Abstract:
Social Accountability is an aspect of governance that links and
interlinks other aspects of development and governance, In
Tanzania, various forms of social accountability monitoring in have
been implemented by CSOs, these include; the holistic st)~al
accountability monitoring (SAM) and Public Expenditure Tracking
Surveys, PETS, Others are Community Score Cards, Budget
Analysis, Citizen Jury, Local needs analysis and Social Auditing.
These initiatives fulfill a number of functions, as they enable
individuals and user groups at community level to provide feedback
and exercise their voice vis-a-vis central, local government and
service providers. The main objective of this study has to establish
the relationship between social accountability and poverty
alleviation in a few selected Tanzanian local councils. Specifically,
the study aimed at; describing the forms of social accountability in
the selected local government authorities (LGAs), to determine the
status of social accountability among the selected LGAs, to
empirically link social accountability with identified poverty
indicator and to examine the public's perception on social
accountability and improvement of people's livelihoods.
The study employed a cross-sectional research design whereby
data were collected at one point and time. A total of320 respondents
were randomly selected from the selected wards and villages using
a multi-stage sampling technique from Mwanza City Council
(MCC), Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC), Kibaha Town
Council (KTC) and Handeni District Council (HDC). In addition,
forty and ten other individuals were involved in focus group
discussion (FGDs) and key informant interviews respectively. The
study used both primary and secondary data; the former was
collected through the use of interview schedules and checklists.
Specifically, the study employed Social accountability monitoring
tools which included; the Social Accountability Cycle and the
Question-Information-Analysis (QIA) tools. Data collected using
the QIA were analyzed by the help of participant stakeholders; the
CSOs, Businesses, LGA officials, a handful of policymakers and
other participants. Generally, the study shows that SAM positively
empowers local people not only to engage their governments but,
does also influence decisions and the confidence of public officials
in service provision. However, there are setbacks in enhancing social
accountability in local governments in Tanzania. One such challenge
is access to Government information which is inconsistent and
preferential. This can further be deduced as showing a strong
potential for linking poverty reduction initiatives with social
accountability in local government.
