A dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) of Mzumbe University
The study on community participation in TASAF funded sub- projects was conducted at Babati town council whereby 44 respondents participated. The general objective of the study was to assess the extent of community participation in implementation of TASAF funded sub projects and specific objectives were:- to determine approaches used by the council to involve the community in undertaking development projects, to establish the contributions of the community in the development projects, to determine the factors making the community not to be active in development projects, to identify accountability of funds collected from the community for development projects and to examine the initiatives of town council in improving community participation in the construction of secondary school teachers houses in TASAF funded sub projects. Two villages were selected namely, Kiongozi and Halla. Primary data were obtained through interviews and focus group discussion during the field survey and secondary data were collected from TASAF documents and reports, guidelines, memorandum of understanding, operational manual, journals and books.
The study found that the council uses participatory approaches in involving the community. However, the community does not participate effectively as it was expected. It was further found that the community contributes less in development projects. Moreover, it was found that poverty, lack of sensitization, lack of transparency, corruption, fraud and ignorance make the community not to be active in development projects. The study concludes poor community participation was mainly due to low income, several projects being implemented at once, lack of transparency, economic hardship and poor leadership. The study recommends that local authority should effectively involve the community in all planning process. Furthermore, the study recommends that the community should elect leaders who are transparent and committed.