DONORS VIST REPORT- SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MONITORING
DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS FIELD VISIT
REPORT-MULEBA DC
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30th January 2017-1st
February 2017
ANSAF
Photo: Paddy nursery at Kyota Irrigation scheme
1. Introduction
1.1 About ANSAF
Agricultural Non State Actors
Forum (ANSAF) is a member-led forum involving
organizations from the commercial sector, non-governmental organizations (NGO)
sector (both Tanzanian and international) and farmers’ groups in Tanzania. It focuses
on ensuring transformed lives of smallholder farmers through effective
strategic investment and behavior change among strategic partners in
agriculture policy and practices. Based on these, ANSAF in collaboration
with KADERES and MVIWATA engaged in social accountability monitoring in Karagwe
and Muleba district councils.
1.2 Social Accountability Monitoring
(SAM) in Karagwe and Muleba
ANSAF in collaboration with KADERES and MVIWATA in
September and October 2016 promoted accountability with aim to enhance
constructive citizen engagement in development programs at various levels. This
was done through capacity building on social accountability monitoring (SAM)
which involved: budget analysis; create awareness on budget cycles; and systems
for reimbursing funds from central government to local level. Thus, SAM
processes involve analysis which looked at the following five steps: planning
and resources allocation management; expenditure management; performance
management; public integrity management; and oversight management.
The exercise involved several activities including,
formation of SAM team/ group, introduction of SAM concept to LGA leaders, training
on the SAM steps, analysis, field visit to selected projects, feedback meeting
to stakeholders and monitoring on commitments and resolutions made during
feedback meetings. The trained SAM teams and ANSAF members continued to
advocate and monitor the implementation of the recommendations and resolutions
from the analysis and feedback meetings.
The results: it is expected that
during the field visit, the team would like to see what actions that had been
taken to address concerns and gaps found by SAM teams.
1.3 The purpose of the field visit
The aim of the field visit was to
assess the progress and impact of the ANSAF and its members’ interventions
through advocacy in influencing public accountability as per strategic plan.
2. THE FIELD VISIT
2.1 Courtesy
call to DC, DED, and Council Chairman;
The
team (Development partners (ANSAF, SAM team and Mviwata) met with DED and
Council Chairman at DEDs office. DED was not present and in his place the team
met with the District Agricultural Irrigation and Cooperatives Officer (DAICO)
Mr. Mushunguzi. Thereafter, the team visited District Commissioner who were
also not present and in his place met with the DAS. DC acknowledged that both
the district extension officers and MVIWATA work on the interests of the same
group of farmers. They highlighted the challenges facing the DC which include
insufficient extension officers, drought and pests and diseases. The district
has 5 irrigation schemes in which stakeholders including MVIWATA were involved
in planning and making follow up on the implementation of the projects. Some of
the issues emerged from the discussions include;
i.
Agricultural activities contribute about
30 to 40% of the local revenue of the DC. But it is difficult to re-invest at
least 20% of the collected funds in Agriculture due to competing needs and high
operational costs.. Over the last two years (since DADPs stopped) there were no
funds allocated to Agriculture development projects. Funds for financing
agricultural development activities were sourced from NSAs such as JICA. Agricultural
Development Plans formulations depends on the resources from development
partners
ii.
Development of the district strategic
plan is underway but has not involved stakeholders to review and provide
opinions. It was suggested that, DC should collect stakeholder’s opinions so
that the plan could be inclusive.
iii.
Extension
services is not sufficient as the district has 96 agricultural
extension officers and 10 cooperatives officers who are supposed to serve 161
villages, of which 9 are working at the district level. The district requested
the embassies to support the provision of extension services.
iv.
There
is poor youth participation in agriculture partly due to
unsupportive land ownership systems where parents are reluctant to allocate
lands to their children before they dies, and it takes time to pay off compared
to other short time activities. 10% of the own source revenue of the DC are
being allocated to support youth and women. Example of common activities for
women in the district includes beekeeping, horticulture, value addition and
trading. There is land set aside at Ngenge and Rutoro for youth which can be
accessed through applying to the DC, but most youth prefer fishing to farming
which pays off more.
v.
District data shows surplus food
production for the last year but not certain if the said surplus is still
within the district or has been traded out. DAICO claimed that there is enough
food and the current food shortage situation is a mere food stress brought by
increase in food prices due to expectations, while on the other hand, the
council chairman acknowledged that there is food shortage due to poor harvest
from maize, rice, bananas and beans.
