Article/ Feature
09/April/2011
Zanzibar Governance Reforms: CSOs’ Call for People-Centred Approach
By: Clarence KIPOBOTA (Advocate)*
It is obviously that the political situation which relegated the governance of the Revolution Government of Zanzibar is now mitigated. The Government of National Unit (GNU) has replaced the ordeal which engulfed the country for over fifteen years.
Previously, the political and social situations were so apprehensive. The ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and main opposition party Civil United Front (CUF) were wrestling for many grounds generally caused by uncoordinated opposing political ideologies entrenched to other factors. This situation scourged their supporters too in such a way that they could not even share social fondness.
After the last general elections of 2010, the GNU was put into practice and things are moving. A random survey of ordinary citizens of Zanzibar shows that majority of them are happy with this ‘bliss’ situation save for seemingly delay to start changing their economic life. Probably it is too early. Patience and easiness can make all well.
But again, despite this notable political progress, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs); the people and even some of the politicians still desire for more reforms of the governance system in Zanzibar to supplement a good course of the GNU.
Their wish is to see more participation of the people in governance after participating in creating the GNU. In other word, they need reforms and implementation of the local governments in Zanzibar. The justification for this is set forth in this writing.
This call has repeatedly made during the dialogues organized by the Association of Non-Governmental Organizations in Zanzibar (ANGOZA) under the kind financial and technical support from the Foundation for the Civil Society (FCS), which currently main funder of CSOs in Tanzania.
The dialogues were conducted in Pemba, Unguja and House of Representatives of Zanzibar on 16, 18 and 27 March 20011 Respectively.
The main theme of the dialogues for this year was involvement of the CSOs, citizen and political leaders in the implementation of the local government reforms (LGR) in Zanzibar. The CSOs are concerned by the fact that, the implementation of the LGR in Zanzibar has been slow despite its inception in 1980s under the Constitution of Zanzibar of 1984.
Secondly, the CSOs claim for a space to actively and directly involve themselves in the implementation of the same. They say that, despite good records that they have registered so far in terms of delivery of social justice and development, the government has never accorded their presence sufficient weight to put their efforts in governance of the country.
Probably it is important to speak little bit about the role of CSOs in governance and development so that we can have a rethought argument and proposal at the end.
The CSOs are generally advocacy groups to amplify the voices and interests of the people, mostly so called marginalized. They also play a role of dog-watching the performance of the government while at the same time empowers the voiceless to speak for themselves or together with the CSOs.
As it was said during the said dialogues, initially CSOs were seen as bitter pill in Zanzibar by most of the politicians and government officials. They were repeatedly and constantly confused and regarded as entities which carried political agenda because of speaking about governance issues. In that regard, they were not heard or involved in decision making.
But having performed at satisfactory levels with vivid deliverable outcomes and impacts, the essence of having them around is ringing at the back of government intellect. All Councilors, Parliamentarians and Members of House of Representative of Zanzibar who spoke during the dialogues appreciated this reality.
Therefore, it has never been havoc to get these groups into a helm of governance at least to suggest for better ways as oversight bodies. But why do we want a space for CSOs and the common people to participate in the implementation of LGR in Zanzibar while we have already representatives chosen by ourselves to act for our own behalf?
The international human rights instruments place development commitments to the governments to bring development for their people. But clearly emphasize that, because development is for the people, then they have to decide for their own destinies.
Article 2 to 7 of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986 which United Republic of Tanzania (Zanzibar inclusive) state that, human person is central subject of the development and should be active participant and beneficiary of the right to development. Principles 5 and 6 of the Rio Declaration on Environmental and Development of 1992 which also binds Tanzania state that government and its people should cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.
Article 8 of the current Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) of 1977, which is same as several provisions of the Constitution of Zanzibar of 1984, states that the sovereignty of Tanzania resides in the people and it is from the people that the government derives its powers and authority.
Article 145 of the said union constitution empowers the Parliament or the House of Representative of Zanzibar to enact laws for establishment and governance of the local government authorities in region, districts, urban areas and villages of the URT.
Article 146 of the constitution of the URT narrates the functions of the local government. It states that the purpose of having local government authorities is “to transfer authority to the people” who have the right and powers to plan and develop development programmes within their respective areas and generally throughout the country.
Therefore, the involvement of CSOs and the people in Zanzibar’s LGR is not a privilege; rather, it is the statutory and constitutional obligation under both national and international laws.
The question to set out for analysis at this juncture is; why has it been difficult to implement the LGR in Zanzibar?
Literatures show that several steps have been taken including the Zanzibar’s Presidential Commission of 1992 to suggest for structuring of the local government; 2003’s good governance programme; Local Government Reform Strategy for Zanzibar of 2004; Zanzibar’s Local Governance and Sustainable Environmental Management 2008 funded by the World Bank. Apparently things are still at stack.
