performance by local government authorities of their dutiesand functions (page 387). The DC is supported by a small staff (an administ-rative officer and an accountant), as well as the important district administ-rative secretary (DAS) who has similar powers and responsibilities as theRAS, but at the district level.

Finally, the Divisional Secretary represents the lowest point (is the closestto the grassroots) in the central government chain. The Divisional Secretaryassists the DC in maintaining law and order in a particular division. The Di-visional Secretary also co-ordinates development efforts in villages andwards, as well as promoting government policies.

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The Local Government Authorities (LGAs) refer to the administration ofthe entities ”operating on a local level, functioning through a representativeorgan known as the council, and established by the law to exercise specificpowers within a defined area of jurisdiction”. LGAs are autonomous organi-sations established under the Local Government Act no. 7 and no. 8 of 1982.LGAs have councils, which are elected by the local population and they haveimportant powers to carry out those functions established under the relevantacts. A central focus of the LGRP is to strengthen the LGA. The main func-tions of these local councils are as follows:

• To provide public services in areas of economic development, physicalplanning and engineering, and social development.

• To levy rates and collect taxes, and to spend money to promote local de-velopment and provide social services to local populations.

• To control the activities of the people who live in their respective areasof jurisdiction.

• To make by-laws and impose penalties on those who fail to comply withsuch by-laws.

Local Government Authorities can be grouped into two: Urban Councils andDistrict Councils; the latter have responsibility for rural areas. Within theLGA system the Council is the supreme decision-making body. Councillorsare elected on a political basis at the ward level, and one councillor for eachward in a district is elected through a popular and secret ballot. For example,Mbulu District is one of the ten districts in Arusha Region. Administratively,Mbulu District has three divisions, 16 wards and 71 villages. Consequently,16 councillors are directly elected in this District. In addition, a system ofpreferential councillor seats operates to guarantee the representation of wo-men. Thus, a fixed quota of one-quarter of all council seats is reserved forwomen who are appointed by their political parties on the basis of the num-ber of seats won by the various parties. In Mbulu, therefore, four women areappointed as members of the Mbulu District Council. In addition, to theseelected and appointed councillors, the member of parliament, in whichconstituency the council is situated is also a council member.

Soon after the election (which is held every five years) the first council me-eting is convened at which a fellow councillor is elected to be the chairper-son (almost invariably a chairman). The chairperson then becomes the Dis-trict Council Chairman in rural authorities or Mayor in urban authorities.Once elected, the chairman acquires the status of primus inter pares. Thisstatus gives the chairperson power to significantly influence the direction of

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policy and the decision-making process. At this inaugural meeting of thecouncil, the councillors divide themselves into three important sub-committees (standing committees):

• Finance, Planning and Administration Committee;• Health, Water and Education Committee;

• Works, Economy and Environment Committee.

On the important Finance, Planning and Administration Committee one ofthe members must be a woman. The council may opt to sub-divide into furt-her sub-committees depending on the needs of the particular local authority.In Mbulu, for example, it was reported that the council has seven sectoralcommittees. These sub-committees are assisted in their tasks by the heads ofdepartments who are employees of the LGA (see below). The sub-committees have major responsibility for the following:

• Preparing the budget for the various sector departments in the LGA;

• Preparing reports on the implementation status of development projectsand the provision of social services;

• Monitoring and supervising the implementation of development projectsand social services provision on behalf of the Council.

These sub-committees then report to the full Council. The full Council isconvened four times annually, although a meeting may be called if the needarises.

The Executive Arm of the LGAThe chief executive of the LGA is the District Executive Director (DED),in rural councils, or the Urban Director in urban areas. He plays a centralrole in the overall structure of the LGA. He is secretary of Council meetingsand, although he has no voting rights, may have considerable power and in-fluence over council matters. Of course, much would depend on the relati-onship between the Executive Director and the Council Chairperson. Otherresponsibilities of the chief executive include:

• Being head of all staff in the LGA;

• In charge of the day-to-day running of the LGA;

• Having responsibility for Council revenue collection and expenditureaccording to the approved budget;

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• Maintains political and public relations with councillors and other exter-nal stakeholders;

• Implements Council business through council and committee meetings;

• Finally, has responsibility for policy formulation, co-ordination and ac-countability, and legal matters.

Departments within the LGAsDepartments in the LGA system usually include the following (although thisdepends upon whether the council is rural or urban): water, communicationsand works, education and culture, finance, administration, agriculture, li-vestock and cooperative development, community development, trade and e-conomy, health, and natural resources. The heads of LGA departments areprofessionals who provide advice to the sub-committees in the Council. The-se are also the personnel who are charged with implementing all decisionsreached by the Council on matters of development and the delivery of socialservices. Consequently, the skills, experience and dedication of these indiv i-duals is crucial is assuring that the development and service needs of the po-pulation are adequately addressed.

2.3 The Link Between the Regional Secretariat and theLGAs

Under the reformed local government structure a number of changes havebeen introduced whereby the RSs provide the LGAs with advice and assis-tance: in other words, the RS has assumed more of an enabling function thanunder the previous top-down command structure. This new system hasthrown up a number of conflicts that will need to be resolved if the reformprogramme is to be successful. Some of these conflicts can be considered as”teething problems” which presumably will be resolved with time as the newroutines are known and implemented. However, there are some challenges,which will require a fundamental change in mind sets on the part of regionaland district level officials and bureaucrats. Some of these problems are out-lined in the following points.

Poor dissemination of InformationThe Regional Secretariat (RS) is the lynchpin in the system of government inTanzania and consequently it is ”critical that it is fully aware of the reformsand has the requisite operational knowledge of the roles and their linking po-sition between the central and local governments” (IDM, 2001:14). As wasstated above the RS is an institution established by Act No 19 of 1997. Thisis an important piece of legislation as well as a vital source of information,

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which describes the roles and functions of the RS. In addition, the Act de-scribes in detail the restructured government administration at the regional,district and divisional levels. Having said this, there are doubts whether theAct is being fully implemented because of lack of knowledge concerning it.Moreover, the enforcing mechanism for the 1997 Act (i.e. the RegionalPlanning and Management Guide- PMG) was only published at the end of2000. Because of this time lag, the RS continued to work with pre-1997 Actdocuments and methods, which often (and for obvious reasons) contradictedthe new and relevant documents. (IDM , 2001:10). The PMG is an importantdocument as it details the structure of the reformed RS and its relationshipswith LGAs and the central authority at PO-RALG (President’s Office, Re-gional Administration and Local Government). It goes without saying thatlack of information regarding the most relevant and contemporary legislationabout local government, including the sharing of it, could lead to very nega-tive consequences for the reform process.

What is also very surprising is the reported lack of knowledge about the lo-cal government reform process by local government staff. According to Ny-lehn et al (2001: 195) the response of many local government officers to thereforms was one of uncertainty summed up by statements such as: ”The re-form, has it started ?”, or ”The LGRA (Local Government Reform Agenda)what do you mean, what is that ?”. A major reason for the lack of knowledgeconcerning the reforms is certainly related to the problem of poor quality ofdissemination of information in Tanzania, (and this situation is paralleled inmany other poor countries). Given the general lack of essential equipmentsuch as functioning copying machines (and paper), information diffusion is,at best, hapharzad. Even at the level of the RS, the lack of knowledge was aconcern. For example, material distributed at workshops and seminars, andmaterial mailed directly to Regional Secretariats, ”are not usually copied forwider distribution in the Secretariat” (IDM, 2001:15).

Insufficient support to the Regional SecretariatsAs has been shown, the RSs are supposed to play an important role in the re-formed system of local government in Tanzania. Indeed, they are consideredto be the lynchpin of the whole system - from the PO-RALG to the LGAs.However, they do not fulfil their expected roles for a number of reasons, ofwhich the most central is lack of resources to enable the Secretariat to do areasonable job. Associated issues include understaffing, ”glaring” shortagesof necessary authoritative documents, and a general lack of capacity buildingafter the RSs were created. These shortcomings have resulted in a low levelof knowledge concerning the policy reforms.

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Given the lack of documentation concerning the reforms, many RS officialsare only ”vaguely” aware of their new responsibilities. Unlike the LGAs,which are able to rely on the professional experience and advice of the ZonalReform Teams to gain a clear understanding of the reform process, the RSshave no similar support mechanisms or institutions. Despite the weakness inthe regional restructuring process, the RSs are supposed to provide policyguidance to the LGAs. Moreover, the LGAs have had the benefit of their re-forms being implemented in a phased manner which has provided them withthe opportunity to learn from the experience of others in the reform process.By contrast, restructuring of the Regional Administrations was undertakensimultaneously in all regions.

A major shortcoming of the reform programme is the incapacity of thecluster technical staff in the RS to provide the necessary support and enab-ling services to the LGAs. As was stated above, their main role is to provideadvice and capacity-building support to the LGAs. However, apparently theyare unable to do this for a variety of reasons. While the employment ofcluster staff is the responsibility of the RAS, the evidence suggests that thereare no ”standard” or ”objective” criteria for selection of cluster staff. The re-structuring of the Regional Administration and the retention of staff toconstitute the clusters was conducted on the basis of availability of staff,”regardless of their competence and academic qualifications”. Given this si-tuation one would have expected some kind of capacity-building initiativesfor cluster staff to enable them to cope with their new responsibilities. Nosuch initiatives materialised. Very few cluster staff have had the opportunityof attending reform workshops or seminars. According to the report fromwhich this information is drawn, ”the majority of the cluster experts attendedtheir last skill improvement courses before 1993” (IDM, 2001:34).

A serious problem area concerns the uneasy relationship that exists betweenLGA staff and cluster staff. A major point of conflict appears to be whetherthe LGAs should ”listen to or accept” the advice of the cluster staff. LGAstaff argue that since they now have autonomous status, it is discretionarywhether they accept cluster advice or not. If the clusters attempt to presstheir advice the LGAs allege ”interference”. In addition, LGA staff do notnecessarily feel obliged to submit periodic reports to the clusters; this pro-blem is compounded by the fact that there is a lack of legal mandate whichwould allow the RS to sanction non-complying LGAs.

A related concern is the issue of qualifications and experience of cluster staffcompared with those of local government staff. In some instances, it wasfound that RS cluster staff were less qualified than their local government

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counterparts. It is obvious that ”this reduces the credibility and confidence ofthe RS to provide technical support and advice to the LGAs” (IDM,2001:35).

A final concern is the small budget which is allocated to the RS and thecluster staff. This seriously impairs their performance. Lack of training andlack of important documents has already been mentioned. In some circums-tances, the cluster staff have been put in the humiliating situation of havingto depend upon LGAs for the provision of some facilities.

An example illustrates this point. It concerns an RS auditor who had to de-pend upon the transport facilities provided by three separate LGAs to trans-port him from regional headquarters to different district headquarters.

The auditor was provided with transport by LGA A to travel to LGA B fromwhere LGA B provided transport to travel to LGA C. The LGA C then provi-ded transport to the final destination (LGA D). The return journey was basedon a similar belittling transfer where the auditor compared himself to a relaystick (IDM, 2001: 40).

