President’s Office. Planning Commission

National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs)

Stakeholders’ Field Dialogue and Workshop Report

Mbeya Region, Dar es Salaam, December, 2000

Economic Research Bureau, University of Dar es Salaam,
P.O. Box 35096, Tel: 222 (+51) 2410134, Fax: 222 (+51) 2410212,
Mobile No. 0741-336330, E-mail: erb@udsm.ac.tz

1.

Introduction

1.1

Background Information

1.2

Methodology

1.3

The Process for Dialogues in Mbeya Region

2.

Conceptual Understanding

2.1

Strategies for Sustainable Development

2.2

Indicators for Sustainable Development

2.3

Sustainable Development

3.

Basic and Necessary Conditions for Planning for Sustainable Development

3.1

Understanding or Knowledge of the Community

3.2

Participatory Planning and Decision Making

3.3

By-Laws

3.4

Good Leadership and Expertise

4.

The Planning Framework

4.1

The Current Planning Process: Weaknesses and Strengths

4.2

Strategies for Planning for Sustainable Development

4.3

Basic and Necessary Steps for Planning for Sustainable Development at Village, Ward and District Levels

4.4

Areas in the Planning Cycle where Capacity is most needed

4.5

Participation in Planning and Decision Making

4.6

Planning Capacity

4.7

Constraints Towards Planning for Sustainable Development

5.

Information for Planning

5.1

Type and Source of Information for Planning

5.2

Utilization of the Information in Planning

5.3

Decision Making during the Planning Process

6.

Conclusions and Recommendations

6.1

Conclusions

6.2

Recommendations

The National strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs) programme is an effort to look into the status of various strategies formulated in the Country after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The purpose is to establish the status of the strategies in terms of the content, approaches used to formulate them as well as the extent of implementation. It is anticipated that this process would result in developing guidelines on how Tanzania can formulate and implement better strategies for sustainable development and how donors can assist Tanzania in this initiative.

This report includes stakeholders’ contributions which were made during the workshop which was held in Mbeya from December 1 to 2^nd, 2000. The report is devided into six sections. Section one which is the introduction is followed by the conceptual understanding and a presentation of the conditions for planning for sustainable development in section two and three respectively. Section four presents the planning framework and section five information used in planning. Conclusions and recommendations are provided in section six.

1.2 Methodology

This exercise has been divided into two phases namely, the Status Review and the Dialogues Process. In carrying out the Status Review, the strategy documents were collected and reviewed, and different stakeholders were interviewed on the respective strategies. This phase has been accomplished and the Status Review report is already out.

The second phase is the Dialogue Process where key stakeholders, are involved in the discussion on strategies status and how to improve and strengthen their impact on sustainable development. Mbeya, Arusha and Dar es Salaam have been selected to be the dialogue regions.

1.3 The Process for Dialogues in Mbeya Region

There are seven districts and one District Council in Mbeya Region out of which three districts were selected for the dialogues. The seven districts are Mbozi, Kyela, Rungwe, Mbarali, Ileje, Mbeya Rural and Chunya. The only District Council is Mbeya Urban.

The three selected districts were Mbozi, Rungwe and Mbarali. In each selected district the researchers discussed with eight different groups of stakeholders. These were:-

• Male villagers/farmers

• Female villagers/farmers

• NGOs and Religious Institutions (Males and Females together)

• District Officials

• Male Ordinary Citizens

• Female Ordinary Citizens

• Male Business Community

• Female Business Community

Afterwards, the regional Secretariat which consists of all regional heads of department were also interviewed. Each group consisted of 5 to 8 respondents, and an interview checklist (Appendix 1) was used to guide the discussion.

2. Conceptual Understanding

2.1 Strategies for Sustainable Development

This was one of the concepts, stakeholders found it difficulty to define. Nevertheless, there were those who viewed strategies for sustainable development as those strategies which have been developed by the people themselves and which attempt to answer key elements of sustainable development in the society.

Judging from the answers provided by the respondents, sustainable strategies can be summarized as "strategies which promote activities and programmes which benefit both the present and future generations". Based on the above conceptual understanding, the following were identified as strategies for sustainable development.

• Protection of sources of water to ensure continuity in using water from the wells and the taps

• By-laws on the protection and conservation of the forests.

• Rehabilitation of Lake Tope and voluntary tree planting around the Lake.

• Sensitization on the importance of safe fishing methods.

