Whoever cares the local level manages the great delivery chain

By Nyasigo Kornel

In an attempt to reaching Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, Tanzania has been emphasizing on the good governance that led to the decentralization decision making to the local governance. This is done to empower local leaders in looking solution to their own local problems.

In order to help the development stakeholders like policy makers, professionals and practitioners, Tanzania Global Development Learning Center (TGDLC) has conducted weekly dialogues through Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD) that was known as ‘ana kwa ana’ or ‘face to face’.
According to the report delivered by the Tanzania Local Government Action Forum (TaLGAF), program that was aired in a popular weekly through Radio Tanzania succeeded to reach 85 per cent of 38 million population of Tanzania.
Main role of TaLGAF was to expand ALGAF initiatives through dialogues using knowledge as communication skills and other media as radio and mobile phones to distribute information to the regional and local level.
The TaLGAF extended the dialogue that has benefited policy makers, professionals and practitioners mainly based in and around the city of Dar es Salaam to the level of districts and to reach 339 practitioners within Tanzania in Morogoro and Tanga municipalities and in Mkuranga District.
Millions of people have benefited from the program by tuning in to the TALGAF sessions that were broadcast nationally.
A discussion group that was set up in Mkuranga District Council of the Coast Region participated in all six-radio programs and held discussions among themselves.
During the radio program for December 2004 the Morogoro site moderator Mr. Kikwesha organized an audience in Morogoro that included members of a School Teachers’ group that uses Drama to educate teachers and students on HIV AIDS related issues. The group requested to make use of TaLGAF materials for their future public educational activities.
By generating material in the nationally spoken Kiswahili language, the TaLGAF series have popularized issues debated in the ALGAF sessions and at the same time deepened discussions of the various topics.
The ALGAF Meeting in the Tanzanian national context, with a local district perspective possibly leading to finding solutions to local problems.
TaLGAF is expecting to create publicity and awareness of the program by sensitizing and involve the key decision-makers at regional level of government.
Moreover it expects to integrate TaLGAF into the government activities at the regional and LGA levels, capacity building and retention at the LGRP regional secretariats and LGAs as well as seeking cooperation with, and support from the LGRP.
It took time for the districts to realize the value of the TaLGAF program through the radio broadcast and tape/VHS recorded materials that were distributed during the pilot program.
Nevertheless, as a result of the efforts of the coordinators to implement strategies for achieving sustainability of the TaLGAF program, several Community radios and some TVs that are managed by LGAs have responded positively.
To date the coordinators have received requests from Kilosa, Singida, Mbeya, Tanga and Mwanza LGAs for the complete set of material for the 6 moth sessions.
According to the report, the LGAs in these areas want to use existing TaLGAF material for training of staff, sensitization of decision makers, informing the public and creating awareness and to promote dialogue on key issues of LG management and service delivery, using their own resources.
In order to lead a structured system of debates with built-in features for a feedback mechanism, the coordinators are compiling a TaLGAF delivery kit that will be sent through District Administrative secretaries.
The delivery kits will comprise PowerPoint presentations, text, registration forms, evaluation forms and a format for feedback enclosed to the audio/video-taped material. Upon acceptance, next phase of TaLGAF will be cascaded timely with these community radios. Says the report.
To broaden participation of other national institutions in the delivery of TaLGAF programs including the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology that provides supports to rural community communication centers
The World World Bank Tanzania and SDC supported the project.

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