Local govts are agents of change: experts
United Nations Development Programme (UNIDO), Awa Dabo
What you need to know:
Speaking during the launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Least Developed Countries Report (2015), economist and associate researcher Oswald Mashindano said LGAs are key agents of change for being close to the public and knowing the specific needs and problems of the people.
Dar es Salaam. Experts are calling on the government to give local government authorities (LGAs) full autonomy to manage their finances if the country is to transform the rural economy.
Speaking during the launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Least Developed Countries Report (2015), economist and associate researcher Oswald Mashindano said LGAs are key agents of change for being close to the public and knowing the specific needs and problems of the people.
He said they should, therefore, be given the capacity and authority to make decisions on the usage of the available resources without interference from the central government.
“But also for many years these councils have been given less financial support so they spend much time planning and coming up with the budget but statistics show that they usually get less than 50 per cent.
“This mean they should sit down for the second time re-planning how they could spend the insufficient finance,” said Dr Mashindano.
On her side, Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNIDO), Awa Dabo said that the insights provided in the report are important to support the government of Tanzania in developing its Five Year Development Plan for Tanzania mainland and Successor Strategy for MKUZA II in Zanzibar.
