Unblocking Results: A case study of Norwegian NCA... · 2018-11-16 · a number of challenges...

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Unblocking Results:A case study of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Accountability in Tanzania Programme

Unblocking Results:

A case study of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Francis Omondi | May 2014

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Acknowledgements

A number of people contributed to the success of this research. The valuable technical support from the AcT team (Kate Dyer, Rehema Tukai and Amani Manyelezi) at the initial and subsequent stages of the process contributed towards shaping the outcome of this report. Despite their busy schedule NCA staff members under the leadership of Trine Hveem are acknowledged for participating in the preliminary discussions that helped focus the study. More specifically we thank Augustina Mosha, Francis Uhadi and Sarah Shija.

Sincere appreciation goes towards CCT General Secretary Rev Dr L Mtaita for his warm reception and leadership. The services offered by Glory Baltazary in facilitating the field exercise and Simon Meigaro for providing relevant literature from CCT are well noted. We would also like to thank the PETS and VICOBA members that participated in the study from Kilosa and Bahi Districts. Their valuable insights in the form of their responses to the study issues are well appreciated. Government officials including Ward Executive Officers, Village Executive Officers as well as Councillors and Village Chairpersons in the wards and villages also deserve mention. Julia Tobias edited the draft report.

The financial support from UK Department for International Development that facilitated this study is well appreciated.

The author takes responsibility for any errors and omissions that may occur in this report.

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ContentsAcknowledgements .................................................................................................................... i

Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. iii

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 2

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4

1.1 Background on NCA ................................................................................................... 4

1.2 Background on AcT ..................................................................................................... 5

2. The Political Context .......................................................................................................... 6

2.1 The Political landscape and role of FBOs in governance ............................................. 6

2.2 Governance Constraints ............................................................................................... 7

2.2.1 Policy and institutional incoherence ..................................................................... 8

2.2.2 Poor top down and bottom up accountability mechanism .................................... 8

2.2.3 Potential for local problem solving through collective action ................................ 9

3 Intervention Design ............................................................................................................ 10

3.1 Theory of change and Activities .................................................................................. 10

3.2 How the engagement worked ...................................................................................... 11

3.2.1 Building and sustaining case for revenue loss and capital flight ............................ 11

3.2.2 Policy dialogues to strengthen top-down and bottom up accountability mechanisms ................................................................................... 13

3.2.3 Creating platforms for local collective problem solving ........................................ 13

3.3 The implementation approach and enabling factors .................................................... 14

4. Challenges ........................................................................................................................... 17

5. Lessons learned and Conclusions ........................................................................................ 18

Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 19

Annex 1: Features of AcT’s model .............................................................................................. 20

Annex 2: Unblocking results methodology ................................................................................. 21

Table 1: Identified blockages in NCA intervention framework .................................................. 7

Table 2: Enabling factors that supported NCA’s interventions ................................................... 15

Box 1: Overview of CCT ........................................................................................................... 11

Box 2: President’s Commitment to realising Child Rights ......................................................... 12

Picture 1: New village office, Zombo village Kilosa ................................................................... 16

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Abbreviations

AcT : Accountability in Tanzania ProgrammeBAKWATA : Baraza Kuu la Waislamu TanzaniaCAG : Controller and Auditor GeneralCCM : Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Ruling Party)CCT : Christian Council of TanzaniaCRC : Constitution Review CommissionCSOs : Civil Society OrganisationsDFID : Department for International DevelopmentELCT : Evangelical Lutheran Church in TanzaniaFBOs : Faith Based OrganisationGNRC : Global Network for Religion and ChildrenIRCPT : Inter Religious Council for Peace TanzaniaMSTCDC : Danish Training Centre for Development CooperationNCA : Norwegian Church AidODI : Overseas Development InstitutePCCA : Prevention and Combating of Corruption ActPCCB : Prevention and Combating of Corruption BureauPETS : Public Expenditure Tracking SystemTEC : Tanzania Episcopal ConferenceTRA : Tanzania Revenue AuthorityUK : United KingdomURT : United Republic of TanzaniaVEO : Village Executive OfficerVICOBA : Village Community BankWEO : Ward Executive Officer

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Executive Summary

engagement in demanding accountability has been the nexus of NCA’s work. This forms the centre of the organization’s theory of change which seeks to build the capacity of FBOs, religious leaders and citizens to demand for accountability. AcT seeks to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by ensuring that Tanzanians are increasingly able to claim and exercise their rights as citizens. AcT operates through the provision of funding to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that have the capacity and potential to innovate, scale-up and implement activities which increase the accountability of government around key national development priorities. In addition to funding AcT also provides a window for capacity building, mentoring, technical advisory support to CSOs and learning as well as research.

Findings indicate that NCA and its FBO partners embarked on a national level advocacy efforts to curb revenue loss and capital flight as a result of tax evasion and tax incentives. Through the Interfaith Standing Committee on Economic Justice and the Integrity of Creation, which is comprised of religious leaders from Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA) and Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) two major studies were commissioned by December 2012. The first study titled ‘The One Billion Dollar Question: How can Tanzania stop losing so much tax revenue?’ was launched just in time for budget session with 1000 copies produced. The report analyses Tanzania’s tax policies and how much revenue the country was losing through tax evasions, capital flight and tax incentives. The other study commissioned by the religious leaders was a scoping research on Uranium Mining Operations in Tanzania. This report interrogated the magnitude of Uranium operations in Tanzania and its potential impact on communities living around the Uranium mining areas. Both studies acted as a platform through which NCA and its partners launched advocacy initiatives with relevant government

This study is part of the AcT Learning Strategy papers aimed at sharing experiences on how the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), a partner organisation with Accountability Programme in Tanzania (AcT) has navigated through the governance constraints advanced by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Unblocking Results series. The first paper in this series involved a case study with Hakikazi Catalyst, another AcT partner organisation. The study also contributes to a shared learning objective between ODI and AcT under which the two organisations seek to show case how aid can be programmed to improve service delivery by addressing governance constraints. Through the Unblocking results series ODI and AcT have also jointly conducted two sister case studies with Tandabui Health Access Tanzania (THAT) and HelpAge International in Tanzania.

The research project seeks to gather evidence on whether, and how well, aid can help to resolve or mitigate governance problems that often hinder the delivery of broad-based public services in developing countries. This case study is based on a desk review of relevant literature combined with a five-day (10-15 March 2014) period of fieldwork involving interviews in Kilosa and Bahi districts. Persons involved in the study included government officials (Ward Executive Officers, Village Executive Officers), village chairpersons, area councillors and members of Public Expenditure Tracking System (PETS) committees. An interview with Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) General Secretary was also conducted.

The NCA is a Norwegian non-governmental and development organization that works to promote Social justice, Human Rights and Economic justice for poor communities in more than seventy Countries worldwide including Tanzania. The organisation’s mission is to see Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) and religious leaders mobilized and jointly bringing positive change to lives of ordinary citizens and local communities in Tanzania. Strengthening citizen’s

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departments. The government has so far reacted positively by instituting relevant measures to address issues raised by the two studies.

