United Nations Capital Development Fund

DECENTRALISATION IN TANZANIA

(A paper submitted by Hon. Hassan Ngwilizi, MP., Minister of State, President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) to the UNCDF Conference on Decentralisation and Local Governance in Africa, Cape town, 26 - 30 March, 2001)

INTRODUCTION

Tanzania has always seen decentralization as an ideal approach to rural and urban development. This is because the approach encourages local initiatives in the development process by giving the people more power in decision making and involving them in the planning, implementation, and evaluation process.

Since Independence, the government has adopted several decentralization measures geared towards promoting rural and urban development. These include:

Introduction of the Regional Development Fund (RDF) in 1967 which aimed at promoting self initiative in the development process.

Re-organization of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Development Planning between 1968 - 1969 whereby Regional Economic Secretaries were posted, to selected regions to coordinate the planning process.

Ministerial reorganization in 1969 which brought changes in the cooperatives and the creation of the Ministry of Regional Administration and Rural Development.

Decentralization of government administration in July 1972 whereby decentralization measures culminated into a give power to the people. A decentralized structure with clearly defined development responsibilities, coordination, and direction of the rural development work of all Ministries and Regions, was established. A direct link between local organization and the center was established through the Regional Development Director (RDD). The decentralized structure consisted of the following organs:

Regional Development Commmittees
District Development councils and
Ward Development Committees

Regional development was coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Enactment of the Villages and Ujamaa Villages, Act of 1975 which further strengthened decentralization by establishing village councils that were charged with participatory development by the people at the local level.

As reflected in the above strategies, decentralization policy was introducted to ensure:

that local development is effectively managed by organs that are closer to the people;
that people are fully involved in the development process;
that development is effectively planned and controlled; and
that rural and urban development is centrally coordinated for efficiency and effectiveness.

While central government administrative structures improved through these decentralization initiatives actual participation by the rural and urban populace in the development process was not realized. This type of decentralization was more of deconcentration than devolution of power through local level democratic organs.

ONGOING REFORMS

Tanzania's ongoing political and economic reforms demand effective decentralization in which the involvement of the people directly or through their democratically elected representatives is given paramount importance.

THE CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

The aim of the Civil/Public Sector Reforms is to achieve a smaller, affordable, well compensated, efficient and effectively performing public service; and to create a civil service with professional and managerial culture, promoting democratic ideals, efficiency and delivery of sustainable social services with the people themselves being actually involved in the whole process. The new vision envisages the Central Government focusing on national issues and programmes and the creation of an environment conducive to the operation of a market economy conducted in tandem with the principles of equity and efficiency.

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

In response to the public concern over the deteriorating socio-economic conditions, the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) promised in its election manifestoes for 1994 Councillors Elections and the 1995 Presidential and parliamentary Elections, that if elected, the Party and its government would strengthen the local government authorities with the overall objective of improving the quality and access to public services provided through or facilitated by the local government authorities and hastening development at the local level.

The government vision for a reformed local government system in Tanzania has been summarized in the Local Government Reform Agenda 1996 - 2000 and subsequently, in the Government Policy Paper on Local Government Reform (October 1998) as follows:
- The local government authorities will be free to make policy and operational decisions consistent with government policies without undue interference by the central government institutions
- The strength and effectiveness of the local government institutions will be underpinned by:
  - possession of resources and authority necessary to effectively perform the roles and functions that the individual local government authority has been mandated to perform; and
  - having adequate numbers of appropriately qualified and well motivated staff, who will be recruited and promoted exclusively on the basis of merit.
- The leadership of the local authorities will be elected through a fully democratic process, which should also extend to village councils and other grassroots organizations.
- The raison d'etre for the devolution of roles and authority by the central government, and the existence of the local government system, will be the latter's capacity and efficiency in delivering services to the people.
- The local government authorities will:
  - facilitate the participation of the people in planning and executing their development programmes; and
  - foster partnerships with civic groups
- Each local government authority will have roles and functions that will correspond to the demands for its services by the local people, and the socio-economical conditions prevailing in the area. The structure of each local government will reflect the nature of its roles and functions.
- The local government authorities will be transparent and accountable to the people. This will be the basis for justifying their autonomy from central government interference.