Democracy and Planning at the GrassrootsBelow the LGAs are a number of apparently democratic structures at thegrassroots which can be considered as conduits which articulate very localdevelopment needs.

The Kitongoji (hamlet) is not a local government authority but is a part of avillage and is the smallest administrative unit in a district council. The kiton-goji Committee is composed of:

1. An elected (on a political basis) chairperson;2. A secretary who is appointed by the kitongoji chairperson;3. Three persons who are members of the Kitongoji Advisory Committee

and who are appointed by the kitongoji chairperson.

The Mtaa (a row of houses or a small urban area) is similar to the kitongojiexcept that it is the smallest administrative unit within the ward of an urbanauthority. The mtaa committees have recently been established to enabletransparency in the conduct of affairs in urban councils. The Mtaa Commit-tee comprises:

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1. An elected (on a political basis) chairperson;2. An elected (on a political basis) secretary;3. An Mtaa Committee of six members, all of whom are politically elected.

Both these committees have the same functions. First, these are the lowestlevel contact points between the government structure (ward) and the grass-roots. Second, they are supposed to mobilize the people to participate in lo-cal development initiatives. And, third, they are an important component inthe development planning process. What this means in theory is that localpeople communicate what they consider as priorities in local developmentand service delivery to their local kitongoji or mtaa committees. These arediscussed in committee before being forwarded upwards to the village coun-cil, or in the case of the mtaa directly to the Ward Development committee(WDC).

However, there is one very important distinction between the kitongoji andthe mtaa. In the former, the chairperson (who is elected by the local people)appoints all other kitongoji members, while in the mtaa all members areelected. According to Councillor Peter Siyovelwa, this is an anomaly whichneeds to be rectified. If not, the situation could lead to nepotism and crony-ism.

The Village Council is a rural local authority within a ward (a ward usuallyhas, at least, 5 villages). It is composed of 25 members as follows:

1. An elected chairperson;2. Ex officio vitongoji chairpersons (not more than 5);3. Preferential seats for women allocated on a political basis who comprise

not more than one quarter of all council members;4. And any other elected members (on the basis of political parties) who

together with the other council members, add up to a maximum of 25;5. The Village Executive Officer (VEO) is the secretary to the council, but

has no voting rights.

The Village Council is in effect the village government and has responsib i-lity for the day-to-day running of the village. It discusses development plansand the status of social service delivery. It discusses plans for the future de-velopment of land use within the village.

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The VEO is the chief executive of the village and is a non-political appoin-tee. The VEO’s within a ward are appointed by the Ward DevelopmentCommittee. The main responsibility of the VEO is to assist the Ward Execu-tive Officer (WEO) in collecting revenues in the village (mainly the Deve-lopment Levy), and to assist the WEO in his role as Justice of the Peace inmaintaining law and order.

The Village Assembly is a meeting where all adult villagers (aged 18 andabove) are invited to attend. It appears to be a information forum which me-ets on an irregular basis. The chairperson and secretary of the village assem-bly is the VEO.

The Ward Development Committee (WDC) is an important intermediaryorgan between the District Council and the Village in rural areas and betwe-en the Urban Council and the Mtaa in urban areas. The members of theWDC include:

1. The chairperson is the elected ward councillor (who is also a member ofthe district or urban council);

2. The secretary is the Ward Executive Officer (WEO) who has no votingrights. The WEO is the chief executive of the WDC and the revenuecollector in the ward on behalf of the LGA, as well as the Justice of thePeace. The WEO is a salaried official.

3. Women councillors with preferential seats in the ward;4. All village chairpersons within the ward;5. All VEOs;

The functions of the Ward Development Committee are:

• Co-ordinating village development initiatives and social service planswithin the ward;

• Supervising project implementation and social service delivery activitieswithin the ward;

• Acting as the interface for discussing plans and initiatives from the sub-ward levels and plans from the LGA;

• Nominating the VEOs within the ward.

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2.4 A review of some major shortcomings at the districtand sub-district levels.

The democratic process is a real one which provides individuals with thepower to articulate their needs and for these needs to be acted on. For ex-ample, the following statement is taken verbatim from a paper written by theDistrict Planning Officer (Rashidi, 2002) in Mbulu in February, 2002:

The process for development planning is bottom-up. The whole process ofplanning starts from sub-village level (kitongoji=hamlet) whereby peopleidentify their problems, prioritise and come up with alternative solutions tothese problems taking into consideration availability of resources within thesub-village. At this stage they can also indicate what is to be done by them-selves and what assistance should be requested from the Council. The propo-sals from the sub-village levels are forwarded to the village whereby they arescrutinized, compiled and presented to ward level. At ward level the warddevelopment committee scrutinise proposals from villages, compile and for-ward to the district level for further action. At the district level more scrutinyis done and projects selected are compiled and discussed in the DMT (Dis-trict Management Team), Council Standing Committees and final approvalis done by Full Council. (Italic words have been added).

By contrast, in another document from Mbulu (Meindertsma et al, 1997:23),it was clearly stated that ”In actual practice, no worked out plans are made;only project ideas are formulated. Often the councillors themselves come upwith ideas, with little involvement of villagers or their representatives”(emphasis added).

These statements from Mbulu were selected because it was the town studiedby the team and access to documents was easier. However, the point aboutthe lack of a true democratic link (for example, between the Mtaa or theVitongoji and the Council) was also emphasized by Councillor Peter Siy-ovelwa (who is Chairman of Iringa District Council and also Chairman ofthe Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania) during a discussion inIringa town in January, 2002. Councillor Siyovelwa was quite candid andopen about the LGRP. He felt that there are too many vested interests in fa-vour of maintaining the status quo, in other words, by delaying and even de-railing the smooth introduction of the reforms. He felt that resistance to thereforms extended to the top ecelons of government, including some ministerswho are afraid of losing their powers. However, he stressed the point thatPresident Mkapa is committed to the success of the reforms. More generally,he felt that councillors espoused the benefits of democracy and listened to

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the electorate only at election time (i.e. every five years). Apart from this,many councillors supported activities which would produce benefits forthemselves, or their associates. Of course, an important sanction against cor-rupt councillors was the fact that they would not be re-elected.

Peter Siyovelwa spoke about his own experiences of being a councillor witha rural constituency to represent. He expressed the view that ”rural peopleare more concerned about issues surrounding their own development thanare urban people”. Of course, this may be because problems confronting ru-ral people (difficult access to potable water, educational and health facilities,to mention a few) are of a totally different magnitude than those facing urbandwellers.

For the LGRP to have any chance of success the integrity and honesty ofcouncillors must be a sine qua non and efforts should be made to guaranteethat councillors follow the legislated Public Leadership Code of Ethics. Wit-hout this, successful people-centred development will not occur. After all,councillors should represent the ears and the voice of the people. In this con-nection, Councillor Siyovelwa recalled an incident concerning a differenceof opinion between his views and those of his rural constituents over deve-lopment priorities. A team from the World Bank was visiting the ward whichSiyovelwa represents to investigate and evaluate the damage caused by theEl Niño rains in 1998. Siyovelwa automatically assumed that renovating thedamaged water dam would be the priority on the ward’s development agen-da. However, when his proposal was put to the people for their approval,they rejected the idea and voted instead for the installation of a number ofindividual water wells. Not surprisingly, Councillor Peter Siyovelwa re-spected the will of his constituents in this decision.

However, corrupt councillors in a similar situation may disregard or overridethe wishes of the majority. While there is a disciplinary committee for localgovernment councillors which operates through the Regional Secretariats(Regional Consultative Committee) little is known concerning how it opera-tes and the scope of its activities. However, as a result of discussions with anumber of individuals in local government and in academia the issue of cor-ruption of councillors was a concern. A related issue concerns the incompe-tence of some councillors. It is a relatively easy matter to stand for localelections in Tanzania and (with the exception of being obliged to be a mem-ber of a political party and sponsored by a political party at election time) thesame kind of criteria that apply in Europe generally apply in Tanzania. Ulti-mately, an incompetent councillor faces the same kind of sanction as a cor-rupt one: non re-election. More covert sanctions may also apply. There ap-

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pears to be a system of checks-and-balances which operates at the district le-vel which might have some beneficial effects in controlling the abuse of po-wer by councillors. The position of District Executive Director is formalisedthrough a legalised code of conduct. In other words, the DEDs and UrbanDirectors are governed by the law. This would mean, for example, that du-ring council meetings these officials would be in a position to make sure thatcouncils (and especially council chairpersons) act according to the law.

Recently the Tanzanian press has had a number of reports concerning theabuse of power by sub-district officials, as well as comments by the PrimeMinister, Frederick Sumaye, concerning conflicts between councillors andlocal government officials. Mr Sumaye, who was addressing members of theAssociation of Local Authorities of Tanzania (ALAT), said ”it was uselessto have councils that fail to meet the people’s aspirations” and added that itwas ”intolerable to have people who have been given power to lead the pe-ople then fail to undertake such responsibility”. In particular, he criticisedthe conflicts in LGAs between ward councillors and executive directors. Onthe one hand, he castigated some councillors ”who do not even understandtheir job descriptions and responsibilities”, while on the other he criticisedDEDs for executing their duties ”without regard to governing laws, princip-les and regulations”. Sumaye also complained about ward councillors inter-fering in affairs, which were the responsibility of the DEDs. The Prime Mi-nister concluded by saying that conflicts between the two sides should stop.But if this were to happen it would not necessarily mean the end of ”real”conflict; it could mean that the system of checks-and-balances mentionedabove would not be operating in the best manner to provide appropriatewatchdog functions (Daily News, 28.11.01).

Three events closer to the grassroots are worth mentioning.

• Residents in Makuyuni Ward (Tanga Region) were reported to have re-quested the Korogwe Municipal Council Executive Director to removetheir Ward Executive Officer because they consider him ”an impedimentto their development” and that he has used ”his powers corruptly turninghimself into an enemy of the people and development” (The Guardian,21.1.02).

• In Manyoni District Council (Singida Region) ward executives (pre-sumably this refers to village executive officers) in eleven villages havebeen dismissed from their jobs ”due to failure to supervise developmentprojects properly”. According to the DED the council would not”hesitate to take stern measures” against any village executives whofailed to perform their duties effectively (The Guardian, 5.1.02).

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• The District Executive Director of Geita District Council (Mwanza Re-gion) is reported to have dismissed a Ward Executive Officer and twoother officials (probably village executive officers) for failing to meetrevenue collection targets (The Guardian, 6.2.02).

What these press reports may reflect is an attempt by the government to givea greater profile and credence to the LGRP and to demonstrate its serious-ness in promoting real democratic change in local government, as well aspunishing officials guilty of misconduct or dereliction of duties.