Through their various platforms religious leaders have engaged with the national government on governance and accountability issues from time to time in a non confrontational way. The Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue organized a meeting of 66 Bishops to discuss FBO’s participation into the current constitutional review process. The nomination and eventual appointment of Ms Jesca Mkuchu to be a commissioner of the CRC was a key outcome of this meeting. In addition religious leaders have played a significant role in defusing tensions between the central government and its citizens. These efforts have been personally acknowledged by the President and Prime Minister in separate forums.

At the local level NCA and its religious partners have facilitated the formation of PETS and inter-religious committees. These committees are instrumental structures in following up accountability in the use of public resources, peace building and conflict resolution. Despite hiccups here and there in the activities of PETS committees a number of significant changes have occurred whereby action has been taken to address misuse of public funds by certain local leaders. Inter-religious committees have also demonstrated some tangible results as exemplified by women in Kigoma who managed to intervene and settle the conflict between

Christians and Muslims in Mwandiga following one Christian man who had burned Islamic training book (juz’u) which contains Qur’ān verses.

In demonstrating these achievements NCA and her partners have been enabled by the unblocking results factors. These factors include ability to build on existing policies and legal frameworks as was the case with commissioning research to assess tax evasions, capital flight and the benefits of tax incentives. The Constitutional Review process was a window of opportunity utilised by NCA and its partners to influence governance in Tanzania. NCA and its partners have demonstrated their ability to facilitate meetings between the government and community. This was exemplified by the creation of effective platforms for dialogues. Lastly another enabling factor has been the learning and adaptive approach to programming facilitated by NCA and AcT as partners. The flexibility in funding and reporting has particularly been instrumental in cultivating this culture.

Despite the relatively impressive performance, a number of challenges bemoan NCA and its partners’ pace of progress. The uncooperative nature of some local leaders to support good governance and accountability has hampered local efforts by PETS committees. Inadequate resources to reach wider coverage have also been impediments to accountability.

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Introduction

governance problems. Existing studies tend to focus on the impact of specific types of accountability structures on service delivery, rather than the design and delivery features of aid programmes necessary to address such constraints. This research project begins to address this gap in literature by studying the interaction between constraints and aid packages in Tanzania. Like the other case studies this research is exploratory and the findings should be treated as preliminary. The study does not aim to evaluate the programmes against their stated objectives, nor measure their impact. Rather, it examines the types of aid-funded activities that seem most relevant to addressing governance constraints, making some speculative conclusions about their ability to do so as well as about the elements of the design and implementation approach that have facilitated the execution of these activities.

The Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), a partner organization of AcT, was selected for the AcT Learning study initiative due to their innovative approaches and successes creating platforms for non confrontational dialogue with relevant government departments and the local interface between FBOs, religious leaders and the community in addressing common governance constraints. A separate but linked case study focuses on another of AcT’s partner organizations, Haki Kazi Catalyst.

The section that follows provides some brief background information on both NCA and the AcT programme.

1.1 Background on NCA

The NCA is a Norwegian non-governmental and development organization that works to promote Social justice, Human Rights and Economic justice for poor communities in more than seventy communities worldwide. In Tanzania, NCA works with poor Communities in partnership with Faith Based Organisations

This study builds on the AcT Learning Strategy papers aimed at sharing experiences on how the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) a partner organisation with AcT has navigated through the governance constraints as advanced by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Unblocking Results series. The first paper in this series involved a case study with Haki Kazi Catalyst another AcT partner organisation. The study also contributes to a shared learning objective between ODI and AcT of which the two organisations seek to show case how aid can be programmed to improve service delivery by addressing governance constraints. Through the Unblocking results series ODI and AcT jointly conducted two sister case studies with Tandabui Health Access Tanzania (THAT) and HelpAge International in Tanzania.

Similar to the previous case study, the Unblocking Results methodology was employed by the study (Tilley 2014). This approach has been extensively utilised by ODI research project on aid and governance constraints. The research project seeks to gather evidence on whether, and how well, aid can help to resolve or mitigate governance problems that often hinder the delivery of broad-based public services in developing countries. Some studies1 have shown that weak governance and incentive problems continue to hinder the delivery of broad based public services especially in developing countries. More recently research has been conducted to understand the nature of these governance problems. For example ODI research categorizes typical constraints and incentive problems to service delivery, and shows that a number of common constraints underlie much of the variation in service delivery performance in developing countries (Tavakoli, et al. 2013). This study aims to build on this evidence base.

Through its research ODI argues that little evidence exists to show case whether, and how well, aid can help to resolve or mitigate these

1 Keefer and Khemani, 2003; World Bank 2004; and Collier 2007 (as referenced by Tobias and Omondi 2014)

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(FBOs) and religious leaders in 41 districts of mainland Tanzania, including Zanzibar. The organisation’s mission is to see FBOs and religious leaders mobilized and jointly bringing positive change to lives of ordinary citizens and local communities in Tanzania (Norwegian Church Aid 2012).

Working with large FBOs like Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT), the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) and the National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA), NCA carries out varied activities to achieve its mission. This study focuses on two streams of work that include national advocacy efforts to streamline Tanzania’s revenue collection in the extractive sector and local level initiatives to support communities to solve governance problems. In its current Strategic Plan that runs 2011/15 NCA forecasts a total budget of Tsh.23,000,000,000 of which AcT contributes 26.5 percent over a period of 4.years.

1.2 Background on AcTThe Accountability in Tanzania Programme (AcT) seeks to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by ensuring that Tanzanians are increasingly able to claim and exercise their rights as citizens. AcT acknowledges that a strengthened civil society can act as a vehicle to achieve this goal. In this regard AcT operates through the provision of funding to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that have the capacity and potential to innovate, scale-up and implement activities which increase the accountability of government around key national development priorities. In addition to funding, AcT also provides a window for capacity building, mentoring, technical advisory support to CSOs and learning as well as research (Accountability in Tanzania Programme 2013).

With a portfolio of GBP 31 million over the period 2009-2015, AcT has funded 27 CSOs, whose work cuts across a diverse range of sectors

(including health, agriculture, natural resources and more recently climate change) but is united by a shared focus on strengthening accountability in Tanzania. AcT’s approach recognizes that it would not make sense to advocate a single theory or model for strengthening civil society, given the diversity inherent in the goals of its partners. Thus, one of the defining characteristics of the model is the provision of funding to support the strategic goals of its partners (budget support) rather than specific project-based funding. The model also recognizes the capacity limitations of some of its partner organizations and particularly the constraints they face within the governance environment that they operate. A flexible, tailored approach to working with its grantees (referred to as ‘partner organizations’) is a central component of AcT’s strategy for confronting these realities. Another notable feature of AcT’s model, which is critically examined in this report, is the use of outcome mapping tools to evaluate the achievements of its partner organizations, rather than standard logical frameworks. More details on AcT are provided in Annex 1.

Applying the Unblocking Results methodology, which is summarized in Annex 2, this case study is based on a desk review of relevant literature combined with a five-day (10-15 March 2014) period of fieldwork involving interviews in Kilosa and Bahi districts. In Kilosa interviews and focus groups discussions were conducted with government officials (Ward Executive Officers, Village Executive Officers), village chairpersons, and area councillors, members of PETS committee in Zombo and Magole villages. In Bahi the team conducted focus group discussions with PETS committee members and interviews with WEOs, VEOs and councillors for Gairo, Mtitaa, and Mazizi and Mpamantwa areas. An interview was also conducted with the CCT General Secretary.

