Project News

A file of WDC minutes

Regular monitoring is crucial for Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in order to appropriately support and promote Community Initiatives^[1] (CIs). LGAs in Tanzania monitor development activities at the community level through minutes of Ward Development Committee (WDC) which is conducted quarterly at the Ward Level.

From June through July, 2016, O&OD team conducted a fact-finding survey, together with District Taskforce^[2] (DTF) members, in order to grasp the actual situation of and the challenges in monitoring through WDC minutes, as well as to discuss the ways to improve their monitoring. The results of the survey showed that in reality, only around 25% of the WDC minutes were submitted from the Ward Level to in most of the Target LGAs. Moreover, it became apparent that the contents of the WDC minutes were not sufficient in providing the information on the progress of CIs.

Table: Results of the fact-finding survey

Target LGAs	Submission rate of WDC minutes
Bagamoyo District	14.0%
Kisarawe District	29.0%
Ulanga District	36.9%
Kilombero District	24.0%
Morogoro District	28.0%
Average	26.4%

DTF of Bagamoyo and O&OD team discussing solutions

The results of the survey were received as a surprise, because before the survey, LGA officers, including DTF members, were not aware of such situation. The sense of necessity/urgency to improve monitoring was developed through this exercise.

DTF, together with O&OD team, discussed the causes of and the solutions to overcome this challenge. Action Plan to improve monitoring developed by DTF, with assistance of O&OD team, was shared at the Council Management Committee (CMT), in which the awareness on the actual situation of the monitoring was confirmed and the Action Plan was approved to be implemented at each LGA.

O&OD team will continue to support the improvement of the monitoring system in each target LGA through monitoring the progress of this Action Plan and providing necessary support to DTF.