2.5 Further challenges to the smooth implementation ofthe local government reform

Financial constraintsIt is argued that for local governments to be independent and responsive tothe needs of civil society they should have a large degree of financial auto-nomy from the central government by having the ability to raise their ownrevenues. However, municipal governments are often weak because they eit-her generate insufficient local revenues through property taxes and so on, orbecause central governments have reduced their funding because of budgeta-ry constraints, or for political reasons.

This is the case in Tanzania. In 1972 when local administration became theresponsibility of central government strong regional centres were establis-hed. Central government took full responsibility for the implementation ofpolicies, and the central government gradually put greater demands on localauthorities for the provision of services. Consequently it had to assume moreand more of the financing of local government activities as the collection oflocal taxes declined (Eriksen et al, 1999). Invariably, the quality of servicesdeteriorated. Local governments were given most of the formal responsib i-lity for service delivery. Due to constrained municipal budgets this led to asevere ”crisis of maintenance” and to the deterioration in the quality of ser-vices.

In order to address the problem of underfunding of the LGAs one goal of thelocal government reform is to increase the resources available to local autho-rities and improve the efficiency in their use. According to Kabagire (2000)a major change with the reform is in the area of finance. With the reform lo-cal authorities will have more autonomy in planning and budgeting.LGAs have two sources of revenue:

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• Grants from the Central GovernmentOne source of revenue for the LGAs are transfers from the central govern-ment. According to Mallya (2000) about 80 % of the funds for the currentexpenditure of LGAs are transfers from the central government, while theremaining part is funded from LGA sources. Naturally, grants from the cen-tral government are dependent on the ability of the central government topay. The implication is that in the event of central government experiencingbudgetary constraints LGAs be concomitantly affected, thus jeopardizingtheir autonomy.

Realising these weaknesses the government amended the Local GovernmentFinances Act no 9 of 1982 to allow for conditional and unconditional blockgrants to LGAs. Conditional grants are sector specific and earmarked foreducation, health, roads, water and agricultural services. By contrast, uncon-ditional grants are not sector specific and are for natural resource manage-ment, trade, co-operatives, lands and community development. The purposeis to ensure allocation of funds in accordance to the LGAs priorities. LGAswith proven poor resource bases are secured by the provision of an equalisa-tion grant. However, this is yet to be enforced.

• Direct local taxesAnother source of revenue for LGAs are through direct local taxes includingthe development levy, property taxes, crops and animal cess, business licen-ces, market dues etc. The general performance in revenue collection has notbeen encouraging and according to Mallya (2000) there has always been amismatch between estimates and actual collection. A number of reasons canbe attributed to this mismatch. In the first place, estimates are put at levelswhich can not be achieved. Related to this is lack of current and reliable dataof tax sources (for example, the number of taxable cattle a household owns).The capacity to prepare realistic estimates and institute cost-effective collec-tion strategies does not exist in most LGAs. Further, an analysis of variousnew revenue sources and plans for their collection are rarely done. Consequ-ently, misleading information about revenue collection performance is nor-mal.

Due to the above weaknesses, the LGRP aims at improving estimates of re-venues, as well as collection procedures. Efforts are being made by the go-vernment to address the problems. Some concrete efforts include division offunctions and resources between the central and local governments. For ex-ample, in 1999 a decision was made that land rent and hunting fees shouldgo to those LGAs in whose areas they are collected. Other new sources ofrevenue (such as the service levy, medical registration fees and plying fees

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of commuter buses operating in urban areas) were also given to LGAs. Theaim was to ensure that LGAs obtained resources commensurate with theirexpenditures.

However, according to Sola (2001) the current situation is not promising asrevenue collection methods are poor and not cost effective. It is even statedthat in some cases the collection costs equal the amount that is collected !Lack of reliable data concerning taxpayers, as well as sources of revenue al-low for tax evasion on the part of taxpayers, and cheating on the part of taxcollectors. Moreover, serious efforts have never been made by LGAs to sen-sitise people about the importance of paying taxes. Instead threats and occa-sionally force are used, thus making direct local taxes unpopular. In addition,LGAs lack a culture of openess in terms of information and reporting me-chanisms. Consequently, taxpayers receive no feedback either through theirrepresentatives or through other formal channels about how their money isbeing spent. The upshot of this is the prevalence of mistrust and lack ofaccountability between the LGAs and taxpayers.

As a general rule, LGAs use government grants for purposes for which theywere allocated. However, in some cases money supposed to pay salaries isused to meet other administrative costs. Consequently, delays in paying sala-ries or non-remittance of deductions such as insurance are common (Sola,2001). It is further stated that there is a deliberate misuse of scarce financialresources. LGAs spend taxpayer’s money to meet political obligations (forinstance, financing ruling party meetings, supporting the running of the DCsoffice, or paying councillors extra money for extended council meetingsthrough lucrative sitting and per diem allowances). On occasions when thereare visits by national leaders council money is used to facilitate the visits. Inone case, a district executive director was directed by the RC to releasefunds in order for vehicles in his office to be tanked with fuel. When theDED refused he was reprimanded (Sola, 2001).

Given the above, it is not surprising that there is a general lack of trust in lo-cal politicians and the local government system as a whole. Eriksen et al(1999) state that in Tanzania, with all the different local government systemssince independence, there have been problems relating to the same issues:lack of responsiveness towards the local community and complaints aboutcorruption regarding how money is being spent (Eriksen et al, 1999). There-fore, one of the major challenges to the local government reform is how togain people’s trust regarding how their money is being spent.

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In the context of Tanzanian, the issues surrounding the payment of taxes ha-ve been difficult. But the problem of tax collection is not new. Eriksen et al(1999) argue that ever since independence there has been scepticism regar-ding how local taxes are used. There is a lack of trust in the government u-sing taxpayer’s money in the right way and indeed there is suspicion due theproblem of fraud (Lange et al, 2000). Another problem mentioned above isthat local governments often do not get sufficient funds from central go-vernment, because of budgetary constraints. The result is that with a stret-ched local budget tax money is often used to cover administrative budget de-ficits (Mallya, 2000). Not unnaturally, this contributes to scepticism towardslocal governments. There is a much greater need for focussing on strategieswhich clearly demonstrate how taxes result in increased municipal servicedelivery so that taxpayers realise that their contributions makes a differenceto the quality of their lives.

If general trust in the new local government system can be accomplished thereform provides the LGAs with much autonomy and possibilities for plan-ning and budgeting according to local needs. The emphasis on ParticipatoryPlanning and Budgeting aims at ensuring that people at the local level get theopportunity to participate in identifying problems, listing priorities andlooking for solutions. The reform gives LGAs many choices regarding howsome of the block grants can be spent. If general trust is achieved and taxcollection is improved upon, the reforms will mean that people’s needs andaspirations can be met at the local level. Consequently, Sola (2001) arguesthat the LGAs may be in a position to meet the expected goals and objectivesof the reforms. However, this depends on a clear division of tasks betweencentral and local government structures, strong human, material and financ i-al capacities, limited political dominance and committed involvement bynon-state actors in civil society.

Overambitious time schedules and inadequate sequencingThe timing and sequencing of the LGRP appears to be overly ambitious.Altogether, 114 LGAs in Tanzania are to be reformed over a five-year period(Figure 2). The 114 LGAs are to be reformed in three phases of 38 authorit i-es each. To date, progress has not met expectations.

The introduction of the reforms at the local level started with the establish-ment of the Zonal Reform Teams (ZRT). Each ZRT had responsibility forabout one-fifth of the Phase 1 reform councils (i.e. between 7 to 8 authorit i-es). These teams are comprised of experts in finance, human resource deve-lopment and local government and are to support the councils during the re-form programme. LGAs are also assisted by a restructuring manual (URT,

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Restructuring Manual: A Strategic Approach to Reform by Local Authoriti-es, 2000) to help guide the reform process.

Figure 2. Proposed time sequencing for the three phases of the Local Govern-ment Reform Programme

PHASE TIME FRAMEPreparation for Phase 1 January-December 1999Mobilization Phase 1 July-December 1999Implementation Phase 1 January 2000-December 2001Mobilization for Phase 11 July-December 2000Evaluation of Phase 1 January-April 2001Implementation of Phase 11 January 2001-December 2002Mobilization of Phase 111 October-December 2001Implementation of Phase 111 January 2002-December 2003Consolidation of the Reform January-December 2004

Source: V.B. Mlingi, ”The main features of the Local Government Reform Programme”, no date and nolocation: mimeo.

Each LGA has responsibility for initiating and sustaining its own restructu-ring process within the framework of the national reform programme.According to the restructuring manual, the restructuring process has 17steps, which are interlinked. The first step is the establishment of a CouncilReform Team (CRT) which is supposed to spearhead the reform process andmanage the restructuring activities (see below for a brief discussion of theCRT). Progress with the other restructuring steps is severely behindschedule. Most councils in Phase 1 had only completed step 5 by December2001 – the deadline for the projected implementation stage in Phase 1!

Moreover, there appears to be a lack of adequate sensitisation and thereforelack of ownership of the restructuring process by the individual LGAs. Mo-reover, the composition of the CRTs apparently has some basic shortco-mings. For instance, to what extent do these teams represent the key stake-holders - including representatives of civil society? According to Sola(2001), in many councils heads of departments and councillors account for90 per cent of the CRT members. Further, as a concrete illustration he men-tions the composition of the CRT in the Morogoro Municipal Council where,with the exception of a total of three academics from the Sokoine Universityof Agriculture (SUA) and the Institute of Development Management (IDM),all other ”stakeholders” are represented by councillors and local authoritystaff !

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Towards gender equality: the missing component ?The representation of women in many aspects of formally organised life inTanzania is still very low. Local customs, which often work against genderequality, are also very strong. For example, among certain ethnic groups incontemporary Tanzania, the inheritance of widows by male kin to the decea-sed is still practiced, while among other groups the forced possession of fa-mily property and goods from the wife by the husband’s relatives on the de-ath of the husband is also a recognised tradition.

Much lip service is paid to the idea of promoting gender equality in Tanza-nia, but a great deal needs to be done before this is more than a mere vision.However, in the context of political life successive governments have at-tempted to enhance the position of women largely through a quota system ofpreferential or reserved seats in parliament. Moreover, as has been shownabove in this presentation, attempts are made to include women in the deci-sion-making and democratic processes in local government, but more needsto be done to make the representation of women more tangible.

It would be misleading to imply that women are totally excluded from en-joying political power and status. Some women achieve the rank of cabinetministers. In local government some women do become influential at the re-gional level as regional commissioners and similarly at the district level asdistrict commissioners or as district executive directors. Councillor PeterSiyovelwa (Chairman of the Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania)certainly believes that women are an important resource: he believes for ex-ample that ”women councillors make good chairpersons, in fact, better thanmen”. The District Planning Officer in Mbulu believes that an importantfactor behind the low representation of women locally are the constraints in-herent in Iraqw customs and tradition, and the fact that there are no fora forwomen to discuss their problems. This could be a task for NGOs to take on.

