This is a methodological paper prepared by senior academicians, researchers and consultants from renowned universities in Tanzania. The paper provides insights as to how best development agents can approach the challenge of capacity needs assessment and development of capacity building programs in the context of the local government structure in Tanzania. The paper is of original nature and is based on author’s accumulated knowledge and practice in conducting capacity assessments and developing capacity building programs in Tanzania. The paper describes what can be considered to be best practices in conducting participatory capacity assessment through consultative processes which involves most of the key actors who would be engaged in implementing proposed interventions. The paper puts forward an analytical model for capacity assessment and program development in the Tanzanian context. The main features of the model can be summarized as participatory capacity assessment, strategic capacity building program development and complementarity through synergy building with like-minded stakeholders. The operational modality for utilizing the model in developing capacity building programs which among other components has monitoring and evaluation aspects is included. It is recommended that practitioners and development agents should test the model in their working environments to realize its potential benefits including program ownership by stakeholders.
Conservation and sustainable land management is a challenge to both developed and developing countries. However, the problem is more critical in developing countries where existing capacities in terms of human, financial and other resources to deal with the challenge are very limited. To address the situation, governments and development agencies have been implementing among others capacity building interventions. A review of literature indicates that there is a considerable body of work available on capacity development [
A range of tools and approaches have been proposed for assessing capacity at different levels taking into consideration the enabling environment, the organizational level and individual level [
There are two types of local authorities in Tanzania namely rural authorities normally referred to as district councils and urban authorities that include city, municipal and town councils. Hierarchically, a district council goes down through a ward, under which exists village governments and finally the 10-house cell system. Moreover, an urban council runs down through a municipality (if the top structure is a city) under which exists the ward, then the mtaa/street government and, finally, the 10-house cell system. There are no village government structures in urban authorities [
In both village and townships there are a number of democratic bodies at lower levels to debate and oversee the implementation of local development needs. In rural system, the hamlet, the smallest unit of a village, is composed of an elected chairperson who appoints a secretary and three further members all of whom serve on an advisory committee. In urban areas the street, is the smallest unit within the ward of an urban authority. Unlike the hamlets, the street committees have a fully elected membership comprising of a chairperson, six members and an executive officer. The basic functions of the local government are [
The head of the paid service is the district executive director in the district authorities and the town/municipal/ city director in the urban authorities. Below the director there are a number of heads of department. The departments (for provision of extension services) include personnel and administration, planning and finance, engineering/works, education and culture, trade and economic affairs; health and social welfare, cooperative and agriculture development, environment, and natural resources [
The most important, intended links between the local government and the local communities are the villages in rural areas and urban street committees in urban areas, which are designed to mobilize community participation in local development and conservation issues. Priorities for local service delivery and development projects are brought to village and/or street committees for discussion before being forwarded to the Ward Development Committee (WDC). In the rural system proposals reach the WDC via the village council.
As stated earlier on, the presented analytical model in this paper was tested in two projects financed by UNDP and Farm Africa in Kilimanjaro and Manyara regions respectively and proved to work well in the Tanzanian context [
The algorithm to follow involves four main steps namely conducting participatory consultative process; discussion with key informants in the region, districts, division, ward and level; collection of bio-data of employees and deficiencies at different levels; and holding village/community level discussions. It is envisaged that after all these steps, capacity needs including staffing and training needs for example will be determined. As put forward in literature [
The assessment involves organizing participatory consultative meetings with local government officials and other stakeholders to develop a common understanding of the current situation, capacity gaps and needs for capacity building. The officials could include project staff, regional administration, district technical teams, collaborating NGOs/CBOs, and community level stakeholders. The process should be guided by a pre-designed checklist of issues upon which capacity gaps shall be identified. The checklist among others should solicit information regarding each stakeholders understanding of their roles in implementation of SLM interventions, staffing levels and knowledge deficiencies, status of other required capacities for effective implementation of interventions and potential partners in capacity development. The consultative process has to involve both individual and roundtable focused group discussions aimed to establish the capacity building needs at various levels within the local government structure. The assessment should pay special attention to issues of sustaining SLM interventions beyond the existing project lifespan. The assessment of local government staff capacities involves collection of bio-data of employees and their deficiencies should be undertaken at the regional, district and ward offices within the local government structure. This shall be guided by a pre-designed form so as to capture the entire list of existing staff in the region and districts, their capacities and deficiencies. The bio-data form should include data such as name of the employee, present designation, salary scale, date birth, qualification, responsibility and training needs.