• Contribution towards building schools and provision of desks for school children

• Knowledge on modern farming methods leading to increased production and productivity

• Rain-water harvesting.

2.2 Indicators for Sustainable Development

On the question of important indicators for sustainable development, the stakeholders from the three districts and the regional headquarters gave somehow different responses. Variations of opinions on indicators for sustainable development noted during the interview are summarized in table 1 below.

Table 1: Indicators for Sustainable Development

Sn	Indicator	Regional	Mbozi	Rungwe	Mbarali
1.	Growth of per capita income (Ward Bank)	b	b
2.	To be able to obtain basic needs through the household income	b	b
3.	Economic growth being greater than population growth	b	b
4.	Improvement in social services	b
5.	Improvement of infrastructure such as roads, communication network, transportation and energy	b
6.	Capability of the stakeholders to plan and implement development plans	b
7.	Protection and conservation of the environment and natural resources for the future generations	b	b
8.	The level of technology in production and provision of services	b
9.	Increase of the capability to conduct research and make use of the output	b
10.	Increase in the average life expectancy	b
11.	Decline in infant mortality rate	b
12.	Level of understanding in the community				b
13.	Participation of the community at different levels including children		b		b
14.	Good governance, skills and knowledge				b
15.	Contribution in development projects				b
16.	Existence of by-laws and laws				b
17.	Acceptance of a development project				b
18.	Presence of passable roads and bridges throughout the year			b
19.	Increase in good nutrition			b
20.	Increase in the production and use of the bio-gas technology		b	b
21.	Increase in the number of secondary schools			b
22.	Increase in agricultural production			b
23.	Good and permanent houses, use of traditional herbs in preserving food crops, use of natural and traditional fertilizers		b
24.	A good plan for land use i.e for agriculture, forestry, pasture and housing		b
25.	Crop marketing groups		b
26.	Participation of women in the village government (30%)		b
27.	Increase in knowledge of planned parenthood/child spacing			b

2.3. Sustainable Development

The concept is generally not understood by everybody. Some stakeholders defined sustainable development as "agriculture, health or education". But a few defined sustainable development as that type of development which involves both men and women and which takes into account the relationship between environment and poverty and utilizes natural resources wisely and sustainably. In Mbozi and Rungwe Districts, for example, the utilization of bio-gas was cited as one of the sustainable projects in the rural areas. Through sensitization, the utilization of bio-gas is gaining popularity. This is because it has reduced greatly the women’s workload and provided room for regeneration of the forests.

4. The Planning Framework

4.1 The Current Planning Process: Weaknesses, Strengths and Linkages

Stakeholders were also requested to identify weaknesses and strengths of the current planning framework. The following were the main areas of weaknesses and strengths of the system.

(a) Weaknesses

Low level of understanding of the "Participatory Approach"

The grassroot and/or target population is not fully participating in the planning process. This is partly because officials (experts) at district as well as regional level have the tendency to do the plans for the people, instead of improving the grassroot planning capacity and let them do the plans on their own.

The current planning process takes too long to be accomplished thus delaying the key decisions

It encourages unsustainable projects and programmes

In some cases, particularly where the top-down approach is practised, ideas are imposed from the top.

Many projects do not consider stakeholders’ priorities

The planning system does not consider the existing and/or available resources

Some of the decisions made affect the income levels of the people at the grassroot e.g. crop levies.

Some of the local taxes are introduced and/or their rates changed without the knowledge of the people at the grassroot

The spirit and/or tradition of voluntary services is disrupted.

Poor project management after its commencement.

(b) Strengths

• Though to a very low degree, some of the grassroot stakeholders have been involved in the planning process
• The efforts have started to strengthen "Participatory Approach" in planning
• The top-down planning approach is less costly, less bureaucratic easy to implement
• The top-down planning approach minimizes political wrangle

(C) Planning Linkages

The linkages between the local planning level and higher planning levels are evident mainly through the following channels:-

• Through the village planning ideas which are submitted to the higher level
• Through the feedbacks sent by the higher authorities to the local level although in most cases they are delayed and sometimes not sent at all

• Through the material support and expertise delivered by district authorities to the local levels.

There are also many other linkages, which are made when the villages notify the higher authorities on e.g. natural calamities etc. Participation of some of the members of the village government in higher level meetings reinforce the linkage between the different levels in the planning process.