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2. The Political Context

This section covers broader issues affecting the political environment in Tanzania with special focus on governance constraints in which NCA and its FBO partners operate.

2.1 The Political landscape and role of FBOs in governance

Tanzania has high levels of religious and ethnic diversity, as well as generally high levels of political stability and national unity. Tanzania’s political landscape is dominated by CCM (Chama cha Mapinduzi) party, which has ruled the country since independence from British colonial rule in 1961. While multi-party elections were introduced in 19922 and opposition parties have captured some seats in Parliament, CCM has maintained control as the ruling party throughout this period. Historically, CCM has maintained its power and legitimacy largely based on its ability to provide public goods with mass appeal and to give its representatives access to resources that can be channelled to citizens through the local government (Tobias and Omondi 2014).

In the recent past the ruling party and opposition parties have been protracted in locally motivated conflicts and tensions. This has prompted the use of police force to suppress opposition parties’ activities resulting into riots and a number of deaths. Increasing religious intolerance in the last five years is another staggering problem that has resulted into burning of churches, killing of religious leaders and social insecurity in the country. As noted by CCT, rampant corruption, especially around public contracts and mismanagement of public resources has arguably led to poor social service delivery. Incidences of human rights violation such as kidnapping and torture are also on the rise. These issues have been raised in the public debates that are further facilitated by the on-going Constitutional

2 This stemmed from recommendations by Judge Francis Nyalali led commission for a multi party system. This was followed by the enactment of the Political Parties Act 1992.

Review Process3. The Review is to be finalized in 2014 ahead of the general elections scheduled for 2015 (Christian Council of Tanzania 2014).

The Christian Council of Tanzania acknowledges that the current Constitution upholds the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights, electoral democracy, and devolution of power to local authorities and assurance of accountability, transparency, and integrity in the management of public affairs. In light of that, the constitution allows for debates in the public sphere through various platforms. However, the ability to do so is often hindered by absence of legal literacy among the rural populace (Christian Council of Tanzania 2014).

A number of studies have been carried out to measure citizens’ perceptions of corruption in Tanzania. For example in 2010 Transparency International conducted an East African Bribery index that revealed worrying results for Tanzania. 85 percent of respondents claimed that Tanzania was between corrupt and extremely corrupt. When asked if the corruption levels had changed since the previous year 72 percent of the respondents stated that corruption levels had either increased or remained unchanged. 60 percent of the respondents painted a gloomy picture on the projected level of corruption in the next one year by stating that corruption levels in the country will either raise or remain unchanged. According to 40 percent of the respondents the government was not committed to fight corruption (Norwegian Church Aid 2012)

3 However while commenting on the ongoing Con-stitution Review process CCT observes that “...the special parliament for Constitution review has been interrupted by the ruling party CCM which has begun challenging citizens’ ideas on the con-stitution ( which were collected by the special commission chaired by Retired Judge Warioba). This has resulted to misunderstanding hence for-mation of two opposing parties within the special parliament for Constitution, one side for CCM and the other side for UKAWA (Umoja wa Katiba ya Wananchi) means “The Unity Constitution for the Citizens”.

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It has been argued that in the recent past participation in governance and accountability issues has been a preserve of mainstream civil societies and political leaders. Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) including NCA have been somewhat marginalised in this role. Authors such as Nordstokke have argued that , probably this could have been due to FBOs being perceived as propagating a certain religious faith that marks their value system and practices (Nordstokke Undated). To justify FBO participation in development work and moreso governance and accountability the author states the following about FBOs: “...Their advantage is therefore both the ability to motivate and mobilize people for action at the grassroots level, and to be engaged in advocacy at national and international levels. They often enjoy confidence and moral authority both among the poorest, but also with political leaders”. Rick James in his paper titled ‘What is distinctive about FBOs?’ acknowledges that “FBOs may be distinctive in their ability to bridge legitimacy at grassroots level with global reach and influence” ( James 2009). The arguments propagated by these two researchers justify the need for FBOs to actively

engage in governance and accountability issues since they command trust at local, national and even international levels. As advanced in this paper NCA and its partners have adopted a non confrontational approach of engaging with the central government when pressing for policy change.

The Unblocking Results research methodology has identified a set of potential constraints to effective governance that are common to many country and project contexts (Tilley 2014). The constraints are: the degree of policy and institutional coherence, the extent of top-down performance disciplines or bottom-up accountability mechanisms, and the enabling environment for locally anchored problem-solving and collective action. Previous work on the Unblocking Results initiatives has found that these governance constraints are a common and important factor in explaining service delivery performance in developing countries. The section below reviews these governance constraints and their cross-cutting nature, and illustrates how they shape the broad governance environment in which NCA and AcT’s programmes operate.

2.2 Governance Constraints

Table 1 summarises the governance constraints identified in the NCA intervention framework.

Table 1: Identified blockages in NCA intervention frameworkArea of blockage Example of constraint

Policy and institutional incoherence

• Inadequate capacity of state officers and institutions to fight corruption

• Poor quality of public governance leading to poor delivery of social services

Top down and bottom up accountability mechanisms

• Weak top-down supervisory role due to entrenched impunity

• Inability of FBOs, religious leaders and community to exercise bottom-up pressure due to lack of awareness on legal and policy framework on anti-corruption

• Common practice and inheritance from colonial system on the common rule of top-Down

Potential for local problem solving through collective action

• Inadequate structures and institutions for FBOs, religious leaders and communities to demand for good governance and delivery of social services

• Inadequate capacity of FBOs and religious leaders to demand for action

• Lack of clear linkage between FBOs, Religious leaders and the community on Advocacy issues

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2.2.1 Policy and institutional incoherence

The United Republic of Tanzania (URT) had endeavoured to create a country free of corruption in its various forms (e.g. bribery, embezzlement) through the National Leadership Code of Ethics of the Arusha Declaration. Adherence to this code of ethics began proving a challenge way back in 1980, 20 years after the country gained independence as captured in the NCA project application “...way back in 2001 it was reported that the start of the worst phase of corruption in Tanzania was traced back by the World Bank to about 1980” (Norwegian Church Aid 2012). Successive governments begining with that of President Benjamin W. Mkapa (1995-2005) and now President Jakaya M Kikwete (2005-present) have tried unsuccessively to fight this menace. For example during the leadership of President Mkapa, the government adopted a National Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan 1999 whose effectiveness remained questionable. An independent assessment by a World Bank team in the country pointed out that “corrupt elements exploited and maintained poverty at the national level”. When his turn came President Kikwete renewed the country’s commitment to fight corruption. Diplomats have continued to complain that the levels of corruption have continued to rise unabbatted (Norwegian Church Aid 2012).

