Assessment Of Community Participation Towards Rural Development Projects: A Case Study Of Manyoni District Council In Singida Region, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The study aimed at finding out the extent of community participation in rural development

projects, different mechanisms and strategies used to ensure community participation and

the role of the Government and NGOs in ensuring effective community participation in

the rural development projects.

Applied was survey participatory observation and documentary review research in the

methods. Data were collected by using open ended questionnaires interviews and

documentary sources. A total of 54 respondents participated in the study. Research

findings indicated that ―Community participation‖ in the rural development projects is still

low. The community does not participate effectively due to lack of education in projects

management as the projects die when they are handed over to the community. Another

finding is unequal participation between men and women, thirty five point two percent

(35.2%) being women while sixty four point eight percent (64.8%) being men. Poverty

was also a factor limiting local communities to participate effectively. Other factors are

contradicting policies and approaches of different agencies working in the same area, nonflexible

organizational policies, and poor communities‘ leadership and depending

syndrome.

Accordingly, the researcher suggests that participation of local communities in rural

development projects is generally limited to ―contribution‖ and not by ―empowerment‖

the local communities to take control of the projects development process. The researcher

recommends that some changes in terms of management of projects and human capacity

are to be made in order to widen the scope of participation for the local communities.

The researcher suggests that education must be provided to the general public concerning

the advantages and disadvantages of community participation in development projects and

promoting skills- training must be provided to the community before the projects start to

operate or put in place, so that they can be responsible and devote much of their time

towards those projects.