Browsing by Author "Kessy, Ambrose T."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Decentralization, local governance and path dependency theory
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2019) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    Tanzania has embarked on several radical measures to restructure its economy and governance structures, including local governments. For more than four decades, Tanzania has been striving relentlessly for effective decentralisation measures, yet the progress has been slow. The country has passed through several phases of decentralisation, with each phase inheriting some criticised characteristics that have been difficult to dismantle in the successive phases. For example, previously recognised mistakes have continued to block any attempts to diverge from the direction set by the Ujamaa policies. It is argued here that various attempts at decentralisation by the central government since the 1960s in Tanzania have fallen short of the government’s intentions to establish effective local governance. This being the case, two important questions prevail: Why has Tanzania made little progress towards effective decentralisation, despite various attempts to devolve powers from the centre? Why has Tanzania not fully decentralised, as echoed in the policy paper on Decentralisation-by-Devolution (D-by-D)? There have been a number of explanations for this retardation along the path to decentralisation. This article reflects upon the tenability of path dependency theory which posits that the longer an institution has been in place, the more resilient it is to change.
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    The demand and supply sides of accountability in local government authorities in Tanzania
    (Tylor & Francis, 2020) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    Accountability and transparency have been on the top of lists of the agenda about local governance. Unfortunately, a significant number of studies have tended to view accountability through the traditional model of public administration (supply side of accountability) at the expense of the demand side of accountability. Based on the experience with decentralization in Tanzania for the past four decades, this article argues that both the demand and supply sides are important for effective service delivery by local governments. In this arrangement, the fundamental principle of democracy is attained when citizens have the right to demand accountability and public officials are held accountable. The demand side, which is bottom up driven by non–state actors, or the supply side, which encompasses legal and fiscal governmental checks and balances may lead to effective local good governance. This article is based on these assumptions and therefore attempts to discuss the main avenues and challenges for exercising effective supply and demand sides of accountability in local governments in Tanzania. The study seeks to answer the question of how the demand and supply sides of accountability have been implemented in Tanzania, regarding local governments.
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    Higher education and prospects of graduates’ employability in Tanzania
    (IISTE, 2020) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    This paper is about the challenges of employment for graduates of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Tanzania which has been a serious issue of concern for both the students, parents, universities, the government, and the public. With the rapid expansion of higher education in Tanzania, there is a widely shared concern that graduates face substantial difficulties in the job search and are often forced to accept unfavourable early employment. This article focuses on the relationship between higher education and the employability of graduates. It draws on statistics and a critical review of the literature. Employability of graduate students has been understood as a collection of capacities or achievements, which constitute a necessary but not sufficient condition for getting employed. Using Tanzania as a case study, the paper, therefore, analyses the extent to which the HEIs in the country do foster competencies relevant for employment and work, and the extent of readiness of these institutions in fostering more “employable” competencies of their graduates.