4.2 Strategies for Planning for Sustainable Development

The Regional group and Rungwe District group suggested a few new strategies while the remaining districts agreed on the strategies in the draft report. Table 3 below presents the findings on "strategies for planning for sustainable development" as follows:-

Table 3: Strategies for Sustainable Development

Sn	Strategy	Regional	Mbozi	Rungwe	Mbarali
1.	To provide educational knowledge to the village community and the officials	b	Agreed with the report		Agreed with the report
2.	To improve policies and target them into participatory planning	b
3.	To alleviate poverty through "Ward Plan" "Mpangokata" which has a goal of alleviating poverty by involving the community	b		b

 

4.3 Basic and Necessary Steps for Planning for Sustainable Development a Village, Ward and District Levels

The District Planning Process is reported to start from the sub-village (Kitongoji) moving upwards to the Village Government, Ward Development Committee and finally to the District Full Council (Fig. 1) which makes final decisions.

Fig 1: Planning Flow Chart Showing Different Planning Stages (Levels)

The above defined structure has existed for more than two decades and consists mainly of three committees which are reported to be instrumental in development activities at the local level. These are:-

1. The Finance and Planning Committee
2. Committee for Social and Economic Services and

3. Security and Defence

Of interest to know was how the "plan" is actually prepared at the grassroot before it moves to the higher levels, that is the "process". While in some places the planning process is well explained by the fact that there are village assemblies that consist of all villagers of over 18 years of age, males and females; in some places the process is still undefined.

Where the planning process is well adopted, new ideas normally emerge from different planning committees after pondering through the agendas as tabled to the meeting for discussion. The consensus reached in village assemblies culminates into identification of key problems and the formulation of projects. It is yet important to note here that some of the ideas taken on board by the village planning councils originate from informal group discussions, for example, during beer/local brew taking where some important issues of concern are raised.

Deliberations of village governments are forwarded to the higher level, that of the Ward Development Committee where the village chairpersons and the Village Executive Officers (VEO) are members. As already mentioned above, in places where the planning process is not well defined, the issue of participation raises a lot of questions. In most of the sub-urban areas for example, there are complaints raised of non-involvement of the stakeholders in the planning process. Nature, structure and the type of leadership were pointed out to be among the contributing factors. In Mbozi District where Tanzakesho Programme is operating, the planning cycle in the programme areas is said to have the following stages (Fig 2).

1. Problem identification
2. Preparation of projects and resource requirements
3. Implementation and Management of projects
4. Participatory Monitoring and

5. Participatory evaluation

Stages (i) and (ii) have been carried out in a participatory manner in all the wards where Tanzakesho operates. In view of the strong participatory nature of the Tanzakesho Planning Cycle, the District authorities are planning to adopt the system in preparing all ward plans (Mpangokata).

Fig 2: The Proposed Planning Cycle at Local Level: TANZAKESHO Model

4.4 Areas in the Planning Cycle where Capacity is most needed

A total of seven broad areas were highlighted during the interview as summarized in table 4 below:

Table 4: Capacity Building Demands in the Planning Cycle

Sn	Areas requiring capacity building	Regional	Mbozi	Rungwe	Mbarali
1.	Development project formulation and resources requirement – district, ward, village levels (Technical know-how)	b	b		b
2.	Project implementation, management, and monitoring at district, ward and village levels and resources (finance, education)	b	b	b
3.	Project monitoring and evaluation – district, ward and village levels (Technical know-how)	b	b
4.	To mobilize the community to have the knowledge of being able to identify problems that surround them, analyse and find solutions (knowledge).			b
5.	Involvement of women in planning, implemention and decision making so as to increase efficiency in different activities and projects			b

 

4.5 Participation in Planning and Decision Making

We have pointed out above, that planning starts at the Sub-Village (Kitongoji) where all residents who are 18 years and above participate in generating ideas and preparing a sub-village plan. However, the process of getting a Sub-Village plan was not very clear. Three people, namely the Chairperson and 2 other persons who are appointed by the Chairperson form the Sub-Village committee. The committee is then responsible for forwarding the plan to the Village Government.

The Village Government, constitutes 25 members. Out of which 30% are women. The village government then compiles the Sub-Village plans into a village plan. In the Village Government the sub-villages are represented by their respective chairpersons. The compiled village plan is then tabled to the village assembly for endorsement and approval before it is submitted to the Ward Development Committee (WDC). All Village Government Chairpersons are members of the WDC. The WDC then compiles all village plans, into a Ward Plan which is then endorsed and submitted to the District Council.