Efforts by bodies charged with fighting corruption such as the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) have not been satisfactory as stated by NCA in its project application “...government’s efforts have been too mechanical and focusing on fighting (combating) corruption rather than addressing the root causes of corruption”. According to the PCCB website

out of 49,853 allegations received since 2005, administrative action had been taken against 816 public servants only. The number of cases filed in courts since the PCCA Act 2007 was only 1557 with 378 convictions against offenders. The bureau continues to state that Tsh 47,686,737,345 had been recovered to date. On the other hand according to the Tanzania Corruption Tracker System that is hosted and

managed by Agenda Participation 2000, a Tanzanian Non Governmental organisation working to promote a culture of good governance and democracy, only 21 percent of the reported cases were investigated. Armed with statistics from PCCB headquarters the organisation claims that in 2008 only 938 cases out of 6,137 reported cases of corruption were investigated. Of the investigated cases only 147 were taken to court (Norwegian Church Aid 2012).

The extent and depth of corruption in Tanzania has affected the quality and level of public service delivery. For example, available Public Expenditure Reports indicate that substantive resources allocated for key social service delivery were being lost to corruption and misuse (Norwegian Church Aid 2012). In addition, as reported in the corruption tracker system

the Controller and Auditor General’s (CAG) reports indicate that over 33 percent of the national budget was lost to corruption with an estimated Tsh 1.7 trillion having been misused or not properly accounted for in 2008/09 alone. It is further argued that the funds lost could have been used to cover the 2008/09 Education and Infrastructure budget of Tsh 1.03Bn and Tsh 777Bn respectively in order to further improve the delivery of these services.

2.2.2 Poor top down and bottom up accountability mechanism

Poor top down accountability has been hampered by the central government’s inability to stamp out corruption. While significant attempts have been made by the government to fight corruption, a gap still exists that NCA and its partners can complement these efforts. Having joined the call for good governance and accountability rather recently, NCA and its partners need to strengthen the capacities of their actors who in this case are religious leaders, FBOs and communities to effectively call the national and local governments to account. Capacity building in this sense means creating structures and platforms through which to engage in governance and accountability issues as well as educate them on policies and legal frameworks that affect good governance and accountability. In addition NCA ought

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to provide this constituency (religious leaders, FBOs and communities) with governance tools for effective engagement.

2.2.3 Potential for local problem solving through collective action

In its grant application NCA portends that “Citizens are continuously getting disappointed by the quality of social services which has been deteriorating over the years and the quality of governance and public service delivery which has not improved the quality of social service delivery”. In this case there is a call for citizens to wake up and participate in planning, make follow up on the use of public resources and demand for good governance and accountability from their leaders both at the national and local levels. To do this effectively community based structures that allow citizens to regularly meet and dialogue with their leaders are of essence. This platform gives them an opportunity to raise and question governance issues at the local level.

One such structure is the village assemblies that are meant to hold meetings after every three months according to local government regulations. However as reported by the PHDR 2011, in a survey conducted in 6 local councils

citizen participation in local planning declined slightly probably due to council’s failure to implement plans. The report further states that only 47 percent of respondents had attended a village assembly three months prior to the study (Research and Analysis Working Group, United Republic of Tanzania 2011). In addition an independent assessment by one of the AcT partners Haki Kazi Catalyst that works in Arusha and Manyara regions it was revealed that village assembly meetings were not held as frequently as required by law (quarterly), in some instances the agenda was not made public by the local leaders and that attendance by community members was quite low prompting the postponement of some meetings (Francis 2008). This could mean that such meetings though legally formulated could not be easily accessible to citizens. As such NCA and its partners need to devise alternative platforms through which citizens can freely and regularly express their opinions on governance issues affecting their daily lives including corruption issues. Through these platforms communities can be educated on existing policy and legal frameworks on governance and accountability as well as being enlightened on how they can effectively participate in demanding for their leaders’ accountability.

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3 Intervention Design

NCA has managed to apply these strategies in bringing change at the national as well as the local level. At the national level the strategies have been geared towards promoting policy and institutional coherence while at the local level efforts have sought to facilitate top-bottom and bottom accountability mechanisms as well as identifying local solutions through collective action. Worth noting though, is that these strategies have been mutually reinforcing each other.

In the first area through PETS, Civic Education, VICOBA, Interfaith Committees and Peace clubs NCA and its faith based partners have been mobilizing groups and communities for social change, especially women, to claim their rights to economic literacy and development. Other areas that NCA and its faith based partners have brough change include peace building, access to health care, gender justice, climate justice and to secure sustainable livelihood in rural and urban environments.

In the second area NCA encouraged and supported horizontal community level linkages. This was carried out through establishing a network of VICOBA groups to facilitate trainings, exchange of experience and trading. With Interfaith Committee structures, NCA formed an entwined mesh of religious actors addressing conflicts from the grass root level to the national level as well as supporting a downward and upward expansion of interfaith dialogues/peace building and collaboration. At the national level, platforms were supported, and where lacking, created for the purposes of joint advocacy and lobbying. These included FBO platforms (e.g. Christian Council of Tanzania, Inter-Religious Council for Peace Tanzania - IRCPT, BAKWATA, and Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue group (TEC) among others), Youth Networks (GNRC, YouthCAN, TYIN), Women networks (WIN, TWIN) and the Tanzania ACT Forum among others. NCA continued to support and nurture the Standing Interfaith Committee on Economic Justice and

In this section we begin with a descriptive overview of NCA’s intervention model and theory of change in Section 3.1, followed by an analysis in Section 3.2 that explores how the organization has navigated the governance constraints described in the previous section. This is done in the context of the broader features of the Tanzanian political economy and the specific governance constraints that affect delivery of services for citizens. Section 3.3 analyses the implementation approach used while applying the Unblocking Results framework to draw out some of the enabling factors supporting the strategy.

3.1 Theory of change and ActivitiesThe NCA is a Norwegian non-governmental and development organization that promotes Social justice, Human Rights and Economic justice for poor communities in more than seventy Countries worldwide. NCA has its foundations based in a congregation of churches in Norway, whose efforts are dedicated towards eradicating poverty, its causes and social deprivation. In Tanzania, NCA works with poor Communities in partnership with Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) and religious leaders in 41 districts of mainland Tanzania, including Zanzibar (Norwegian Church Aid 2012). In Tanzania, NCA’s mission is to see FBOs and religious leaders mobilised and jointly bringing positive changes to lives of ordinary citizens and local communities. NCA’s mission is guided by its core values that encompass Compassion, Justice, Participation, Integrity Creation and Peace.

To realise its mission of bringing positive changes to lives of ordinary citizens and local communities NCA utilises the following two key activity areas:

• Mobilising communities for social change

• Building horizontal and vertical alliances and networks

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the Integrity of Creation.

Strengthening citizen’s engagement in demanding accountability has been the nexus of NCA’s work. This forms the centre of the organization’s theory of change which seeks to build the capacity of FBOs, religious leaders and citizens to demand for accountability.

Apart from describing NCA’s activities, one of NCA’s partners, CCT, was visited for this case study and in box 1 below we provide a brief overview of CCT’s activities.

The Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) was established in January 1934 by missionaries of the Anglican, Moravian and Lutheran churches as a fellowship of Church and non-Church Christian organizations to promote the spiritual and prophetic unity of the Church, its development and advocacy. It is currently constituted of 12 National Churches and 12 Church–related organizations. CCT’s mission is to foster unity and enhance capacities of members to witness for Christ and build holistic development. Programmes supported by NCA and implemented by CCT through their membership have included national level advocacy, interfaith relations, public expenditure tracking and legal services, climate change, youth empowerment, HIV and AIDS, women development and media advocacy. CCT’s approach to working especially with the government is that of non-confrontational.

An interview with the General Secretary Rev Leonard Mtaita revealed that all CCT programmes had an advocacy component. He further stated the seriousness with which CCT members held good governance values that after being introduced to PETS concept one of the bishop’s stated “before going to check others why don’t we start with ourselves...we need a self expenditure tracking system for the church”. He confirmed that the bishop had since rolled out the system in his church. When asked to enumerate some of the key achievements the General Secretary mentioned acknowledgement by the Prime minister in parliament that CCT was a government’s partner. This was demonstrated at one time when the government gave CCT funds to carry out a PETS exercise in one of the districts. The government has also invited CCT to join the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

3.2 How the engagement worked

In this section we show case how interventions implemented by NCA and its FBO partners have managed to address the three governance constraints: policy and institutional incoherence, inadequate top-down and bottom up mechanisms and weak environment for locally anchored collective problem solving. In this instance we demonstrate how NCA and its partners have managed to institute national and local level strategies to address these three governance constraints. We provide vivid examples to illustrate specific results realised for each intervention.

3.2.1 Building and sustaining case for revenue loss and capital flight

NCA and its FBO partners embarked on national level advocacy efforts to curb revenue loss and capital flight as a result of tax evasion and tax incentives. Through the Interfaith Standing Committee on Economic Justice and the Integrity of Creation, which is comprised of religious leaders from Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), National Muslim Council of Tanzania (BAKWATA) and Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) two major studies were commissioned by December 2012. The first study titled ‘The One Billion Dollar Question: How can Tanzania stop losing so much tax revenue?’ was launched just in time

Box 1: Overview of CCT

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“I want to assure you that, my Government and I are satisfied with the invaluable contributions of the GNRC in pitching for the advancement of our children. I pledge our readiness to strengthen the cooperation with your Organization and work with you towards the realization of our shared goal of ensuring that Tanzanian children get the opportunity to live and grow in a conducive and secure environment. An environment that supports them to reach their fullest potential”...President Kikwete

Source: NCA Periodic report Jan-Dec 2012

for budget session with 1000 copies produced. The report analyses Tanzania’s tax policies and how much revenue the country is losing through tax evasions, capital flight and tax incentives (Tanzania Episcopal Conference, National Muslim Council of Tanzania and Christian Council of Tanzania 2012).

As reported in NCA’s January-December 2012 periodic report to AcT, the report has generated a lot of discussions and debates on capital flight and revenue loss at both national and international levels. At the national level the report has influenced parliamentary discussions through which opposition MPs including Hons Silinde, Zitto Kabwe, Luhaga Mpina and John Mnyika have made extensive reference to the report. Separate papers have also been produced and presented at international conference and to the Parliamentary Committee on Economic and Finance Affairs. Discussions between religious leaders, the Ministry of Finance and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) have also borne some fruit with action being taken by the latter. Some of the tangible actions taken by TRA include the process of establishing a transfer pricing desk and working towards developing a transfer pricing law. TRA has also established a department of International Taxation to address transfer pricing and taxation of multinational companies (Norwegian Church Aid 2013). At the international front the report caught the attention of international tax justice activists and revenue experts to influence the 2013 high level meeting on Transfer Pricing and Financial Secrecy to be held in Tanzania (Norwegian Church Aid 2012).

In the academic arena the report has been used as a reference material in places such as Mzumbe University, Bishop Kolowa University Lushoto and courses offered at MSTCDC in Arusha. A case in point was when students from Bishop Kolowa University sensitized the community in Magamba village, Lushoto to resist an investor’s attempt to acquire Bauxite mining rights in the area. The investor had failed to convince the villagers on how he could address mining injustices experienced in other areas as outlined in the ‘One Billion

Dollar Question’ report. The investor failed to get a mining license due to citizen’s pressure (Norwegian Church Aid 2013). In addition religious leaders have taken bold steps to engage with existing mining companies to address economic injustices committed to communities living within the mining sites. For example the religious leaders held productive discussions with management of Geita Gold Mines and African Barrick Gold in which tangible measures were proposed to address concerns raised by the communities. Geita Gold Mine agreed to resettle displaced persons in collaboration with the local government authorities, while African Barrick Gold agreed to construct a water cleanser that would ensure clean and safe drinking water for these communities. Both parties agreed to periodically engage on monitoring activities which would involve members of the communities affected.

The other study commissioned by the religious leaders was a scoping research on Uranium Mining Operations in Tanzania. This report interrogated the magnitude of Uranium operations in Tanzania and its potential impact on communities living around the Uranium mining areas. The report elicited reactions from the government ministry in charge of mining to state that “… the government had taken all the necessary steps to ensure that the catastrophes of Uranium mining are avoided”. Other non state actors including the Legal and Human Rights Centre had also followed up the report by commissioning a documentary titled “The Road to Calamity.”

Box 2: President’s Commitment to realising Child Rights

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3.2.2 Policy dialogues to strengthen top-down and bottom up accountability mechanisms

Through their various platforms, religious leaders have engaged with the national government on governance and accountability issues from time to time. The Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue organized a meeting of 66 Bishops to discuss FBO’s participation into the current constitutional review process. As an outcome of this meeting which involved participation of central government officials, President Jakaya Kikwete nominated and appointed Ms Jesca Mkuchu, former Executive Director of TEDG as a commissioner to the CRC.

Religious leaders have also played a significant role in defusing tensions between the central government and its citizens. A case in point is when 22 religious leaders under the umbrella of CCT met with the Prime Minister Hon Mizengo Pinda to discuss options of resolving the medical doctors’ strike that had taken an ugly shape by an attack on one of doctors’ leaders-Dr. Ulimboka. In appreciating the role played by religious leaders in resolving the doctors’ strike President Kikwete in his periodic address to the nation made special reference to the meeting with religious leaders as one of the key sources of the strike’s breakthrough (Norwegian Church Aid 2012). While it is expected that CCT should be pressing the government to deliver better policies for its people they appear to have taken another role as mediators. In this case CCT was expected to press the government to respond to issues raised by the doctors. However, this approach seems to work best for the government as it appears to acknowledge CCT’s efforts in calming the doctors’ strike.

Other notable initiatives have been exemplified by the role played the Global Network for Religion and Children (GNRC) organized an international meeting on advocacy for peace and child rights. The meeting was attended by President Kikwete who restated his government’s commitments towards accountability and respect to children’s rights (see box 2). It was noted that part of CCT’s strategy is to build on relationships which give them a better position

to negotiate with the government on policy matters as they arise. This makes CCT to be trusted by the government.

