Dissertation (MA Public Administration)In this study, the researcher focused mainly on assessing the challenges facing the performance and accountability of local government in Zanzibar (LGs) through their roles and services to the society, whereby the selected case study was urban/west district at Unguja island in Zanzibar , The specific objectives aimed to examine the roles or functions , challenges and find out the extent to which the Urban - West local governments are accountable/responsible to the society of their local areas. Methods of data collection were exploratory descriptive qualitative and some quantitative approaches were adopted which included questionnaire survey, interview and panel discussion. Data collected were analyzed by a computer programme (Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) Version 16. Analytical tools used to analyze data were Likert Scale Weighting, Multiple Response Choice Analysis and Simple statistics. The results of this current study indicated that the Zanzibar local government authorities play the roles of formulating, coordinating and supervising the implementation of central government plans and services to the local areas, organizing the commercial, industrial and social development activities along the district or local authorities, ensuring the collection and proper utilization of revenue of particular areas. Findings also revealed that, challenges such as lack of reliable sources of funds, lack of qualified and skilled person face Zanzibar local government. The study recommended that, performance and accountability of local government depend on several factors, but most significant factor is ability of the staff in term of qualification, skills, and self-motivation in working.