In the NGO sector women are quite well represented; in fact most of thesuccessful urban- based NGOs are run by women. However at the local levelwomen are not very well represented in formal structures whether it is in lo-cal government or in a civil society organisation. They are, however, verymuch present in the informal networks in their locality, although not mucheffort has been put into understanding and incorporating these in the reform.In the next section we will come back to this important issue.

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3 Local government reform and civil society atthe local level

In the reform programme it is argued that local government and civil societyare stakeholders in the development process. For a collaboration to be fruit-ful there is a need to build mutual trust and reach some kind of agreementregarding their common existence. Historically, the relationship between thegovernment and civil society has been characterised by the efforts of thestate to create political hegemony. With democratisation in process the stateloses control over civil society.

However, over the last few decades there has been a tremendous growth inNGOs and CBOs in Tanzania. Civil society has been recognised by the go-vernment, and plays a role in both service delivery and development of de-mocracy. The government see that there is a need for co-operation betweenthe two, and in the local government reform civil society has been granted arole in order to contribute to a positive development of the country.

According to Lange et al (2000) there is a tendency to see civil society asnormatively and inherently good. This is based on some perceived characte-ristics of civil society. Civil society provides an arena for people to engagein activities they perceive as important and it provides a space for discussionof critical issues that are of concern to people, thereby linking them togetherand creating shared values. These arenas may take many forms. However,there is a tendency to focus upon organisational life as the focal point of anystrong civil society.

This is also the case when we go through the local government reformdocuments. Civil society has been granted a role in the reform process, but itis quite clear civil society refers to organised and formal activities. The defi-nitions do not include the more informal networks and the like that peopledepend on in their locality. Consequently, in this section we are focussing onaspects of more loosely organised civil societies vis-à-vis local government.

3.1 Local government reform and the stated role of civilsociety

In the LGRA 1996-2000 a summary of the key actors and their envisagedroles in the programme implementation is provided. In the reform process ithas been stressed that one of the roles of the LGAs is to facilitate participati-on of people in planning and executing their development programmes. This

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means establishing contact and co-operation between the actors. Hence, oneof the roles of local government is to establish and ensure a real partnershipwith civil society.

To achieve this, two documents; the National Participatory District Planningand Budgeting (first draft February 2001) and the National Framework onGood Governance (1999) are now in place. These documents are probablymeant to supplement the restructuring manual. In addition to the NationalFramework on Good Governance, the Local Government Restructuring Ma-nual provides guidance on how civil society organisations should be main-streamed into the reform process. The same applies to the Regional Secreta-riats Planning and Management Guide (2000), which outlines the planningprocess from the LGAs to regional level.

In the framework on National Participatory District Planning and Budgetingthere are general principles to be followed regarding participation. These in-clude consultation, transparency and accountability, facilitation and em-powerment. At the district/town levels participatory planning and budgetingis supposed to be instituted at all three levels i.e. village/mtaa, ward and dis-trict/town. The document is very comprehensive listing the stakeholders: e.g.the community (electorate), councillors, staff, political party leaders, donors,NGOs, CBOs, other civil society groups and the private sector.

In the National Framework on Good Governance civil society organisationsare defined as trade unions, NGOs, CBOs, religious entities, charities, clubs,co-operatives, cultural groups, sport associations, special interest groups,professional associations, academic and research institutions and media or-ganisations. Given this broad-based definition it can be noted that the con-cept touches on almost all categories of people, including their social and e-conomic activities.

In addition to clarifying the concept of civil society, the National Frameworkon Good Governance acknowledges civil society organisations as constitu-ting a strong instrument for the effective participation and involvement ofpeople in decision making, as well as in social, political and economic de-velopment activities. The National Framework on Good Governance outlinesthe link between civil society, the private sector, local government and cen-tral government. Good governance is defined as “the exercise of officialpowers in the management of a country’s resources in an effort to increaseand utilise such resources for the betterment of life”.

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The National Framework on Good Governance emphasises the fact thatwhere there is a strong civil society there will be greater participation of pe-ople in decision making. It also suggests that the role of the people in socio-political and economic activities is stronger. Service delivery will be betterand leaders will have to be accountable to the people. It is stated that eachLGA will review its structure and functions in order to ensure that it reflectsthe needs and conditions in the area. This will be a drastic departure from thepresent structure whereby there are uniform structures and functions for alllocal authorities. The consequence of this is that each LGA may have a dif-ferent system for service provision depending on participation from civil so-ciety. However, one central question is what if civil society is weak to startwith - is it still expected to be creative and develop together with the com-munity at large? According to Lange et al (2000) it is likely that such a sy-stem will result in great differences according to region, since civil societyorganisations are so unevenly distributed around the country (Lange et al,2000). It is argued that an equalisation grant for disadvantaged areas will ta-ke care of such concerns (Kabagire, 2000). However, the anticipated impactof such a grant system is completely unknown as it has not yet been enforcedand put into practice.

It is worth while noting the good intentions of the government. According toNgware (2000) the government’s adoption of the local government agenda istestimony to the fact that Tanzania is firmly committed to reform the localgovernment system and focus on devolution of power and resources to thegrassroots. The intention of the LGRP is to ensure participation from the va-rious stakeholders in bringing about local development. According to Sola(2001) the government realises that civil society organisations have capacityweaknesses in areas of problem analysis, advocacy, and outreach, networ-king management, accountability and responsiveness. LGAs are thereforeexpected to foster partnership with various groups of civil society and theprivate sector. This is believed to ensure that people get the quality servicesthey desire. In this regard, if measures are taken to strengthen the institutionsof civil society and access to information is improved then there are clearchances of ensuring stronger links and partnerships between the institutionsof civil society and the local government. If the implementation is taken se-riously and LGAs commit themselves things are bound to change for thebetter. This all looks good on paper, but as mentioned earlier, the changesare many and drastic, and the situation on the ground is difficult to assess atthe moment.

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3.2 Civil Society in Tanzania – a brief overviewMuch has been written about civil society in Tanzania (see, for example,Lange et al, 2000, Kiondo, 1993, 1995, Tripp, 1992, 2000). In this report wewill focus briefly on some selected aspects. According to Sola (2001) thereare two categories of civil society organisations in Tanzania: those inspiredby the donor community during the 1980s and 1990s and those which aroseinformally as a response to unmet needs.

The first category comprises organisations that have arisen as a result of theworld-wide socio-political and economic changes that started in the 1980’s.The redefined role of the state to draw back its boundaries gained momen-tum and the emerging new public administrations have witnessed a tremen-dous increase in more Western-like civil society organisations. As in manyother African countries Tanzania has not been left behind. According to Sola(2001) quite a number were formed by retired government officials, retren-chees, or even serving public servants. These organised themselves to formNGOs because there was an opportunity to earn a living or to supplementmeagre government salaries. A majority of the organisations are urban basedand there is a tendency for many of these NGOs to focus their work in sec-tors or areas where the donor community has a significant interest. Accor-ding to Lange et al. (2000) many NGOs in Tanzania are within the fields ofhealth and the environment. Sola argues that NGOs and other civil societyorganisations operating in these sectors have grown considerably due to theinflux of foreign aid into these areas.

Lange et al (2000) classify civil society organisations into two groups: Or-ganisations active in social service delivery, including district developmenttrusts and religious organisations and interest organisations, including com-munity development activity, organisations working for the rights of theirmembers and elite-based organisations working for others. All these are apart of the more formal and organised part of civil society. These organisati-ons are regarded as stakeholders in the reform process.

As mentioned earlier, the National Framework on Good Governance definescivil society organisations as trade unions, NGOs, CBOs, religious entities,charities, clubs, co-operatives, cultural groups, sport associations, specialinterest groups, professional associations, academic and research institutionsand media organisations. The National Framework on Good Governancefocuses on the organised and formalised part of civil society. However, thisdefinition excludes a whole range of more informal and loose networks,which are extremely significant for many people. For example, Lange et al(2000) also state that the great majority of Tanzanians do not belong to for-

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mal organisations. It is therefore suggested that one should look beyondWestern-style organisational life and understand the local forms of associati-ons.

As stated earlier the most natural organisational forms to be associated withcivil society are voluntary associations. Tostensen et al (2001) state that va-rious typologies on civil society and associational life do not capture the realdimensions of associational life in various cultural contexts. This critiquewill then also hold for the Tanzanian definition of civil society. The defin i-tion covers important dimensions of civil society, but does not capture therange of loosely organised networks, which are very important for the survi-val of the poor.

As Wolfe (1989 in Ahrne, 1998) states there are other forms of interactionthat are seen as natural elements of civil societies like friendship networksand spontaneous groups. Rosanvallon (1988 in Ahrne, 1998) also mentionsneighbourhood groups, and Alberto Melucci talks about new social move-ments as “networks submerged in everyday life” (1988:205 in Ahrne, 1998).Gullestad (1999) argues along these lines when she sees civil society as eve-ryday practices, conceptions, values and informal rules. Such networks arecharacterised by a low degree of formalisation even though they do consti-tute organised activity. They are flexible, can even be dormant and only ac-tive in times of need, or they can operate permanently (Tostensen et al,2001). According to Swantz (1998) they are crucial to incorporate and un-derstand, given the importance of such networks for women.

Sola (2001) argues that in Tanzania such networks have a long history andhave been in existence even since before independence. These exist infor-mally and their areas of operation are local. Such networks are still limited tosmall geographical areas like a village, a ward or a division.Sola further states that members of these networks are united by a commonculture or by being engaged in common economic activities. What characte-rises this category of civil society organisations are:

• They are voluntarily formed and have voluntary participation;• They are local and informal;

• They are independent in the sense of being controlled by those whoformed them;

• They are non-profit making organisations;

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• They are not self-serving since they exist in order to act in response toconcerns and issues affecting the well-being and circumstances of mem-bers.

It is a paradox that more formal organisations are more visible than informalones. Even in the local government reform programme, where participationat the local level is emphasised, this is no exception. In fact, the latter cate-gory of organisations is not emphasised in the reform at all. In the next secti-on we will focus on more semi-formal associations that easily could changeinto more formal associations and thus could easily be included in the reformprocess. This section relies heavily on PRIDE’s experiences in the field andalso on how PRIDE sees the potential for these associations. According toPRIDE, these semi-formal associations occupy an intermediate positionbetween formal and informal associations, which means that if they wereslightly modified and adapted to more formal structures, they would be sui-table for incorporation in the reform process.

