Community Participation in Development Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Dodoma Municipality

Abstract

Community participation in development planning, monitoring and evaluation is considered as of importance as the heart that pumps blood, and that for community development to be attained it has to been given tremendous consideration. Nevertheless, a little is known on participation of communities in participatory planning in many projects taking place in Tanzania and in Dodoma Municipality in particular. The study was conducted at Chang’ombe ward, in Dodoma Municipality, in order to assess participation community participation in development planning, monitoring and evaluation. Data were collected using documentary review, questionnaires, key informants, interview and focus group discussion. A total of 113 respondents were selected in this study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to analyze data collected from field into descriptive statistics. The study revealed that awareness of community members on municipal development planning, monitoring and evaluation was low as 75% were not aware while for governmental and nongovernmental organizations’ staffs’ awareness was (67%). Results also indicated that community members were involved mainly in implementation (65.9%), compared to planning (20%), and in monitoring (8%) and evaluation (7%). Community was involved in decision making to a certain extent through provision of views and recommendation. Roles of development agencies were satisfactorily known by the community members. It can be concluded that members of the community have little awareness on community participation. It is therefore, recommended that community should be given more knowledge as to why they are involved in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation processes as others questioned why they were contributing and they paid so many taxes