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM PROGRAMME (LGRP)

Following the formulation and subsequent Government endorsement of the Local Government Reform Agenda and the Policy paper on Local Government Reform the Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) was developed and approved by the Government of Tanzania to guide structured attainment of the declared vision of the future local government authorities. The overall goal of the LGRP is to improve the quality of the access to public services provided through or facilitated by local government authorities.

The programme has six components each of which aims to contribute to the achievement of the overall goal: The components and their respective objectives are listed below:

(i)	Governance	To establish broad based community awareness of the participation in the reform process and promote principles of democracy, transparency and accountability
(ii)	Local Government Restructuring	To enhance the effectiveness of local government authorities in the delivery of quality services in a sustainable manner
(iii)	Finance	To increase the resources available to local government authorities and improve the efficiency of their use
(iv)	Human Resource Development	To improve the accountability and efficiency of human resource use at local government level
(v)	Institutional and Legal Framework	To establish the enabling legislation which will support the effective implementation of local government reforms
(vi)	Programme Management	To support the effective and efficient management of the overall Local Government Reform Programme and in particular the work of the Local Government Reform Team (LGRT).

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM PROGRAMME

The Local Government Reform Programme comprises five inter-locking elements which are:

Decentralization of authority and responsibilities, in order to give LGAs new powers:
- to hire and fire their own staff and set their own staff levels;
- to make operational decisions over their budgets, transferring between items and re-organising expenditures; and
- to re-organise Council committees and LGA functions and structures so as to deliver more effectively the services mandated to them

Strengthening accountability of LG staff to Councillors and Councillors to their electorate through:
- the transfer of staff responsibilities to LGAs;
- the introduction of a code of conduct for Councillors and staff;
- the increased awareness of the general public over the responsibilities of the LGAs; and
- the improved supervision of the Government over financial management and service performance.

Increasing the resources available to LGAs by improving the share of viable revenue sources accessible to LGAs and enhancing grant financial from Central Government

Clarifying the framework for delivery of services on behalf of the Government, through reforms to the grant system and parallel sectoral reforms, which will give LGAs a clearer set of service responsibilities, in particular:

a clear set of national minimum standards for service delivery, and
predictable resource flows to finance those services ("conditional block grants" for each sensitive sector.)

Building capacity for effective resource management, through training and skills-building particularly in the crucial areas of planning, budgeting, performance monitoring and financial management.

CHANGES IN THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK

In order to effect the strategic outlined above the legal regime affecting Regional and Local Administration has undergone substantial changes as indicated below:

Restructuring of Regional Administration

Regional Administration has been restructured following the enactment of the new Regional Administration Act No. 19 of 1997. In the wake of this, small Regional Secretariats have been established to take the place of the Regional development directorates which tended to duplicate the functions and responsibilities of the local government authorities. The Regional Secretariats have been given a redefined back-stopping role to the local government authorities within their area of jurisdiction.

Amendment of Local Government Laws

The 1982 local government Acts were amended in February 1999 through Act No. 6 of 1999 to give effect to new central-local relations which will allow smooth implementation of the LGRP. The local government laws as amended stress good governance calling for democratically elected local leaders and enhanced transparency in the conduct of council affairs as well as greater accountability of the council to its constituents (the people). In particular, the revised laws provide for decentralized management of staff and finances by local government authorities both for which significantly underpin a largely autonomous local government system.

An important intervention in governance has been the strengthening of democracy at the grassroots level. This is the establishment of mitaa (neighbourhood) committees in the urban councils' areas of jurisdiction. The move should have quite positive impact in the conduct of public affairs especially in the urban councils which had proved to be too far away from the people

Codes of Conduct Regulations for councillors and staff have been prepared and put into operation with the objective of ensuring good governance at the local levels.