3.3 Traditional Socio-economic Associations at the LocalLevel

Traditional socio-economic associations may be regarded as part of civil so-ciety. According to Obama (2001) socio-economic associations are associa-tions which consist of a group of people who have in common a desire tofulfil some socio-economic goals. Traditional associations are distinguishedfrom other associations due to the way they are formed and structured. Tra-ditional associations are thus usually very informal in character as opposedto other forms of associations, which are usually registered formally and aremanaged by an educated elite. Traditional associations often consist of just afew members - normally less than twenty. Their charter and modus operandimay not be documented although they have membership and leadershipstructures. In the 1960s similar groups driven by a “self-help” spirit existedin many parts of rural Tanzania. Typical of these groups were “project-type”associations formed for purposes of carrying out specific projects such asconstruction or rehabilitation of infrastructure including roads, irrigation andgrain storage facilities. According to Obama (2001) this “self-help” spiritdied, following government intervention in the social and economic sphereswhich was dominant in the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

The government took the centre stage in economic and social developmentthrough job creation, provision of basic amenities such as medical care andeducation with a view to raising the standard of living of the people. Thisgovernment intervention worked fairly well until the mid-1980s when thegovernment ran out of resources to continue with this enormous project. The

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liberalisation of the economy became inevitable and was seen as the panaceato resuscitate the development process in the late-1980s. Economic liberali-sation was followed by political democratisation from the early 1990s, a de-velopment that has brought about openness, and which is a prerequisite fordemocratic representation in the socio-economic development process, aswell as for a flourishing civil society. According to Obama (2001) there hasbeen a re-emergence of traditional associations in recent years, and this canbe seen as an attempt by the grassroots to address their social and economicproblems.

Formation of Traditional Socio-Economic AssociationsThe formation of traditional socio-economic associations takes place infor-mally in most cases, and the process is accomplished when a small group ofindividuals come together with a view to engage in some form of self-helpactivity of a social or economic nature. The associations have diverse missi-ons depending on their focus. According to Obama (2001) traditional socio-economic associations can be divided into three broad categories.

• Associations driven by social motives;

• Associations driven by economic motives;

• Associations driven by a mixture of both social and economic motives.

Obama (2001) states that of socially-driven traditional associations many arefound in urban centres and are formed along ethnic lines for purposes of rai-sing funds to meet specific welfare needs of members, including children’seducation, marriage and other needs. In many cases however, the groups rai-se funds to cater for emergencies, the most common of which are funerals. Inmany parts of Africa, funerals have become an expensive affair to the extentthat the costs involved are beyond reach of a single family. The bulk of fune-ral-related expenses in Africa are mainly attributed to pre- and post-burialfeasts and transportation of the body. Relatives of the deceased attach greatrespect to the dead throughout the continent, including Tanzania. This is dueto the power of traditional beliefs, which associate spirits of the dead withsome supernatural powers that govern the daily lives of the relatives of thedead. Thus most African people believe that showing disrespect to the deadcan have serious consequences for the relatives of the deceased and hencethe obligation to spend as much as possible in performing funeral rites in ho-nour of the dead.

It is important to note that it is customary for most Africans to bury theirdead at the respective home villages. In cases where home villages are dis-

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tant, transport costs account for the bulk of funeral expenses, which can beas high as US $ 1,500. This amount is too high for low-income people in po-or countries like Tanzania with per capita income of less than US $ 250(Bank of Tanzania, 31st March 2001). This explains why in other countriessuch as South Africa funeral insurance schemes have become popular amonglow-income households. In countries like Tanzania where no such schemesexist, socially-driven traditional associations have become a substitute forinsurance schemes.

On the other hand, economically driven traditional associations are formedfor purposes of fulfilling an economic mission. Members of such associati-ons therefore group together to undertake economic activities and hence en-sure a living. These associations cut across various economic sectors such asagriculture, fishing, trading, mining, manufacturing, finance and manyothers. There are many examples of economically -driven traditional associ-ations, particularly among women, in many areas including:

• Garment manufacturing including weaving, boutique, tie and die andtailoring;

• Food processing and catering;

• Woodworking including woodcarvings and furniture making;• Hair dressing;

• Pottery and other handicrafts.

There are also traditional associations with both social and economic moti-ves. It is sometimes difficult to demarcate associations that focus on onlyone motive with those that pursue both. This is because at times the motivestend to overlap. A socially-driven association, which was formed for purpo-ses of raising funds for funerals, might extend its mandate to include econo-mic activities in order to boost its financial resources.

Importance of the Informal SectorThe link between traditional socio-economic associations and the informalsector is so strong that it is virtually impossible to distinguish one fromanother. It would be fair in this case to consider traditional socio-economicassociations as a subset of the informal sector. The informal sector consistsof low-income individuals and groups involved in economic activities foreither survival or accumulation for growth. The survival type of activity issometimes classified as income-generating activities, as opposed to micro-and small-scale entrepreneurs who strive for growth. However, these dis-

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tinctions are often unclear and graduation from survival activities to accu-mulation activities is not uncommon.The informal sector is the largest and fastest growing part of the privatesector in low-income countries, including Tanzania. Available statistics (In-formal Sector Survey, URT 1993) show that total employment in informalsector enterprises is estimated at three million and that the sector is growingat the rate of 4% per annum. Further, the informal sector is estimated to ge-nerate around 120,000 new jobs per day in developing countries, in additionto contributing over 30% of the total official economy’s wages and profits.These statistics show that the contribution of the informal sector to the eco-nomy in developing countries, including Tanzania, has become extremelysignificant.

Financial-based traditional associationsThe following discussion is confined to financial-based traditional associati-ons operating in Tanzania. Examples of financial-based traditional associati-ons include, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), savings andcredit associations (SACAs), Benki Kata (Ward-based banks) and SKUVI.All of these forms of associations are grassroots based, but each has a dis-tinct structure. A brief description of each of the associations is given below.

Rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCA) comprise a group of pe-ople, mostly women, who establish a rotating fund where each member con-tributes a predetermined small, but equal, amount of money to the fund peri-odically, say weekly or monthly. The group then issues interest free loansfrom this fund to individual members in turn. In so doing each individualmember at some point in time gets access to a larger amount of money thanhe/she would have been able to raise alone. The group members, throughsome criteria determine the order of fund disbursement. The criteria mightinclude lot casting or the urgency with which individual members wouldwant to access the fund in order to fulfil a need. The groups have elected le-aders who coordinate the process. Experience has shown that ROSCAs arequite fragile and prone to frequent disintegration whenever there are signs ofmistrust among the members. In most break-ups members would either formor join new groups. Thus a ROSCA would continue to operate for as long asthe group members maintain mutual trust.

Savings and Credit Associations (SACAs) resemble ROSCAs in a way butdiffer in the sense that they have much more formalised structures and theycharge interest on loans given to members. However, SACAs do not disbur-se funds in turn. Instead group members decide on the rules for loan disbur-sement. Individual members may put in as much as they can afford into the

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fund. SACAs are not very popular because of the complexities involved inboth the formation and fund management

Both ROSCA and SACA associations have had difficulties in linking upwith more formal governmental structures. An example of how local go-vernment has been co-operating or facilitating for this part of civil society isthe Benki Kata associations. These associations emerged in 1998/1999 inMbeya Region (in southern Tanzania) as a poverty eradication strategy init i-ated by the government authorities.

Mr. Basil Mramba, the then Regional Commissioner for Mbeya (currentlythe Minister for Finance), was instrumental in pioneering the initiative forthe formation of the Benki Kata . The term Benki Kata literally means a bankfor the ward. The idea was to encourage the grassroots within each ward tohave a local fund facility similar to a mini-bank, which would allow mem-bers to save and borrow money. According to Obama (2001) this startedwith the central government’s directive to local government authorities toallocate at least 10% of their revenues every year for poverty alleviationprogrammes. Benki Kata was then conceived as a mechanism to manage thepoverty alleviation funds within Mbeya region. Mr. Mramba’s initiatives in-volved the sensitisation of the grassroots in the region to form ward-basedunits known as Benki Kata .

To ensure continuity, the LGAs (municipal and district councils) in Mbeya,through the Departments of Community Development and Co-operatives,were given the responsibility to start up and nurture the Benki Kata in eachward through technical assistance and training on fund administration. ABenki Kata consists of self-selecting groups of five, which are combined intoa larger group of at least ten smaller groups. Each group of five elects achairperson, a secretary and a treasurer. The larger group elects the overallchairperson, secretary, loan official, treasurer and committee members. Theelected officials assume overall responsibility to run the Benki Kata underthe guidance of the local government authorities.

Apart from technical assistance, the local government provides loan funds toBenki Kata for all loan applications approved by the Benki Kata officials andendorsed by officials of the local government authority. The local govern-ment authority charges an interest on such loans of 15%–20% per annum.The borrower pays an interest of 20%–25% per annum to the Benki Kata,thus the difference between the rates accrues as income to the Bank. Loaninstalments are made on a weekly basis at the group meeting. The BenkiKata treasurer remits to the local authority weekly instalment collections

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minus interest accruing to Benki Kata . The main sources of funds from thelocal authorities that are channelled to Benki Kata include the governmentsponsored youth fund and special fund for women and children. Othersources include fund from the Small Industries Development Organisation(SIDO), an organisation formed by the government for the purpose of pro-moting the development of small-scale industries, which also provides bus i-ness training to members of Benki Kata . Inspite of the support from theabove-mentioned government agencies, Benki Kata do not seem to be faringwell as most have been suffering from poor management and low loan reco-very rates.

Another attempt that links civil society to a private initiative is the SKUVIassociation. SKUVI is an acronym for a Swahili term “Shujaa wa KupigaVita Umaskini” literally meaning “a hero in the fight against poverty”. Thisassociation was pioneered and funded by a prominent Tanzanian business-man Mr. Reginald Mengi of IPP Limited in the mid-1990s. SKUVI groupsoperate in Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Moshi. The idea was to set up a grouprevolving fund, which could be accessed by group members to finance theireconomic undertakings. Mr. Mengi who donated nearly US $ 200,000 asinitial start-up capital, sensitised unemployed youths in these three locationsto form groups under the name of SKUVI, which would later receive fundsfor investment in income-generation activities. It is interesting to note thatthe scheme gained momentum at its inception in 1996 but ran into problemsas soon as the first disbursement was made. The current status of SKUVI iscompletely unknown.

All these, however, had problems of funds and there is very little evidence oflinkages between financial based traditional socio-economic associations andinstitutions that provide funding, such as banks. There is however, a uniquecase that can be cited in this regard and that is a linkage that exists betweenthe Tanga LGAs and the POVERTY AFRICA credit shop based in Tanga.POVERTY AFRICA is one of the development-oriented NGOs in Tanzania,which seeks to organise and co-ordinate the grassroots to enable them toidentify and undertake development activities within their locations. Mem-bers of the local group within a centre are self-selecting with elected lea-dership. Thus, although POVERTY AFRICA is seen as an apex organisati-on, its role is simply to set up internal regulations to facilitate group activit i-es and to monitor progress. Each group decides on the priority for develop-ment projects, raises funds and implements the projects under the local lea-dership. The projects would normally include establishment of a fund mana-ged through credit shops. Group members can save and borrow from thisfund under rules that have been established by the apex organisation.