3.2.3 Creating platforms for local collective problem solving

NCA and its religious partners have facilitated the formation of PETS and Interfaith committees at the local level. These committees are instrumental structures in following up accountability in the use of public resources. The PETS committees work independent of existing government structures but more often collaborate with government officials when demanding for accountability. The committees have faced a number of challenges4 including resistance from their local leaders, being threatened and criticised by political leaders. For example PETS committee members from Bahi Market, Dodoma Region have repeatedly been victimised by the local authorities, sometimes even being threatened and their property confiscated by the same authorities. Despite these hurdles some PETS committees have continued to play their roles quite effectively. A PETS exercise in Kilosa District exposed misuse of public funds by the local Village Executive Officer (VEO) who was expelled by the District Commissioner after pleading guilty of misuse of agricultural inputs subsidy vouchers.

In another case PETS committee members in Mazizi village managed to pressurize the Village Executive Officer who was accused of embezzling village water project funds to start repayment. The members ensured that a more efficient water pump was purchased and installed to facilitate access to clean and safe water supply by the villagers. The PETS committee members also successfully managed to reposes land in which the water project stood from a former Member of Parliament who had illegally acquired it. In Mpamantwa village, Bahi District the PETS committee members

4 NCA and its FBO partners have since organized a na-tional interfaith climate (youthCAN) and PETS caravans to show case citizen’s role in enhancing accountability and transparency in public spending and use of public resources. Th caravans also sought to renew PETS active role at the local level. The event was graced by the Deputy Minister for Local Government, Hon Kassim Majaliwa who used the occassion to launch thePETS taining manual.

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intervened to ensure that a Chinese firm that was harvesting ballast conforms to its promise of compensating the village members for the dust that was emanating from the mining site. The firm had fulfilled its promise of remitting some amount of money that would go towards the construction of a secondary school in the area. The researcher’s visit to the village confirmed that the classrooms for the secondary school had been completed. The firm had also promised to construct the village access road.

In terms of Interfaith Commitees as reported in the CCT 2013 progress report three new committees (Mwanza, Kilosa – Women, Geita – Women) were formed during the reporting period, making a total of 12 committees at the time. Nine (9) committees (Bahi, Dodoma, Kondoa, Kiteto, Geita, Kigoma, Kilosa, Tarime and Mwanza) comprised of religious leaders (who were all men) and three (3) committees (Kigoma, Kilosa and Geita) comprises entirely of women. At least half of these committees met regularly to discuss and settle interfaith issues and other raising topical issues in their areas of operations. In Mwanza there were other initiatives of forming interfaith and peace building committee prior to CCT’s intervention. One of the notable results of the interfaith was in Kigoma where women managed to intervene and settled conflict between Christians and Muslims in Mwandiga following one Christian man who had burned an Islamic training book (juz’u) that contains Qur’ān verses. This incident demonstrates the powere of women in promoting interfaith relations and peaceful coexistance.

At the community level social economic activities have been promoted through Inter-Religious Village Community Banks (IR-VICOBA). As reported by the CCT progress report the IR-VICOBA was being practiced in two districts-Kondoa and Dodoma urban with 10 and 11 groups respectively. The Dodoma groups was peculiar because they were made up of youth, who also included members engaged in motorcycle transport business, popularly

known as Bodaboda.

3.3 The implementation approach and enabling factors

As outlined above NCA and its FBO partners began their intervention approach by commissioning two major studies that identified problems afflicting Tanzania’s revenue collection more so tax evasions and incentives especially in the mining sector leading loss of much needed revenue in form of capital flight. The other study sought to explore issues that affect the extractive industry with particular focus on uranium. The outcome of these two case studies has been successfully employed by NCA and their FBO partners to facilitate national level advocacy to bring about corrective measures. This has been done by engaging with relevant government ministries and departments in an attempt to address policy incoherence.

To some extent these advocacy efforts have also trickled down to the local level where some villagers (case of Magamba village, Lushoto) engaged a potential mining investor who did not have any clue on how to prevent previous injustices committed by mining companies in other areas. The investor, having not convinced the villagers on his commitment to tackling potential conflicts with communities living around the mining site, was denied mining rights. This demonstrates the local community’s ability to identify collective local action to deal with local problems. Through the activities of PETS and VICOBA, communities have been mobilised to tackle bottom-up accountability challenges at the local level.

In this section we therefore provide some few specific examples that show how the implementation approach applied some of the key features, enabling the unblocking of the governance constraints in line with the Unblocking Results framework. Table 2 summarises examples of the identified enabling factors:

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Table 2: Enabling factors that supported NCA’s interventions

constitutional matters in Tanzania. The Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue was one such platform through which religious leaders engaged the government for an opportunity to effectively participate in the constitutional review process. This engagement led to the nomination and eventual appointment of a former TEDG Executive Director as a Commissioner of the CRC. This was a significant step since NCA and its FBO partners had the opportunity to directly influence the constitutional review process. Through its non-confrontational approach to advocacy issues NCA and its FBO partners have managed to build a mutual and trusted relationship with the government. This can be illustrated by the leader’s positive reference to the role played by religious leaders in solving conflicts afflicting the country. For example at one of his regular addresses to the nation President Kikwete noted the role played by religious leaders under the leadership of CCT to help solve the doctor’s strike. This notion has placed NCA and its FBO partners at a vantage point to influence policy issues as they arise.

Acting as a facilitatorWhile acting as a facilitator NCA and its FBO partners have supported a number of platforms through which both the national and local governments have met to chart the way forward regarding governance challenges facing the

Enabling factor Examples from NCA’s approach

Building on existing policies and legal frameworks

• Analysing existing legal and policy frameworks guiding the extractive industry (e.g. Mining Act, Tax policies) to identify inherent gaps

• Advocating for the strengthening of existing policies to promote revenue collection and humane treatment of communities living around mining sites

Identifying and seizing windows of opportunity for advocacy activities

• Utilising the existing window of the Constitutional review to lobby for representation

• Building and sustaining good relationship with government to identify policy influencing avenues as they arise

Acting as facilitators • Facilitating platforms for FBOs, religious leaders and communities to coordinate and lead a collective agenda

• Taking advantage of the trust accorded to FBOs by communities and leaders to bridge the gap between the two groups

Learning and adaptive approaches to programming

• Using adaptive approaches to programme design and evaluation in response to changing governance dynamics and constraints.

Building on existing policies and legal frameworksAs an entry point to advocacy, NCA and its FBO partners commissioned two major studies that analysed existing policies in the extractive industry. The purpose of these studies was to determine potential areas that NCA and its partners would strengthen to support Tanzania’s revenue collection efforts and which would promote human rights especially to communities living around the mining sites. NCA and their FBO partners have managed to engage the central government to ensure that revenue losses are curbed. TRA has demonstrated the need to review its structure by instituting a department of international taxation to address transfer pricing and taxation of multi nationals in the mining sector. NCA have also been successful in engaging with these multinationals to ensure that they fairly treat communities living around the mining areas. Tangible working relationships including joint periodic monitoring visits have been instituted between the religious entities and the multinationals (African Barrick Gold and Geita Gold Mine).