The first obstacle could be lack of involvement of the people in the reform and implementation. As for this matter, the Regional Commissioner for Pemba, Mr. Dadi Faki Dadi the said during the dialogues in Pemba that, any activity which targets many people cannot not be achieved if the targets are not involved.
Mr. Abdulrahman Mnoga local governance expert from LGR of Zanzibar said during the dialogues that, the problems of LGR began right from the beginning. He was of the views that, not like a situation in other countries like Tanzania Mainland, Rwanda and Uganda, the inception and establishment of the local government in Zanzibar were done without analytical and baseline surveys to ascertain the real needs and interest of the people. Therefore it was prone to fail.
Other participants also asserted that, this situation has not been a mistake because the government has been repeating same ‘mistakes’ all the time. For instance, there is a zero draft of the Local Government Implementation Policy to be approved later this year. No one knows about its contents even most of the government officials.
Second obstacle is lack of political will to implement the reforms. Participants of the ANGOZA’s dialogues stated that, there are three laws enacted to provide for the establishment and implementation of the local government. However, the central government has been extremely reluctant to ‘handover’ duties allocated by the laws to the local government authorities.
Probably it was for political reasons at the time when Pemba was for CUF and Unguja for CCM. But of certain is the fact that, district authorities or councils have no powers even to collect revenues and plan for their priorities.
They do not have defined operational systems and some of its components are hanging. For instance, the Ward levels seem to be for selection of Councilors who do not have legal command to the district and municipal councils. The heads of the councils are accountable to the central government while saving local government.
Third obstacle is lack of financial and skilled human resources. As it is known everywhere, the sustainable and good services much depend on financial capacity and of course good planners.
According to Mr. Mnoga, most of the local government authorities fall short of financial resources to meet their needs. Moreover, the authorities lack qualified and sufficient staff to partake professional duties within the local government functionalities. Hence, lack capacity to implement intended reforms.
Fourth obstacle according Ms. Salma Nassib one of the presenters in Unguja’s dialogue is presence of two administrative systems which are simultaneously applicable in Zanzibar. She eluded that one is decentralization by devolution and at the same time decentralization by deconcentration.
That is, to grab portion of local government’s responsibilities and hand them to sectoral administrators at regional and district levels who then decide for local authorities outside the helm. Apart from being contradictory, this tendency has costed government lots of money which would have been spent wisely through well structured local government system.
Most of these issues were accepted during the joint dialogue between the CSOs and Members of the House of Representatives on 27 March 2011.
Ultimately, the resolutions regarding the implementation of the LGR in Zanzibar which were agreed by both CSOs and Members of the House of Representatives to be worked on by the House and the government of Zanzibar, were read by the Speaker of the House of Representative of Zanzibar, Honorable Pandu Ameir Kificho.
Hon. Speaker of Zanzibar, Hon. Pandu Ameir Kificho (standing) when addressing the dialogue of Unguja on local government reforms on 27 March 2010 at House of Representative Conference Room. He is flaked by Ministers and Chairperson of ANGOZA Ms. Salama Kombo Ahmed (with veil).
The participants of the dialogues suggested that, there is a need to amend the current laws and policies governing the local government in order to accommodate the concerns raised by the people. It was also suggested that, the government should find formal space for the CSOs and the people to participate in all stages of development.
Other recommendation included; need for CSOs to revisit their advocacy strategy to increase more pressure to the government and House of Representatives instead of pressurizing their inclusion in political decision making bodies. Most of the Members of the House of the Representatives suggested that, CSOs should remain and work as pressure groups only.
The agenda of CSOs on LGR is very clear and indeed, enormously seconded by the House of Representatives. It should be clearly taken into account that, much as everyone wishes to see the GNU works successfully, the voice of the people who are real ‘owners’ of the unit should not be neglected.
That is to say, the GNU should invest in ‘people-centred approach’ which demands critical role of citizens in every stage of decision making. This is possible through decentralization of powers and willingness to get people in the decision making process.
As Minister for Constitution and Justice of Zanzibar Honorable Abubakar Hamis Bakar said during the closure of 28-29 March’s exhibitions of the CSOs at the House of Representative grounds, the current Zanzibar’s political situation is facilitative of everything good we plan. We can utilize this opportunity.
Otherwise it will come a time when the people will reject a phenomenon of being stepping stone towards what they would consider personal political gains. Peoples need to take part in governance. Probably in that way, we will have ‘unit for development’ in their real meanings.
* Clarence KIPOBOTA holds Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B (Hons)), Masters of Community Economic Development (Msc. CED) and Certificates in Human Rights and UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, currently working as Legal Consultant with LEGAL AND DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS LIMITED (LEDECO). He is also Human Rights Activist. Email: kipobota@yahoo.com Tel: +255 762776281/ +255 222700695.
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