Decentralised Financial Management

Local Government Reform aims at increasing the resources available to local government authorities and improving the management of those resources. This is being pursued through the following interventions:

Improvement of Revenue base

Improvement of Financial Management

Guidelines have been developed to assist local authorities to improve on revenue collection from the existing sources and to improve control and management of their financial resources.

COMPLEMENTARITY BETWEEN LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM AND SECTOR REFORM

In implementing the Local Government Reform programme and sector reforms, national minimum standards of services have been set to guide LGRP monitoring of the improvement in the service delivery. Local government authorities are required to prepare council service delivery plans on a participatory approach having regard to the national minimum standards of service delivery as well as the priorities and felt needs of the communities. At community level such plans will address priorities in the area of health (including control of HIV/AIDS), agriculture, water supply, education, environment and basic infrastructure.

The LGRP and Sector Reform stand to gain a lot from the experiences and achievements of Joint Action/Participatory programme with regard to the process of involving the people in the identification, prioritizing, planning and implementation of programmes that address development participatory planning at district and sub-district levels will provide a further input to the sectoral reform programmes and the LGRP.

The LGRP will continue to deal with the cross cutting issues which impact on the implementation of the sectoral reforms. These fall under the major key areas of intervention namely good governance, legal framework, financial management and human resource development and restructuring. In undertaking both the local government and sector reforms the guiding principle that will be borne in mind is Subsidiarity which requires the lowest level of administration to undertake all the functions and responsibilities that can be performed at that level, and that the resources required for effective performance at that level should be made available.

LESSONS LEARNED TO DATE:

In concluding this paper, attention is directed mainly at the lessons that have been learned so far in the course of designing and implementing the LGRP. In the first place, the design of a programme such as the LGRP is time-consuming due to the fact that it requires consultations with the major stakeholders. For instance developing the programme to operationalize the Local Government Reform Agenda 1996-2000 took almost two years, as it was necessary to put in perspective the right background and the local government system, the situation analysis and the desired direction for improved performance by the local government authorities and related institutions.

It has particularly been noted that reforms which bring with them far reaching changes in power balance over authority, resources and responsibilities are apt to meet resistance at least in certain quarters.

Some of the major lessons that have been learned from the programme design to the first phase of implementation can be summarized as follows:

Need for unwavering political will and commitment to the reform on the part of the national leadership;

Need for popular demand from the general public to have changes in the ways of doing things in order to improve on service delivery and hasten the development process;

The design and implementation of the reform needs to be participatory to enable the stakeholders to have a common understanding and a shared vision of the reforms that need to be introduces;

Awareness creation on the reform is key to popular understanding of the reform and the rights and obligations of the people in making them succeed;

It is important to identify the quick wins and work on them so that people do not lose patience and thus keep up the reform momentum;

Close coordination and intergration of the reform initiatives are imperative for successful mobilization of resources and in instilling trust among stakeholders and major players in bringing about positive changes;

It is necessary to manage the human element in terms of changing the mind-set, the behaviour and the commitment to the desired changes to be introduced in the course of implementing the reforms;

Financial resources should be available to enable smooth implementation of the programme;

Existence of an appropriate organizational structure staffed with appropriately trained and qualified manpower to supervise implementation of the programme at various levels;

There should be attested mechanism for monitoring success or failure in the course of implementing the reforms.

CONCLUSION

The Government of Tanzania is fully committed to devolving power, resources and equipment to the sub-district and sub-municipal entities to ensure that people at the grassroots level are enabled to bring and sustain their own social and economic development.

Reforms which seek to devolve authority and resources to the people through their democratically elected institutions, i.e. local governments cannot succeed unless all stakeholders and more so the general public internalize the objectives, benefits and the responsibilities of reform policies. This can only be achieved through continuing sensitization training of all stakeholders to enable them to play their new roles and responsibilities.

The local government reform is a process which will certainly outlive the span of the existing Local Government Reform Programme and which will have to accommodate rapid socio-economic changes which are taking place both within and outside our country.

For the Government and people of Tanzania the Local Government Reform is a welcome and exciting challenge from which there is no turning back. The struggle must continue!