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POVERTY AFRICA has established credit shops in Dar es Salaam, Tanga,Moshi, Arusha and Dodoma. The credit shops have however been experien-cing serious problems related to mismanagement, which are threatening theexistence of a number of credit shop associations under POVERTY AFRI-CA. In 1997 the Tanga municipal authorities entered into an agreement withthe Tanga-based POVERTY AFRICA credit shop in which the municipalauthority gave a loan of TShs. 10.0 million to the credit shop for further len-ding to urban- and rural-based micro and small entrepreneurs. The decisionby the municipal authority to grant the loan is another example of a strategyto implement the central government’s directive to local authorities to allo-cate at least 10% of their total revenues to poverty eradication initiatives.The Tanga municipality further disbursed an additional loan of TShs. 5.0million to the credit shop in 1998 for the same purpose. The loan has an in-terest rate of 5% p.a. However, it has been established that the Tanga muni-cipal authorities are far from satisfied with the credit shop’s loan recoveryperformance and have since stopped further loan disbursements to the creditshop.

Strengths and weaknesses in these associationsPRIDE has great experience in the field of providing micro-credit to smallgroups of low-income people and consequently has been in a position toidentify strengths and weaknesses of these traditional associations. Accor-ding to PRIDE it is the strengths that attract individuals to the idea of co-ming together in groups since they see it more fruitful to form groups thanremain as individuals. Traditional socio-economic associations are not anexception in this case. Some of the most obvious strengths and weaknessesfor these associations are briefly discussed below.

• Traditional associations have the potential to stimulate or facilitate thedevelopment process because they can be good vehicles for the promoti-on of economic growth and job creation in poor countries if they are wellmanaged and adequately financed. It is also easier, more convenient andmore economical to plan for interventions such as provision of basicamenities and infrastructure for a group of people rather than for an in-dividual. Most of the donor agencies have a policy of funding projectsthat have an impact on a group of people or the public at large. They donot finance projects that are run by individuals. Thus a well-organisedassociation could be a feasible target for such interventions.

• Traditional associations are also anchored in the grassroots and work forthe benefit of the members. They tend to promote democratic principlesand transparency. This is very common among women groups and ismanifested in the democratic election of leaders and in decision-making

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processes. However, experience has shown that informal groups disinte-grate whenever there is a lack of democracy and transparency. Thus de-mocracy and transparency are essential tests for holding together mem-bers of traditional socio-economic associations.

• In addition, formation of associations where members work closely to-gether creates a wider familyhood particularly in rural areas, which in-cludes individual members coming from different cultural and ethnicbackgrounds. The ensuing interpersonal relationships cut across culturalboundaries, which might result in a unified closely-knit society and thussecure a sense of unity. The group assembles resources and diverse skillsand expertise, which an individual member cannot do alone and yet allmembers within the group enjoy the benefits collectively. This createspositive synergy, which one individual group member cannot create alo-ne. Members also enjoy economies-of-scale by working as a group andthis avoids duplication of efforts if they were to operate individually.Further, being informal in nature traditional socio-economic associationshave low cost structures.

• However, a major disadvantage of these associations is their inability tosustain their growth and this hinders their success. It is important to notethat the examples of the traditional associations discussed above are notan exception in this regard. As such, the associations have failed to re-cord any significant impact on the lives of the very low-income segmentof society.

• Lack of business skills has been cited as the main reason for failure ofbusinesses run by such associations. Among the critical areas of businessmanagement that are essential for success include record keeping, identi-fying and taking advantage of opportunities, financial planning, marke-ting, quality control and innovation. Grassroots associations draw theirmembership from poorly or lowly educated people who do not possessthese vital skills. First of all, most of the grassroots have very little expe-rience of the business world. Second, most have limited or no manageri-al background. Third, they become aware of some business managementskills only if they have closely interacted with family members or friendswho run businesses. Fourth, most have little previous opportunity foractually verifying their ideas and comparing them with the market.Lastly, the associations have no resources to employ people with skills.According to Obama (2001) this is one of the main challenges facing thegrassroots in Tanzania at present and which requires addressing both atthe policy and institutional levels.

• Information is yet another vital input in any business undertaking, irre-spective of size. Success in business depends on sound decision-making,

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which requires relevant information pertaining to markets, sources ofcheaper and quality raw materials and other inputs. To date, the tremen-dous developments in information technology worldwide has had no im-pact on the grassroots. Generally, technology it is still confined to a feweducated elites who have no link at all with the grassroots. The situationis worst in the rural areas where the infrastructure is so poor that even in-formation through newspapers is scarce. One recent technology that hashad a major impact on communications in Tanzania is the cellular phonesystem, which has enjoyed an astounding rate of diffusion in the last fewyears. However, it has not made many or any impacts on the grassroots.

• Another constraint is that economic undertakings run by traditional so-cio-economic associations are typically small in size with limited ca-pacity to expand due to lack of capital. The associations are unable toobtain capital from financial institutions due to their inability to providevarious forms of collateral required by the banks. Even if this was pos-sible the grassroots have neither the skills nor the credit history to nego-tiate additional resources they need to run their businesses. Further,banks consider such businesses credit risks. Even within the micro- fi-nance industry there are very few micro-finance institutions that providefinancial services for group-owned business activities.

• The last point to mention here is the lack of management skills and afailure to realise the importance of developing and applying businessculture and techniques in their socio-economic undertakings, and mis-management. The associations do not pose as serious organisations inpursuit of sustainability, neither do they regard their projects as goingconcerns. This anomaly is manifested by the tendency to look for outsideinterventions even for problems that members can solve themselves.This is a major hindrance to the growth of traditional associations. It is amatter of a change of attitude and mind-sets rather than resource limita-tions.

Can the PRIDE model be replicated in rural areas and smallertowns?The success of PRIDE Tanzania is recognised throughout Tanzania and the-re have been many requests to establish PRIDE operations in many parts ofthe country. A number of new micro-finance programmes, including thoseoperated by banks, have tried to replicate the PRIDE model. However,according to Obama (2001) caution is needed for two reasons if attempts aremade to replicate the model.

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First, the PRIDE model has to be viewed in totality. The model is not onlyconcerned with policies and procedures, but it has to be taken as a complexwhole including systems, policies, procedures, the organizational culture,and most importantly the vision and philosophy. Second, PRIDE Tanzania’slearning curve has been painfully lengthy and costly. It started with a two-year pilot project, which evaluated the possibility of replicating the PRIDEmodel in Tanzania. Specifically, the major goal was to test the model’s ca-pacity to reach out to the specific target market. During this pilot period,many modifications were done to the model and its assumptions, withtechnical assistance from a consultant. The process of modifications did notend with the pilot phase. Inside the expansion phase, which started in 1995immediately after the end of the pilot phase, many changes were introducedand as a result the present model is significantly different from the originalmodel. Even today the model still needs changes and these changes seem li-ke a never-ending process. Hence whoever wants to replicate the model hasto have the capacity to continue with whatever changes would be relevantand necessary. Other issues to consider are as follows:

The model was designed for high volume areas where there are relativelyhigher concentrations of economic activity; consequently this might notaugur well for rural locations, which are sparsely populated and with lowconcentrations of economic activity. This explains why the strategy used foropening new branches was to reach high concentration areas first and thosewith low concentrations last. Specifically, the decision to establish a branchin a particular location was based on the following criteria:

• Start with urban centre of at least 100,000 people

• At least 5,000 micro-enterprise activities that can be observed by walk-in /walk-out surveys that would indicate the possibility of obtaining atleast 2,000 clients.

• Supportive infrastructure in terms of ease of communication linkagesand accessibility, availability of essential services including a bank, postoffice and regular passenger services.

The PRIDE model was designed to provide financial services to existingbusinesses and not start-ups, which require costly business incubation serv-ices including managerial backing and on-site technical assistance. Tradi-tional socio-economic associations in rural areas by their nature would re-quire this type of approach.

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The PRIDE loan products are provided for purposes of working capital andhave short instalment periods of one week with no grace period. The maineconomic activity in rural areas is agriculture, specifically crop farming.Non-agricultural economic activities have relatively low concentrations. It isimportant to note that the cash flow cycle of crop farming depends on thecrop gestation period, which normally takes six to nine months. Thus a mi-cro-finance programme would have to provide a grace period of between sixto nine months to allow for gestation of crops, a period, which is consideredby most micro-finance institutions to be too long and hence too costly interms of opportunity costs involved.

According to PRIDE, traditional socio-economic associations have greatpotential for fostering socio-economic development particularly in rural are-as due to their strengths. However, to make the associations feasible it is im-portant to recognise and address some weaknesses. This requires a conside-rable amount of training for members of such groups. A number of lessonscan be learnt and transferred to traditional associations from PRIDE Tanza-nia, including business focus and taking advantage of a group-based ap-proach to replace collateral requirements. Replication of the PRIDE model ispossible if the model can be fine-tuned to suit the local situation. However,close technical assistance would be required to make this happen. A majorlimiting factor in this case would be the cost of delivering the technical as-sistance, which such associations would be unable to afford.

In order for traditional socio-economic associations to play a more meaning-ful and significant role in local development it seems inevitable that somekind of external support and guidance is essential. In view of this, a centralidea might be for these associations to develop some kind of advisory link orpartnership with established local NGOs. The creation of linkages in a co-ordinated manner with an effective NGO might lead to beneficial outcomesparticularly in the provision of technical assistance and training in variousareas. The technical assistance and training in question should focus on theidentified challenges and weaknesses including the provision of:

• business management training• information and guidance

• professional counselling

• referral to sources of funding and

• business incubation services

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It is important also to consider initiatives to create linkages between localgovernment authorities and traditional socio-economic associations in amanner that allows financial resource flows to the later from the authoritieson a commercial or quasi-commercial basis as in the case with Tanga muni-cipal authority and the Tanga-based POVERTY AFRICA credit shop. It isalso important for national authorities to pursue and support policies and in-stitutions for small -scale enterprises.

It is a major shortcoming that more loosely organised associations and alsoinformal networks are not incorporated into the reform process. In the nextsection we will focus on even more informal networks and the importance ofthese to women. As commented earlier the gender dimension of the reformseems to have been neglected. In this connection, the general neglect of the-se informal networks has major implications for women since most womenbelong to such networks rather than to more formalised organisations. Byexcluding these networks many women are excluded from the reformprocess at the local level.

3.4 Informal networks – important coping strategies forwomen

According to Hann (1996) civil society has been defined far too narrowlyand the exploration of civil society requires careful attention to the range ofinformal interpersonal practices. According to Tostensen et al (2001) infor-mal networks form an important part of associational life in Africa and suchnetworks are a living reality and a crucial element in the coping strategies ofthe people. Due to the nature and form of these networks they are often hardto uncover by outsiders, whether they are bureaucrats or researchers. Thiscan create difficulties with regard to the on-going reform process and onemight argue for greater formalisation so that a co-operation can materialise.However, according to Simone (2001) the fluidity of such informal networksdefies formalisation and produces a situation of near invisibility and “it is thead hoc nature of the networks that help them to maintain flexibility and towiden the range of options available in changing circumstances” (2001:28).Therefore, it is not desirable to formalise and make them uniform in order tocome to grips with them, but rather to get insights into how these networksoperate and function in specific contexts.