Identifying and seizing opportunities for advocacy activitiesThe constitutional review process provided a significant opportunity through which NCA and their FBO partners could influence

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country. One such activity was a PETS caravan that involved interfaith and youth PETS on one hand the community and government on the other. This event was meant to show case the roles of the community and government towards social accountability. The deputy Minister for local government was the chief guest in this event. He reiterated the government’s commitment towards governance and accountability and even launched the PETS training manual to be used by PETS committee members and facilitators (Norwegian Church Aid 2013).

At the local level CCT one of NCA’s partners has facilitated the formation of PETS committees that provide platforms through

which communities can question errors and omissions by local leaders regarding public resources. In Zombo village Kilosa district the PETS committee members mobilised themselves to supervise the construction of the village office . The committee members ensured that funds allocated for the construction were spent well. (see picture 1). The local area councillor who was previously a PETS member before getting elected assisted the members to mobilise funds through citizens for the office’s construction. The presence of the office would greatly assist PETS Committee members to organise themselves and be taken seriously by the village government.

Picture 1: New village office, Zombo village Kilosa

Learning and adaptive approaches to programming

Through the semi-annual outcome mapping reporting format, NCA and its FBO partners have been flexible to report on what progress they have achieved during that period, as opposed to what impact they have made. This type of reporting gives the partner some opportunity to reflect on what is working and what is not working. This demonstrates that the reporting format is sensitive to the change and dynamic governance environment. The monitoring visits conducted by NCA to its FBO partners have also been taken positively by these partners as a learning opportunity. (Norwegian Church Aid 2013).

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4. Challenges

In some instances, the work of PETS committees in some villages has been hampered by the lack of cooperation by some local government leaders. As stated by a councillor in Zombo village, Kilosa district “our leaders (especially from local government) do not like to be questioned; when you do that they feel you are following them”. This has discouraged some PETS members who have dropped from that role after weighing opportunity cost of being a member of the committee and the effect to their personal life. This is because in some places like Bahi market village some PETS committee members have been victimised and intimidated to the extent of being dispossessed of their property such as land. To some extend this scenario has led to long running court battles which has further dwindled personal resources of these members. This is a drawback to proponents of good

governance and accountability especially at the local level.

Inadequate resources to reach wider area especially those well deserved. During the field visit the researcher came across some villages that had just formed PETS committees and had not received training. When asked, the Project Coordinator indicated that there were no funds during this project period to train new PETS members. In its periodic reporting for Jan-Dec 2013 NCA had indicated that it had slowed down training activities to ensure those already trained practice gained skills. However, with the advent of fresh committees being formed it would rather be appropriate to ensure that trainings and monitoring visits are continuous.

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5. Lessons learned and Conclusions

By building on existing legal and policy frameworks through commissioning studies, NCA and her partners have managed to set the grounds for effective advocacy efforts with relevant government authorities. The non-confrontational approach to advocacy has also worked in favour of NCA and her partners. The outcome of this has been the ability of the government to acknowledge that NCA and her partners as being a partner in development.

Through NCA and its FBO partners interventions religious leaders have been catalysed to take an active role in influencing national policy and governance processes in Tanzania. This has been demonstrated by religious leaders’ engagement with specific government departments and agencies through effective platforms. To name a couple of platforms have been utilised by religious leaders to engage with the government at national level; Tanzania Interfaith Platform which facilitates consultations on peace matters and JUHUDI za Viongozi wa dini, used to discuss political processes in the country and how these affect faith based constituencies.

At the local level, change has also been demonstrated especially through the activities of PETS committees. A number of incidences of misuse of public funds have been identified and action taken against perpetrators amid non cooperation of local leaders in some areas. This is an indication that if facilitated communities are able to take their leaders to account.

In conclusion we can state that the fact that NCA and her FBO partners worked with existing policy and legal framework was an enabling factor that ensured its success in advocating for changes in those policies and

legal frameworks. Commissioning of a study to determine the extent to which Tanzania was losing out on tax incentives was a strategy that helped lay ground works for such an advocacy initiative. The identification and targeting of specific government bodies in this case TRA was a step in the right direction. It is a mix of these strategies that pushed NCA and its partners to the limelight in national advocacy issues despite having joined the good governance and accountability band wagon rather late.

Having successfully engaged the government at the national level, NCA and its partners devised effective platforms that sustained this positive relationship with the government. It was through one such platform-Tanzania Ecumenical Dialogue that NCA and its partners gained the government’s commitment to nominate one of their own as a commissioner in the Constitution Review Commission. The religious tainted non-confrontational approach has also been an approach well-crafted by NCA and her partners.

At the programme implementation level we further observe that the flexible outcome mapping approach encouraged by AcT has enabled NCA and its partners to navigate through the ever changing governance environment by selecting what is working. This approach encourages learning as an effective way to programming. AcT has not required NCA to engage in impact reporting that follows the traditional logic framework. Worth noting is the fact that apart from flexible reporting (semi-annually) AcT has been partially supporting NCA’s strategic plan as opposed to project based funding that could be quite limiting.

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Works Cited

Norwegian Church Aid. Periodic Reporting: January-December 2012. Progress Report, Dar es Salaam: NCA, 2012.

Research and Analysis Working Group, United Republic of Tanzania. Poverty and Human Development Report. PHDR, Dar es Salaam: RAWG, 2011.

Tanzania Episcopal Conference, National Muslim Council of Tanzania and Christian Council of Tanzania. The 1 Billion Dollar Question: Can Tanzania stop being plundered? Research Report, Dar es Salaam: TEC, BAKWATA and CCT, 2012.

Tavakoli, Heidi, Rebecca Simson, Helen Tilley, and David Booth. Using aid to address governance constraints in service delivery: Methods and Resources. Research report, London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2013.

Tilley, Helen. “Unblocking Results: Methodology Guide.” Methodology guide, 2014.

Tobias, Julia, and Francis Omondi. Unblocking Results: Case Study of Help Age in Tanzania. Research report, London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2014.

Accountability in Tanzania Programme. Annual Report 2012/2013. Annual report, Dar es Salaam: AcT, 2013.

Christian Council of Tanzania. Strategic Plan 2014-2018: Final Draft. Strategic Plan, Dodoma: CCT, 2014.

Francis, Annie. External Evaluation: GTF project. External Evaluation , Arusha: Haki Kazi Catayst, 2008.

James, Rick. What is distinctive about FBOs? How European FBOs define and operationalise their faith. Praxis Paper 22, INTRAC, 2009.

Nordstokke, Kjell. “Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) and their distinct assets.” Research paper, Undated.

Norwegian Church Aid. NCA Tanzania Faith Based Organisations Integrity and Accountability Project 2011-15. Project proposal, Dar es Salaam: NCA, 2012.

Norwegian Church Aid. Periodic Report: January-June 2013. Progress Report, Dar es Salaam: NCA, 2013.