The assessment at village and/community level should capture community needs and perceptions in relation to capacity building needs. Village level discussions should be held before discussions with regional and district teams. This is meant to obtain villager’s opinions first. Such discussions could be organized by the development agencies and/or consultants in collaboration with district facilitating teams. In each district representative communities/villages should be selected taking into consideration a range of criteria that ensures representation of all categories of beneficiaries in the strict sense. The cross section of representatives is meant to ensure that even the marginalized segments of the society should be involved in proposing capacity building options for their respective areas.
This phase is summarized in the conceptual framework model presented in this section. According to the elements presented in
According to this framework the design process assumes that facilitation of trainings and other capacity building interventions needs to be supported by the financiers of the project such district councils (DCs), municipal councils (MCs), donors and/or government institutions. The design further emphasizes that collaborating partners and service providers (e.g. consultants) need to be mobilized for the capacity building interventions as technical facilitators. Specific training activities involving project staff, district level stakeholders, ward and village level stakeholders shall form part of the strategic interventions for capacity building. It is anticipated that the capacity building for project staff shall be on cross-cutting issues which should improve their capacity to provide leadership and monitoring roles for the trainings that will be given to the other stakeholders. For both district and lower levels the strategy emphasize that the trainings should be designed for both technical officers (extension staff) to concentrate more on technical issues as well as politicians who are aimed for awareness of project results and political support. In these aspects the model takes into consideration suggestions in literature [
The model puts forward the anticipated outcomes from the capacity building processes. The major purpose of providing capacity building includes the realization of successful implementation of all planned interventions in the project document as well as instituting elements of sustainable implementation of introduced interventions in the respective districts. These are expected to be the major measurable outcomes of the capacity building interventions. The model draws the link between implementation of capacity building activities and project monitoring and evaluation as suggested by other scientists [
The model realize further that the planned capacity building activities for various actors shall involve a number of processes and yield some short term deliverables as outputs. The responsibility of the M&E section of the project in this aspect shall be to make use of process and output indicators to measure efficiency and effectiveness of the project in realizing tangible results from the processes. Of equal importance is the need for M&E section of the project to measure the magnitude at which the target population has benefited from the capacity building efforts. This can only be measured through outcome mapping as indicated in the conceptual framework of the model (figure 1).
The operational phase involves developing a capacity development program to bridge the identified gaps in terms of knowledge, skills and other capacities. The program should have both short term and long term capacity building interventions. In the process of developing the program, there developers need to translate the concepts and processed summarized the conceptual model (figure 1) into operational objectives and capacity building activities. In the text box bellow (figure 2) an example of the transformation of the conceptual model to operational objectives and activities is provided.
In cases where capacity building involves trainings, key considerations in the capacity building program
should include identification of thematic training areas, targeted trainees, duration and the proposed time of the year when it should be executed; and whether to start trainings at the beginning of the project implementation phase in order not to frustrate implementation of project activities. As suggested in literature [
The possibility of collaborating with other actors in pursuing SLM capacity building interventions need to be examined. The other actors in this context are like-minded organizations such as NGOs, FBOs, the private sector and other government departments whose activities complement SLM interventions in the area. Therefore, the assessment need to be done in every district based on thematic areas (e.g. irrigation, energy, agriculture etc.) and the findings summarized in a matrix which shows the identified partner, partners activities and areas where collaboration can be focused.
The operational phase should also examined additional capacities at all levels which have a bearing on implementation of SLM capacity building interventions. It is important to assess these capacities in order to inform the project management team and sponsors about factors other than capacity building which can affect performance. Among the factors which need to be examined include issues like availability of reliable transport, computers facilities and accessories, and various equipment.
The paper has demonstrated that within the context of the local government structure in Tanzania it is possible to plan and execute capacity building interventions guided by a locally developed framework. The main features of the model can be summarized as participatory capacity assessment, strategic capacity building program development and complementarity during the implementation processes through synergy building with like- minded stakeholders.
The model is based on the philosophy of sustainability through integration into existing governance structures. As such the model largely depends on the existing local government staff within the established structures. Where capacities are low the model proposes capacity building for local government staff to be part of the package. This is because without the required capacities for example at the district and ward levels service delivery is likely to be ineffective.
The paper recommends that development agents, practitioners, local government authorities and other capacity builders should test the presented model in their local situations to generate more lessons of experience which are necessary in realizing the benefits of the model.
A word of appreciation goes to UNDP Tanzania Office and Farm Africa for giving us the opportunity to test the model in Kilimanjaro and Manyara Regions in Tanzania respectively. We are thankful to local government staff from the two regions for the cooperation which was rendered to the team during the assessments. The participation of community representatives in the assessments is also highly appreciated.