Swantz (1998) argues that such networks are of crucial importance to wo-men and their livelihoods and states that women’s everyday living requiresinventiveness, flexibility and perseverance. Tostensen et al (2001) argue thatexisting networks are exploited for resource mobilisation in order to acquire

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material resources to alleviate poverty. Thus, informal networks are seen as asocial resource to be exploited in order to reduce vulnerability. This happensin rural and urban areas alike. However, “although most networks prove use-ful in securing some tangible assets, they should not be underestimated as asource of moral support and comfort” (Tostensen et al. 2001: 29). Swantzdocuments that “ the majority of women were members of some informallyor loosely organised groups, which pursued combined economic and serviceactivities and support one another socially in times of special needs”(Swantz, 1998: 159).

Informal networks are often formed along the lines of ethnicity, religion andgender, but also in neighbourhoods, among friends and colleagues etc. Wo-men create and draw on networks to enhance their chances for survival. The-se networks operate both in rural and urban areas and they cater for the va-rious needs of their members such as funerals. These networks may also beformed around migratory processes. One example of a network emanatingfrom migration is that of secluded women in Mbulu Town. These womencome to town because they are excluded from nearby villages due to culturaltaboos relating to issues of pollution. They settle in town and are included inthe networks for women with the same experiences. Many of them neverreturn to their villages, but use the town as a refuge from traditional rulesand norms in the villages. They live in town and depend on these informalnetworks for survival. Such informal networks are critical in the copingstrategies of women (Baker and Wallevik, 2002). According to Lourenco-Lindell (2001) women are, because they embed themselves in webs of socialrelationships, in a position where they get access to niches in the informal e-conomy, find places to live, and are sustained through crises (Lourenco-Lindell, 2001).

Swantz (1998) argues that Tanzanian women actively participate in informalnetworks, and that these networks are crucial to investigate in order to graspand understand women’s strategies. From her research on women and liveli-hoods in Lindi District she finds that in order to maintain a reasonable livingwomen pursue a great variety of activities in order to sustain family liveli-hood and communal solidarity. The basic characteristics of such a system area multiplicity of tasks coupled with a variety of largely informal ways forpursuing daily living and reliance on reciprocal relations (Swantz, 1998).

Swantz (1998) argues that a focus only on economics does not cover therange of livelihood activities. The concept has to be broadened to compriseperpetuation of life with all the activities that are needed for it. She statesthat women cannot pursue economics separately from their reproductive

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tasks in life and “rather than assume that close social relations are solely aburden, since they prevent individual profit making, or that informality andworking with other women is merely a feature of women’s poor economicsense, or a sign of their inability to manage their affairs efficiently, holdingon to close social relations is a value statement on the part of women”(1998:159). They affirm the non-individualistic social basis of life, which isa cultural preference. In conditions of economic hardship communal valuesand economically viable co-operation still prevail. Therefore, insights intosuch networks might enable policymakers to formulate policies and actaccordingly. It is quite clear that such networks vary considerably from placeto place, though we must assume that some of the characteristics will be thesame. However, there is a need for in-depth studies into such networks so weavoid crude generalisations.

Swantz (1998) further argues that women themselves have to narrate anddocument how they operate and manage their lives within such networks.Their life histories are needed in order to grasp how the coping strategies ofthe poor work. Insights into the networks of reciprocity must then be com-municated both to the local government system and the more formalisedparts of civil society in order for them to incorporate or facilitate the networkactivities. There is a potential to incorporate such networks. For example,there exists a special fund from the Ministry of Community Development,Women and Children Affairs which is channelled to local government autho-rities for poverty alleviation activities through which women entrepreneurscould benefit.

Through our own research in mainland Tanzania and in Zanzibar it has be-come clear that women rely heavily on networks, family members and fri-ends through reciprocal systems and remittances. Certainly, we agree withSwantz on the importance of uncovering the functions of these. Importantcharacteristics regarding female strategies is the active participation in in-formal, yet organised, networks of reciprocity and dependency (Baker andWallevik, 2002, Wallevik, 2001a, 2001b, Lange et. al., 2000). Women takepart in networks and build up social capital in a reciprocal system, and thissocial capital is one strategy for ensuring income. We agree with Swantz thatthese networks are necessary to explore in order to portray the context speci-fic aspects about them. This will make it easier to formulate strategies thatare general enough, but also take into consideration context specific know-ledge.

In Zanzibar reciprocal systems are widespread and include remittances fromabroad. It needs to be said that it is quite common for Zanzibari households

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to be organised around receiving something from others. One talks of relying(kutegemea) or to be helped (kusaidiwa ). Relying on others is a part of a sy-stem of receiving remittances or a part of a reciprocal system. Most womenare members of informal networks through kinship, neighbours, friends andthe like. Being part of such networks has secured women access to money,services, mutual help, moral support etc. and many women have traditionallybeen depending on such networks as an important way of securing their ne-eds.

However, as people are becoming more pre-occupied with their own closefamilies there seem to be a slight change in such networks. Consequently,reciprocal networks are in a sense becoming less reliable. Even so, womendo spend much time on their relations and such networks are still invested inbecause they reduce risks and function as backup systems. There is also a lotof moral support and comfort in such networks so women continue to investin them. One might agree with Tostensen et al (2001) that they become dor-mant for a period, but that does not mean that they are not functioning.However, as with the impossibility of a household to rely on one incomeonly, women cannot only rely on participation in networks to meet their ne-eds. So, women add to traditional ways of ensuring a livelihood through in-formal networks by entering the market place (Wallevik, 2001a).

Swantz (1998) argues that such groups of mutual support can be a strengthfor women with regard to economic engagement. She argues further that anindividual focus degrades communal values and sees networks as a hindran-ce to economic success. However, it is also argued that networks are seldomequal among its members and that a system of patron-client relations oftendevelops (Horton and Middleton, 2000). Thus there might be constraints re-garding such networks and this suggests that economic networks can be ahindrance for women.

In Zanzibar networks do function as a support system for women enteringinto business, for example, by arranging upato (savings clubs) where womensave together to enable them to start their businesses. However it is moresupportive for women living alone than women living in a male-headed hou-sehold. For female-headed households with women entering economic acti-vities a network of women is essential. Still for Zanzibari women it is diffi-cult for them to transfer their activities from a reciprocal network and intothe marketplace and make money. This works only if the activities are con-sidered commodities, and not a part of a reciprocal system of exchange(Wallevik, 2001a, 2001b). This is important to bear in mind when, for ex-ample, micro credit is offered to women and they choose to form groups out-

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side the networks or carry out an activity on their own. One important qu-estion to ask is what happens to the existing, informal yet obligatory recipro-cal networks?

Swantz (1998) is correct when she argues that such networks can be suppor-tive, yet these networks can also limit women in building up a business(Wallevik, 2001a), because it is considered important to be defined as an in-sider in a network, even though it is currently dormant. It is difficult not tocontinue with these reciprocal arrangements because the sanctions will resultin exclusion. In Zanzibar this is an important issue since reciprocity has sucha strong position in society. If women do this they will have to challenge orconfront traditions that define them as insiders in a network for support. Itfollows that the difficult thing for a woman to do is to balance the benefitsderived from the market sphere and the benefits derived from reciprocalnetworks, and decide what kinds of activities should be taken out, and whatkinds should remain within the networks.

Participation in such networks represents significant informal rights, whichstress reciprocity over time. Knowledge of these mechanisms might thrownew light on policies operating today. It is important to focus on women be-cause the western development discourse is underpinned by internationalvalues and hence the reality created within this discourse does not necessa-rily reflect the perceptions of life that people in various societies have. Still,the rhetoric and thus concepts used produce a reality that serves as the back-ground when needs are defined and priorities are made. This contributes to awestern understanding of development which several researchers have criti-cised (see, for example, Mohanty et al, 1991). At present, the identified prio-rity is poverty and how to alleviate it. In the discourse on poverty, womenare perceived as the poorest and most marginalised and are therefore priorit i-sed for assistance. Insights into informal networks where women take partmight challenge such preconceived notions and tell us that women’s situati-ons are contextual and need to be analysed accordingly.

As for civil society, we can define it as a complex universe comprising for-mal and informal organisations, associations or networks. However, theseare also contextual and cultural and many questions remain unanswered. In-sights into such networks will, as Hann (1996) states, particularise and makeconcrete how the ideas of civil society are manifested in practice and every-day social behaviour (Hann, 1996). In this way, we go beyond the Westernway of thinking and the putative universalism of civil society is avoided(Hann, 1996). Moreover, this allows for an understanding that civil societyvaries significantly from context to context. Regarding informal networks in

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Tanzania and how best to incorporate them in the reform work, there is a ne-ed for context specific studies to address and investigate further issues suchas: in what kind of contexts and under what circumstances have people or-ganised themselves in such networks? What can these kinds of interactionsachieve? What security do they give? How permanent and accessible arethey? How are these networks gendered? How do these networks incorporatethe poor? How do local governments respond to such networks?

In many cases, it seems as if people organise themselves outside the localgovernment system. Such networks operate more or less parallel to the localgovernment and also to the more formalised civil society organisations.However, there lies a great potential in improving the a co-operation betwe-en LGAs and the informal part of civil society. The question is how to bestincorporate such networks into the overall structure of local actors or stake-holders. In order to achieve participation from the grassroots, it is necessaryfor them to understand their role in the reform process. In a society whereservices have traditionally been provided for by the state, and where peopleare used to directions from above and not to question the government, this isnot an easy task. However, people’s understanding of their role in theprocess has fundamental implications for their participation. Therefore thereis a need to communicate to the people the importance of the on-goingprocess, how best they can participate, and what benefits they derive fromthe reform. Without the real participation of the people (viz civil society) thereform process will not succeed. According to Swantz (1998) it is notenough to acknowledge that people’s participation for development is neces-sary and needed. In order to be able to facilitate participation one needs tounderstand how communally-based activity operates in given contexts. Whathas been discussed here are the informal and invisible networks of womenwhich need to be explored and thoroughly understood in order to be includedin any work under the reform. A thorough understanding of such networksmight lead to insights that will put policy makers in a better position to actaccording to new and contextualised knowledge.

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4 Towards a greater interdependencyThe Local Government Reform in Tanzania strives, among other things, toachieve a stronger collaboration between local government and civil society.It is believed that a good co-operation at the local level will result in a posi-tive development at the grassroots. The question that needs to be asked is towhat extent has this occurred? As pointed out earlier in this report the reformwork is very delayed and therefore the concluding remarks can only be verytentative regarding whether the reform will succeed or not. However, we canpoint to some areas where we feel that special attention should be directed inorder for the reform work to succeed regarding a greater interdependencybetween civil society and local government at the local level. We will pointto five areas of concern: democratisation at the grassroots, financial con-straints at the local level, the link into the more loosely organised parts of ci-vil society, women in the reform process, and the apparent lack of commit-ment by part of the political elite to the reform process.