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Annex 1: Features of AcT’s model

AcT’s theory of change articulates this vision: ‘If civil society grantees are carefully selected and respond to individual support tailored to their programming and internal systems, they will be able to develop targeted strategic interventions which are sensitive to changes over time and in the broader political economy, as well as their geographic location, their sector, institutional mandate, and values…’ (outcome mapping brief ). The rigorous, competitive process of selecting its partners allows AcT to work more intensively with its CSO partners initially and then take a more hands-off approach when the capacity of its partners improves. The AcT programme is managed and implemented by an intermediary fund manager, KPMG, as they have been considered better able to provide the type of tailored support needed for its partners than a larger organisation such as DfID would be positioned to give itself, particularly given the relatively small size of grants yet large number of grantees. Since building capacity of CSOs is a goal itself, AcT can use a more supportive approach than some donors and therefore avoid cutting off partners for reasons related to limited capacity.

The theory of change also emphasises AcT’s openness to allowing its partners to design

their own programming strategies with a view that these organisations are better equipped to understand the governance context they are working in and to apply this knowledge toward shaping their sectoral and governance goals.

AcT’s approach to evaluation includes a substantial focus on intermediate, short-term achievements in addition to long-term outcomes, and aims to enable AcT’s partners to learn and adapt their programming strategies as needed over time rather than rigidly committing them to a set of pre-determined targets in advance. The evaluation process, which involves the use of outcome mapping tools, considers the wide range of factors that can affect its partners’ success in achieving their goals, and aims to assess progress of its partners on the basis of reasonable efforts made rather than solely on impacts achieved. The approach has been characterised as particularly well-suited for evaluating governance projects in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment such as Tanzania, where outcomes such as the effects of lobbying or advocacy are inherently uncertain, results are unlikely to be achieved in a predictable or linear fashion, and attribution is difficult (outcome mapping brief ).

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Annex 2: Unblocking results methodology

This case study is part of a series of case studies that comprise the second phase of a research project that studies the interaction between constraints and aid packages in particular country contexts and explores how the design and delivery features of aid programmes address such constraints. It builds on earlier ODI research by Booth (2010) and Wild et al. (2012) that categorises typical constraints and incentive problems to service delivery, and shows that a number of common constraints underlie much of the variation in service delivery performance in developing countries, Table 1.5

Table 1: Governance constraints and effects

Governance constraint Explanation Common effects

Policy and institutional incoherence

Unclear and duplicated mandates.

Policy and resource frameworks in conflict.

Incentives for staff to either refrain from implementing policies, or simultaneously pursue several conflicting policies at once.

Poor top-down performance disciplines and bottom-up accountability mechanisms

Weak top-down and bottom-up accountability mechanisms.

Rules not developed or enforced, instructions are not followed and functions are not carried out.

Limited scope for problem-solving and local collective action solutions

Groups are not acting together to produce solutions that are appropriate and in the collective interest.

Result in the under or over-utilisation of services, and are associated with a longstanding disrepair of shared goods.

This research does not aim to evaluate the programmes against their stated objectives, nor measure their impact. Rather it examines the types of aid-funded activities that seem most relevant to improving governance constraints, making some speculative conclusions about their ability to do so as well as about the elements of the design and implementation approach that have facilitated the execution of these activities. This will aim to increase our understanding of what aid can do to best feed into domestic change processes in-country.

The research questions are presented in Box 1.

5 While the development community has long recognised that weak governance and incentive problems hinder the deliv-ery of broad-based public services in developing countries (Keefer and Khemani, 2003; World Bank, 2004; Collier, 2007), the last decade has seen a growth in research that seeks to understand and diagnose the nature of these governance

problems.

Box 1: Research questionsCan aid facilitate the unblocking of service delivery constraints and if so, how?

• How and to what degree have the activities facilitated an amelioration of constraints to service delivery?

• Which enabling factors should aid programmes prioritise when attempting to address the governance constraints of interest, and why?

• What constrains aid organisations in responding to the enabling factors, and how can these constraints be overcome?

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The prevalence of the governance constraints were analysed ex ante and ex post, considering the indicators in Table 2, where they were relevant to the specific case study. The research explored the extent to which observed gaps in service delivery are bridged by the intervention. Institutional arrangements such as a poor policy process or system for making decisions may negatively impact on service delivery, as may a lack of capacity, insufficient staff with the required knowledge and skills. These are both relatively tractable, types of problems that aid can help solve. However, if the problems reside in deeper problems of political economy and incentives, it may be more difficult for aid intervention to have any impact.

Table 1: Assessment of situation before and after the intervention

Governance constraints

Indicators

Degree of a coherent vision

*Well-defined mandates*No-overlapping jurisdictions among all or some of the organisations involved in providing public services*Absence of perverse incentives confronting actors within particular organisations. Perverse incentives are often as a result of incomplete implementation of a new policy and/or the simultaneous pursuit of several policies for which practical purposes are in conflict* Disparity between stated public policy and revealed policy (as apparent from policy implementation)

Extent of effective top-down performance disciplines and bottom-up accountability mechanism

*Site visits by supervising authorities, particularly senior political leaders or officials*Resistance to interference by minor politicians outside the chain of command*A palpable sense of being monitored in terms of inputs, outputs or outcomes*Actual examples of staff or higher officials being rewarded or punished for their performance*Monitoring by direct (or indirect users) and the existence of feedback mechanisms*Users (direct or indirect) involved in setting the standards of provision*Monitoring mechanisms that build on traditional institutions or norms (such as honour and shame)*The degree of exit/opting out from the users

Availability of ‘locally anchored’ solutions (not necessarily just at the front line)

Institutions enabling collective action: * are problem–solving in the relevant context i.e. Institutions of collective action are ones that have been arrived at locally and which specifically address the obstacles that have arisen locally* make use of institutional elements inherited in the past i.e. draw on previous experience or make use of institutional elements that have been employed in the past

Phase 1 found that there are six ‘enabling factors’ that appear to have allowed the aid-funded activities to obtain traction and nudge forward institutional change that is conducive to the improved delivery of results. These provide clear implications for the design and implementation of aid packages that seek to address service delivery blockages, Table 3. This study explored the extent to which these were relevant to the intervention, along with any other emerging features.

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Table 2: Enabling factors

ENABLING FACTOR CURRENT PRACTICE (STYLISED)

PROPOSED PRACTICE

Windows of opportunity Country strategies based on needs assessments

Weigh need against opportunity to affect change

Tangible political payoffs Reluctance to have projects associated with political platforms/agendas

Accept that aid is inherently political and work with the political incentive structure

Building on what’s there Tendency to want to start afresh with a revised legal, policy or regulatory framework

Get existing framework implemented, however imperfectly, and then adjust

Moving beyond policy advice

TA engaged to advise on the content of policies

TA engaged to support implementation of policies

Acting as facilitators External agents provide sound technocratic advice for govts to ‘take or leave’

External agents help to facilitate and mediate a local dialogue about problems and solutions

Adaptive and responsive to lessons learnt

Pre-defined logical frameworks that lock donors and implementers into a set of activities

Flexible frameworks that judge performance on the basis of a sensible effort, rather than pre-defined targets

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For further informantion:

Programme DirectorAccountability in Tanzania (AcT)

11th Floor, PPF Tower | Garden Avenue/ Ohio Street | P.O. Box 1160 Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA

Phone: +255 22 2122003 | Fax: +255 22 2113343 Website: http://www.accountability.or.tz

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