This planning process is more so in the rural areas where mobilization and sensitisation appear to have made a positive impact. In the urban areas the situation is different because participatory approach is not practiced. Leaders of the urban dwellers are reluctant to initiate mobilization and sensitisation activities because they fear to be held accountable and/or responsible by the more knowledgeable urban people. The urban residents are more knowledgeable, they know their rights and can not be manipulated easily. Since the urban local government leaders are aware of the status of the people they lead, they do not encourage interaction with them reportedly in order to hide their dubious activities thus protecting their personal interests.

Ownership, accountability and transparency are almost absent in the urban areas and therefore participation is suppressed. This is mainly the problem with urban grassroot and urban middle level e.g. at district as well as regional level. The urban higher level category/group is to a greater extent free from this bottleneck.

Apart from the "Tanzakesho planning system", the traditional planning system exhibits very low participation in practice. This is the major weakness of the system. However, its strength lies in the fact that it operates in a well-defined structure and it has already some basics of community participation in place. As such most stakeholders were of the opinion that despite weaknesses in the traditional planning system, it is still the best so far. This is because it provides a clear and convenient opportunity to all eligible members of the village to participate fully in both the planning process and decision making process. Some improvements are certainly required to make it truly participatory.

4.6 Planning Capacity

The planning capacity at both local and district level was reported to be low, inadequate or completely lacking. The capacity referred to by stakeholders was that of human resource, finance, institutional framework and infrastructural. The human resource deficiency was reported to be observed at the level of education of the leadership, the community and entrepreneurs. This situation has given room for political interference and for leaders being less accountable. Most of the leaders have very poor knowledge and expertise in preparing projects, budgets and in conducting project evaluation.

The problem of financial capacity was referred to weak resource base and the inability to exploit the available local resources. This weakness is particularly serious during plan implementation. Many of the good plans and projects have tended to fail due to inadequate funds.

The institutional capacity problem is due to lack of effective coordination, sudden changes in the organizational set up of the government, slow implementation of the reform process and frequent staff transfers On the other hand, weakness in the infrastructural capacity is explained by the lack of the necessary working equipment.

In the planing cycle itself, the areas which were identified to have serious capacity problem were, project preparation, implementation and management, and monitoring and evaluation. These areas are still very weak. They need to be strengthened if the designed projects are to be sustainable.

4.7 Constraints Towards Planning for Sustainable Development

Several factors were pointed out as constraints to planning sustainable development. The most critical ones are:-

1. preaching of community participation, that is bottom-up planning which involves all stakeholders, while the practice still supports strongly the top-down approach.

This is a major bottleneck because most planners were/are trained in top-down approach. They are used to it and they believe in it. In discussing with planners who advocate top down approach, the following arguments were presented:-

1. It is less costly
2. It reduces conflicts between the technical staff and politicians of the respective area in the district. The main issue here is that because of non-participatory nature of planning, there are no promises made or false hopes built to the community.
3. It provides an opportunity of dealing with only critical issues/needs/problems of the community. (Planners assume they know all the needs and problems of the community).
4. It is possible to implement only those projects, which are economically viable, socially desirable and environmentally friendly.
5. It is easy to defend such projects in all the committees of the Council.

Probably there are many "planners" in Tanzania and "donors" who share the above ideas. We have no reason not to believe the presence of such planners all over Tanzania because the above facts were given by the planners themselves. And it is probably high time two critical decisions were made in respect of local level participatory planning:-

1. Mounting of courses on participatory planning for all planners and sector heads

2. Making an official declaration that participatory planning is the approach to planning in Tanzania. Thus a law need to be enacted and passed to ensure its enforcement.

If these two decisions are not made, planning for sustainable development will be like the old Swahili saying which reads "kumpigia gitaa mbuz" "playing a guitar to a goat".

(ii) By-passing the urban population in participatory planning for development

When discussing with the business groups in Mbozi and Rungwe, a concern was raised regarding their not being involved in decisions related to the development of their own nation. The urban sector feels more informed about national development issues than the rural sector because of their advantage of access to both electronic and print media. And yet their contribution to planning for development is practically nil. For them they argued that if this was done, they were sure of increased efficiency and effectiveness in project implementation

(iii) donors coming with pre-manufactured projects in form of ideas and technical assistance under the guise of participation, when it is actually guided participation.