4.1 Areas of concern

Democratisation at the grassrootsThe democratic process is a vital one, which provides individuals with thepower to articulate their needs and for these needs to be hopefully met.However, there appears to have been little attempt to establish fruitful con-tacts and communications between the electorate and their councillors. Thiscould be explained by a lack of interest and an attitude that councillors feelthat they know what people want and need. Another and more alarming ex-planation could be that councillors espouse the benefits of democracy andlisten to the electorate only at election time. Apart from this, many coun-cillors are said to support activities, which produce benefits for themselves,or their associates. The issue of the corruption of councillors is a concern. Arelated issue concerns the incompetence of some councillors. At the risk oflabouring the point, for the LGRP to have any chance of success, the inte-grity and honesty of councillors must be guaranteed. Without this, successfulpeople-centred development will not occur. After all, councillors should re-present the ears and the voice of the people.

In order to achieve participation from the grassroots population, it is neces-sary for them to understand their role in the reform process. In a societywhere services have traditionally been provided for by the state, and wherepeople are used to directions from above and not to question the government,

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this is not an easy task. However, people’s understanding of their role in theprocess has fundamental implications for their participation. Therefore thereis a need to communicate to the people the importance of the on-goingprocess, how best they can participate, and what benefits they derive fromthe reform. Without the real participation of the people the reform processwill not succeed. During discussions in Tanzania as to how councillors dealwith the people a Swahili saying cropped up which translates as “let sleepingdogs lie ”. It is thus a matter of self-interest to leave the people ignorant, andnot inform them about their rights and duties, because otherwise councillorsmight jeopardise their own positions. If this is the case the ideal of popularparticipation has not been accommodated in the reform process at all. As thereform process gathers momentum, it is to be hoped that increasingly coun-cillors will abide by the Public Leadership Code of Ethics. A more compel-ling sanction could be the disciplinary committees which are situated withinthe Regional Secretariats. However, as mentioned earlier, little informationis available as to how these function.

Financial constraints and the implications for peopleFor local governments to be independent and responsive to the needs of civilsociety they should have a large degree of financial autonomy from the cen-tral government by having the ability to raise their own revenues. However,it is not easy to convince people that paying taxes will benefit them, partlybecause of lack of trust in LGAs, but also because over the years people ha-ve expected that central government would provide free services. When localgovernment in Tanzania was reintroduced it was associated with the reintro-duction of local taxation and seen more as a strategy for levying taxes thanas an instrument for local democracy.

Municipal governments are often weak because they either generate insuffi-cient local revenues through taxes, or because central government has redu-ced central funding support.

Before LGAs can generate sufficient revenues from local taxes the councilsneed to gain the confidence of the people by demonstrating that collectedtaxes are used for their benefit. As it is, councils have not yet proven to beefficient and capable of delivering services. Thus people feel that they getnothing in return for paying taxes, and therefore seek to evade paying them.The councils have to build up trust when generating financial resources lo-cally because without money the councils will have no chance of meetingthe expectations explicit in the reforms. The policy implications of this areobvious. If municipal governance is poor and inefficient because of a lack ofresources the living conditions of the poor will deteriorate further. Moreover,

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if LGAs are underfunded this will mean that they will be unable to interactadequately with civil society and thus bring about the required outcomes.

The missing link into informal and loose networksThe intention of the LGRP is to ensure participation from the various stake-holders to bring about local development. For this collaboration to be fruitfulthere is a need to build mutual trust and reach some kind of agreement re-garding their common existence. LGAs are expected to foster partnershipswith various groups within civil society and the private sector. This, it is be-lieved, will ensure that people get the quality of services they desire.

However, the local government structure has only accommodated the orga-nised elements of civil society. At present, it seems as if LGAs are interestedin cooperating with the formal structures within civil society (perhaps partlybecause of their greater visibility), rather than with more informally organi-sed movements within local communities. Most Tanzanians are not membersof such organisations, and this is particularly true for women. Few attemptshave been made to penetrate these networks, and consequently a system ofinformal networks operates more or less parallel to the local governmentstructure and more formal organisations. This has severe implications forparticipation, and excludes many women from the reform process.

We are not arguing that links into informal networks or voluntary associati-ons alone will solve problems. Real development will depend on strategicrelations between the LGAs and civil society, both formal and informal.However, insights into informal networks can provide other perspectives andpoint at other solutions to poverty alleviation. The increasing dimensions ofpoverty represent enormous challenges to the research community as well asto governments and donors. Thus there is a need for a broader understandingof how civil society works in specific contexts in order to understand howsuch networks best can be utilised in poverty alleviation in co-operation withthe other actors involved. A thorough understanding of such networks mightlead to insights that will put policy makers in a position to act according tonew and contextualised knowledge.

Towards gender equality: the missing component?Much lip service is paid to the idea of promoting gender equality in Tanza-nia, but a great deal needs to be done before this is more than a mere vision.The representation of women in many aspects of formally organised life inTanzania is still very low. However, in the context of political life successivegovernments have attempted to enhance the position of women largelythrough a quota system of preferential or reserved seats in parliament. More-

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over, as has been shown above in this presentation, attempts are made to in-clude women in the decision-making and democratic processes in local go-vernment, but more needs to be done to make the representation of womenmore tangible.

It would be misleading to imply that women are totally excluded from en-joying political power and status in Tanzania. Some do become very influ-ential and enjoy power at all levels of the government structure and indeed inthe NGO sector. Urban based NGOs have enabled women to be very activeand some very influential organisations are run by women. However, at thelocal level most women are not part of any formal organisations, but ratherincluded in informal networks. As mentioned above, such networks have notbeen included or even paid attention to in the reform process. Consequently,women become more or less invisible in the reform work. This is not inaccordance with the importance given to gender in Norwegian policies, andgreater attention must be devoted towards this process of making womenmuch more visible (and, by extention, articulate) at the local level.

Lack of commitment and sense of ownershipIt is worth while noting the good intentions of the government. According toNgware (2000), the government’s adoption of the local government agendais testimony to the fact that Tanzania is firmly committed to the reform ofthe local government system and to focus on the devolution of power and re-sources to the grassroots. It is also widely stressed that President Mkapa iscommitted to the success of the reforms. However, the argument that waspresented in Tanzania was that there are too many vested and powerful in-terests in favour of maintaining the status quo. In other words, there is aninterest in delaying and even derailing the introduction of the reforms. Theresistance to the reforms extends to the top ecelons of government, includingsome ministers who are afraid of losing their powers.

A major reason for the lack of knowledge concerning the reforms is certainlyrelated to the problem of poor quality of dissemination of information inTanzania, (and this situation is paralleled in many other poor countries). Mo-reover, there appears to be a lack of adequate sensitisation and therefore lackof ownership of the restructuring process by individual LGAs. It goes wit-hout saying that lack of information regarding the most relevant and con-temporary legislation about local government, including the sharing of it,could lead to very negative consequences for the reform process. Eventhough the Tanzanian state is involved in such reform work, and thus a reci-pient responsibility is taken care of, there seems to be a lack of commitmentat the local level and participation in that regard has not been successful.

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4.2 Concluding remarksNORADs main goal is poverty alleviation and a large number of program-mes and projects are run within the context of this goal. One strategy whichis employed in an attempt to reach this goal is to strengthen the relationshipbetween government, civil society and the private sector. The focus is ongood governance, democratisation at the local level, an active civil society,as well as economic opportunities. For NORAD it has become a central tenetof Norwegian development policy to include concepts such as participationand mobilisation and the starting point for projects has often been at the locallevel. Strong, locally-rooted organisations are believed to play a critical roleas bearers of democratic values, and are seen as a starting point for socialmobilisation both at the local and national levels. Civil society organisationsare seen as important agents for change, and as a driving force to be able toreach national and international development goals. A strong local govern-ment is also believed to contribute to similar outcomes. In addition, women’sinterests have been an explicit priority for Norwegian development policiessince the mid-1970s. During the UN Women’s Decade from 1975-1985 itbecame evident that the development process could only be successful andbeneficial to all if women’s interests were highlighted and included. Conse-quently, a special focus on women was required both in theory and in practi-ce. In earlier attempts to accommodate the needs for women, special projectswere initiated either within mainstream development programmes or parallelto them. The effort now is to mainstream gender into overall programmes inorder to avoid specific projects for women.

The reform work in Tanzania has different components that may contributeto poverty alleviation, democratisation at the grassroots, development of ci-vil society and women’s participation. However, the areas of concern whichhave been pointed to should be focused upon in further work, and in order tofacilitate participation there is a need for an enhanced understanding of thecomplexity of civil society. In creating such an understanding there is an ob-vious need for more independent research on civil society in specific con-texts. For example, there is a need for further investigations of the myriad ofinformal organisations and their associated networks. Regarding the reformprocess in Tanzania, women’s participation is a particular concern and spe-cial attention needs to be paid as to how women organise themselves in dailylife. Futhermore, within the context of Tanzania, a greater research and poli-cy focus should be directed at the important, but neglected, phenomenon ofthe small town, as well as the rural-urban relationship. Most rural people inTanzania (and throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa) have most of theircontacts and interact most intensely with small urban centres which can beconsidered as “nodes of economic and social opportunity”, which provide

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rural populations with a range of options which improve the quality of theirlives (Baker, 2001: 122). Indeed, small towns are considered so importantthat they could be perceived as catalysts for rural transformation (Baker,1990: 7). Many of the reforms will occur in environments such as these andconsequently this will greatly facilitate the opportunity to analyse and evalu-ate the impacts of such reforms.

Finally, it needs to be stressed that the process is still very much an on-goingone, and it would be premature and indeed impossible to draw concrete con-clusions concerning final outcomes of the reform. Moreover, the reform hasnot proceeded as rapidly nor as smoothly as anticipated and there are serioustime delays. This is not surprising given the magnitude of the envisagedchanges and the enormous challenges in changing the traditional mind setsof the many actors involved including regional and district officials, localcouncillors, village chairpersons and committees, and finally the people whoare the focus of the reforms – the millions of rural and urban voters who areto determine and articulate their development needs through a revitaliseddemocratic process.

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Research and Development Information

Title The Local Government Reform in Tanzania:Towards a greater interdependency betweenlocal government andcivil society at the lo-cal level ?

Project number 82001110

Project Manager Hege Wallevik

Author Jonathan Baker and Hege Wallevikwith James Obama and Nazar Sola

Employer NORAD

Report type Research and Development report

Report number 6/2002

ISBN-number 82-7602-076-3

ISSN-number 0803-8198

Accessibility of report Open

Keywords Tanzania, Local Government Reform, CivilSociety, Democratisation, Local Level Par-ticipation, Gender, Informal Networks

Summary:

This report deals with aspects of the relationship between local governmentand civil society in Tanzania. The report focuses on the ongoing local gov-ernment reform process and presents a discussion of the reformed local gov-ernment structure. The report addresses a number of issues regarding the linkbetween the reforms and their implications for civil society. However, thecentral issue is whether the reforms enhance the development possibilitiesfor civil society through a process of local democratisation.