This PhD work is part of the ongoing project that is done in collaboration between Mzumbe University and Antwerp University. The project is aimed at promoting good govern- ance through integrated community-based activities in Tanzania and it is sponsored by Belgian government through the VLIR-UOS under the Governance and Entrepreneurship through Education, Research, Access and Technology for Tanzania (Gre@t) programme. Special thanks to my promoters Prof. Dr. Nathalie Holvoet and Dr. Romanus Dimoso.River basin resources contribute in diverse ways in the livelihoods of rural people in Tanzania. People living around these areas depend on small scale agriculture, subsistence forestry, artisanal shing, livestock keepings, artisanal mining and small-scale trade as sources of livelihoods. While it was expected that these important livelihood assets would be used in sustainable ways, the destructive practices behaviour related to the use of basins resources are increasing. Increase of population, declining of agricultural productivity without increase of employment in industrial sector are among the factors that lead to competition for the use of river basin resources. This paper aims at providing an analytical framework that elaborates the relationship between people’s access to and control over resources and sustainability of River basin resources in Tanzania. It uses the concept of livelihood framework, together with insti- tutional theories to build the analytical framework that elaborates multiplicity of factors that affect sustainability of river basin resources in Tanzania. The livelihood framework is modi ed to include the concept of Ostrom’s polycentric governance system to study how different institu- tions interact in the governance of river basin resources in Tanzania to affect the sustainability of River basin resources. This is the rst paper to link the concept of polycentric governance sys- tem with the livelihood framework. This paper is part of the literature review that will feed into the PhD research on household development strategies and their linkage to RBR degradation in Tanzania.