2.2 Kyota Irrigation Scheme
The
team visited Kyota irrigation scheme on the second day morning. In 2008, Muleba
district embarked on 5 irrigation development schemes costing over Tshs 500 million which are Kyota,
Buhangaza, Buligi, Kyamyorwa, and Buyaga. Kyota scheme has
a size of 120 hectares with the potential to benefit 300 famers (currently they
are 96 farmers only) with rice as the main crop. Each famer pays an annual fee
of Tshs 50,000 per acre, plus two bags of produce to the organization after harvesting.
The project is not complete due to financial constraints. Upon completion, it
is envisaged that productivity will increase from the current 1.2 tons per acre
to 4 tons per acre. Of all the five
projects, Kyota is at the most advanced stage but also incomplete. The
project has its own constitution and is registered. Issues came up during the field visit include:
i.
The farmers have received initial
trainings from MATI-Ukiliguru on better farming techniques and also made a
learning trip to Kigoma.
ii.
The farmers have no reliable and closer
source of inputs (seeds), they have to access them from Bukoba town. The team
argued the district authority to ensure that farmers have reliable source of
inputs and that the land is put into maximum use.
iii.
Famers lack capita to buy fuel to run the
generator and farm inputs.
iv.
DC has set aside 300 liters of fuel to
support the project to be provided after the actual production has started.
v.
DC should guarantee the scheme to obtain
loans or farmers needs which include seeds, extension services, fertilizer and
reliable water supply from financial institutions available in Muleba, i.e. CRDB
and NMB
vi.
Management problems; it was observed that
the leaders need training on how to manage an irrigation scheme and if possible
to learn from others. They need business management training to help them
operate at profit and a help to devise a group plan
2.3. Feedback meeting-DC Conference
Comments
on the process, on what has been observed from field visit and on what should
be the way forward. The following comments were given:
i.
There is a need for the DC to go back to
the planning/drawing board and revise the project to see if it was well planned
and do the cost benefit analysis. The project should adopt the holistic approach;
identify who were involved and who were not involved.
ii.
There is a need for capacity building
training, to both farmers and the leaders.
iii.
For the project to perform better there
is a need to draft in other supportive players like banks with the aim of
maximizing the project potential. Alternatively, farmers should be helped to
form a SACCOS in order to solve the issue of capital.
iv.
The SAM team should not just end up with providing
comments, but support the government to improve the implementation of the
projects and making close follow-ups on the projects development.
v.
There is a need to enhance partnership
with media, especially community radios. The use of media will increase
outreach beyond SAM areas.
vi.
Women should participate more and be free
to give out their opinions. Promote engagement of women and girls in
Agriculture
vii.
There is a need to move beyond planning
to realize the ambitions set beyond the strategic plan implementation. Should
involve learning, reflections and identifying challenges. ANSAF can assist
facilitate learning from others, e.g. From Ndungu irrigation scheme in Same
district.
viii.
The district should prioritize and
concentrate on few projects at a time for efficiency and effectiveness. For
instance, out of five projects which were supposed to be done, none is
completed and running.
2.4 Reaction from Muleba DC
The
Muleba DC accepted the comments from the stakeholders, and promised to work on
them. They appreciated the support from ANSAF through MVIWATA and SAM team and advised
the team to make regular follow-ups. They also challenged, ANSAF and DPs to
come back in September/October to see if there is any improvement on issues
identified.
3.
Conclusion
and the way forward
SAM team has done a commendable job
to enhance constructive citizen engagement in
identifying gaps and concerns in development programs at Muleba district and
monitor the actions taken to address those issues by the respective authority.
ANSAF and Development Partners field visit to Muleba district aimed at learning
of the actions that had been taken to address the concerns and gaps found by
SAM teams. As part of the field
visit observations, there are some areas to improve and
others to be continued in order to ensure transformed lives of smallholder
farmers which among others include; enhancing the use of media to scale up
outreach, SAM team should complement the district to realize the set objectives
and return the Governemnt should be more transparent and cooperative to the
farmers. The experience and capacity of the SAM team and famers to engage with
the authority at Muleba should be continued. Finally there is a need for ANSAF
and other partners to support development projects such as Kyota by
I.
Financial assistance, there is a need to connect
the Muleba DC and the farmers with the financial institutions (NMB and CRDB) to
get bank loans and/or assistance in forming their own SACCOS. ANSAF Executive Secretary
has talked with CRDB and NMB in Muleba to support Kyota Irrigation scheme,
ANSAF will closely monitor the proceedings to ensure the support is given to
the farmers.
II.
Capacity building; there is a need to
provide trainings on how to run the project as a business enterprise (business
management) and how to run a SACCOS. Also it will benefit the scheme if they
could get a chance for a benchmarking trip to other similar but better
performing projects such as Ndungu in Same.
III.
Supporting the use of media especially
community radio, so as to reach out more citizens even beyond the SAM areas.
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