Civic engagement mechanisms for domestic water service delivery at Kondoa district council, Tanzania
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Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Dodoma
Abstract
Worldwide, governance trends towards civic engagement to make pathways through which citizens’ participate in improving public service delivery, including water services. Albeit that Tanzania embraces civic engagement, access to water services remains a longstanding problem for the majority of rural communities in the country. This pointed for this research to investigate the relationship between civic engagement mechanisms and water service delivery in Kondoa District Council. Specifically, the study was centred on four broad themes, namely (i) the status of domestic water service delivery to households (ii) the extent to which civic engagement mechanisms are mainstreamed into water service decision-making processes (iii) the influence of civic engagement mechanisms on water service delivery and (iv) the moderating effects of collective action in the relationship between civic engagement mechanisms and water service delivery. Principal Agent and Collective Action theories were employed to inform how citizens were engaged in water service delivery. A mixed-method approach was used to generate data through survey of 376 households, 14 in-depth interviews, 4 focus group discussions, and field observations. The IBM SPSS and Nvivo software were employed respectively for data analyses. The finding indicated the majority of the population in Kondoa District Council received water lower than established standards in national water policy of year 2002 and the District is off track to meeting development vision 2025. The study also uncovered that the pathways for civic engagement in decisionmaking processes are moderately open but the citizens are less capable of influencing the pre-determined position of the public officials. Moreover, the results indicated that the citizens’ voice and accountability have the highest regression weight and are, thus, the best predictors of quality and physical access to water services. Further result indicated that collective action significantly moderated the influence of civic engagement mechanisms on water service delivery. The study concludes that the combinative effect of citizens‟ voice, accountability and collective action increases the chances of having access to water services at Kondoa District Council. The study recommends policy reforms that will embrace the formation of community selfdesigned institutions to instill a sense of collective action and ownership in management of water facilities.
Description
Doctoral thesis
Keywords
Civic engagement, Public service delivery, Water service delivery, Governance, Kondoa
Citation
Anselmi, A. (2021). Civic engagement mechanisms for domestic water service delivery at Kondoa district council, Tanzania(Doctoral thesis). The University of Dodoma,Dodoma.