(iv) changes in government policies and set-up which usually do not take into account their impact on sustainable development.

The major constraints in Planning for Sustainable Development are also summarized in table 5 below:

Table 5: Constraints in Planning for Sustainable Development

Constraint	Regional	Mbozi	Rungwe	Mbarali
Unbearable and excessive poverty	b
Lack of support from decision makers	b
Community not knowing their right in participation during planning for development	b	b
Politicians’ interference in the plans for sustainable development	b
Difficulties in promoting development in villages	b
Lack of resources	b
Lack of enthusiasm from the technocrats due to lack of incentives	b
Lack of capital			b	b
The weather condition				b
Lack of adequate skills and knowledge		b	b	b
Low technology				b
Inadequate infrastructure				b
Laws that do not take into consideration the stakeholders’ interests				b
Policies that do not take into consideration the stakeholders’ interests		b		b
Corruption				b
Tough/difficult conditions from donors		b		b
Lack of political will				b
Culture and habits that are not good and gender discriminating		b		b
Inadequate information about plans (research)			b	b
Unavailability of inputs that are of good quality			b
High cost of production compared to crop prices			b
Lack of reliable market for selling crops that are produced within the district			b
Low government budget			b
Poor coordination in development plans		b

5. Information for Planning

5.1 Type and Source of Information for Planning

The information which is reported to be used in the local planning process include the following:

• Production levels of agricultural products, livestock, natural resources, minerals etc
• Social services delivery
• Conditions of the infrastructure
• Income and expenditure
• Population by age and sex
• Household income
• Area of the village and ward
• Available natural resources
• The natural environment

This information is normally collected from the village records and households’ records. Where the information sought is not available from the village records, adhoc surveys are carried out.

1. Utilization of the Information in Planning

The information generated locally is to some extent used during the local planning process by the planning sub-committees to develop the initial ideas, which are subsequently presented to the village assembly. The information for planning is also made available by other higher levels in the planning system.

2. Decision Making during the Planning Process

There are priority areas and criteria which are considered during the planning process. They include the income levels of the people, level of understanding of the people, the available resources and the impact of the decision on food security. As for the availability of resources, distinction is made between local and external sources. The final decision on the priorities and other important issues is left with the village government executive committee.

Other considerations are health, impact on children (education) and the old people. At the local level, decisions were reported to be made on the basis of the villagers’ ability to perform the activities themselves. Those activities which were within the ability of the villagers’ available manpower or resources e.g. sand, stones, logs, water, were given priority. Those that required monetary contributions could be shelved until the harvest time. The villagers would then forward the plans which were beyond their means to the ward level for assistance from the district council. For example in Isongole Ward, Rungwe District the construction of the road Idweli to Ngumbulu was assisted by the district authorities. In Igurusi, Mbarali District, completion of the primary school buildings was made possible by the assistance from the Mbarali District Council.

6.1 Conclusions

The village community has a role to play in the planning process. But the system appears not to take into consideration of the urban population, the traders/business community and the ordinary citizen. These groups are by passed. They are neither included in the planning process nor in the decision making. The system has not yet given them adequate opportunity to accommodate their developmental contributions.

The most involved levels in the current planning process is the rural grassroot community, and to some extent the business community at the national level.

6.2 Recommendations

1. Training of planners, the community and all other actors on participatory planning

2. Declaring participatory planning as the approach to planning in Tanzania thus enact a law to ensure its enforcement

3. Incorporate the urban community in the planning process. The urban community (district level) would like to be incorporated in the process by being sensitized and informed when they should be required to participate in the planning process. The community believes that if, Discos and other Public political rallies are announced by a loud speaker on the streets, why not a call for planning for their own development?

4. There is an urgent need to promote, respect, reward and adhere to the views of the technicians (experts) and innovators

5. Emphasis and therefore priority need to be put on implementable plans and projects

6. The bio-gas technology which is currently spreading in villages should also be spread to the urban areas because there is also massive use of charcoal and firewood.

7. The secondary schools which are currently administered by the parents should be transferred to the government so as to give room to the parents to open up more secondary schools

8. Decisions made at the top should involve the grassroot

9. The leaders at village and ward levels need to be trained on leadership skills

10. The government has to assist in the creation of effective micro credit institutions in the rural areas so as to bridge the existing capital deficiency

11. The cost of energy (electricity) has to be reduced so as to protect the environment