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    Local government reforms in Tanzania: Bridging the gap between theory and practice
    (TUKI Publishers, 2011) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    For the last four decades, Tanzania has been involved in a number of comprehensive public sector reforms focusing on decentralization as a major tool for improving social services delivery. Assessing how and what has changed in each phase of the local government reforms may be a difficult task to resolve. There are two major problems: first, it may not be easy to construct some reliable variables 'before' and 'after' a reform; and second, reform is associated with issues of change and given the complexity of local governments' interactions with various sectoral policies, to single out a particular issue as an outcome of a reform is difficult (Stoker,1999). However, taking these challenges together, one may still find some ways of assessing the impact of local government reforms in Tanzania by focusing on establishment, purpose, composition, source of revenue and responsibilities. These five key issues are investigated through the prism of central-local relations (local autonomy). One principal argument about the success of any decentralization measure is whether it is able to facilitate more citizens' participation, local autonomy, accountability, transparency and effective service delivery (Visser, 2009; Crook and Manor, 1998; Cheema and Rondinelli~1983; Olowu and Wunsch, 2004). This chapter argues that this common rhetoric among academics, development partners, government leaders and local politicians needs to be reconsidered. The image is always of an inexorable movement from central to local. While this may sound good, the real challenge is about what is being said on the policy documents and what is being done the ground. As it is discussed later in this chapter, the experience of decentralization in Tanzania for the last four decades shows some mixed results with regard to mooting the stated goals. This chapter seeks to clarify some of these challenges and tries to suggest how the gap between the rhetoric and reality of decentralization and local governance could be managed. The chapter is organized as follows: the first part provides a schematic model of the life cycle of decentralization which show an idealized process of decentralization and the actual process from the field. The second part draw some experiences of central-local relations from both developed and developing countries by focusing on the legal status of local movements in the national constitutions. The third part provides a broad overview of the development of the local government system in Tanzania before and after independence, by attempting to assess the impact of various reform initiatives so far implemented on the status, functions and re ponsibil.iti.es of local governments. The fourth part discusses the challenges of local government reform~ in Tanzania by trying to find out why decentralization in Tanzania has only been partial. The fifth part outlines some recommendations for the current LGRP II followed by a conclusion.
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    Neoliberalism, economic crisis, and domestic coffee marketing in Tanzania
    (Springer Nature, 2020) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    This chapter presents an analysis of the economic crisis of neoliberalism with a focus on the growth of the coffee industry in Tanzania. It explicates the economic and political crises of neoliberalism with a focus on the transformation of coffee industry and the reproduction of weak cooperative societies in Tanzania as opposed to the predictions of dispersal of the political and economic power of neoliberal transitions. At the center of this analysis is the critical issue regarding the effects of neoliberal policies on the rural economy, taking the coffee industry as a case study. The chapter first looks at the commencement of the private marketing and charts the transformation of the coffee industry in Tanzania. An extensive body of literature has shown that for the past few years the government of Tanzania has initiated some interventions in the country’s coffee industry, all aimed at fighting the grain of neoliberal market reform. The chapter then explains the impact of the subsequent economic crisis in Tanzania, which resulted in the decline of the coffee sector. It also describes these changes and locates them in the broader literature on neoliberal reforms in Tanzania and how neoliberal policies have affected cooperatives which were once the key agents for coffee marketing. The chapter concludes by showing how neoliberal crises in the form of economic crisis can create opportunities for reassessing the relationship between private capital and the state capital in revamping the coffee sector. Thus, exports of coffee contribute hugely to the growth of the Tanzanian economy.
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    Transparency in local government finance and service delivery: The case of Mwanza City and Moshi District Councils in Tanzania
    (University of Zululand, 2020) Kessy, Ambrose T.
    Transparency is an essential tool of local governance which enables the local citizens to hold local institutions accountable for their performance, to foster trust in government, minimize corruption and improve local service delivery. Accountability and transparency have been on the top of agendas in all the local government reforms in Tanzania. For transparency to work properly, it needs effective structures of implementation. Within the local government system in Tanzania, the structures of transparency are present but appear to be not working as they should do. This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the problems of transparency have persisted under the new phase of local government reforms and how they are likely to impact on local service delivery in Tanzania. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine the extent to which fiscal transparency in local governments in Tanzania is practised and how this has played a greater role in service delivery. The study used a case study of purposively selected local councils in Tanzania to examine the dynamics of fiscal transparency and service delivery. The findings show that there is little flow of information from higher levels of local governments to the lower levels in relation to resources available and results achieved. The information received from the councils is sometimes opaque or fuzzy in the sense that it does not reveal all about what their leaders do or what important decisions have been made about their councils. The study concludes that the importance of accountability and transparency attached to service delivery in any country is essential for good practice in local governance. Hence, instruments for accountability and transparency at the local levels must be enhanced to enable public institutions and public officials to be responsive to the citizens.