Strengthening financial decentralisation and local financial governance in Tanzania

Sector

Decentralisation

Project budget

The maximum budget for this project is € 1.2 million.

Organisations

This project has been developed by the Institute of Finance Management (IFM). The tender for this project expired on 21 June 2010.

Nuffic has awarded this tender to University of Groningen, which has formed a consortium with MDF Training and Consultancy BV and VNG International.

Project description

The Government of Tanzania is implementing the second phase of the Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP II), which focuses on the following five key areas of capacity development:

• leadership and management development in Local Government Authorities (LGAs)
• organisational and HR development
• financial management systems
• planning, monitoring and evaluation
• ICT applications in LGAs

LGRP II is expected to make progress towards 'effective and empowered LGAs as primary and accountable lead actors of socio-economic development, public service delivery and poverty reduction in their areas of jurisdiction'.

Local governance is facing a number of obstacles in terms of implementing LGRP II. With regard to the financial decentralisation and local financial governance, the fiscal empowerment of LGAs is not yet fully achieved. LGAs need better qualified accounting and financial management staff.

They also need to improve their financial reporting and monitoring, internal auditing and governance practices. Finally, a gender policy and gender mainstreaming practices are waiting to be implemented.

Institute of Finance Management (IFM)

IFM is an autonomous higher learning organisation specializing in training in banking, insurance, financial management and other business-related subjects. This project aims to strengthen the institute's capacity to help LGAs implement financial decentralisation and local financial governance as part of LGRP II.

Furthermore, the project will strengthen IFM's capacity to offer sufficient quality training which meets the needs of LGA staff. Also, it will increase gender awareness among IFM staff, enabling both IFM and LGAs to address and mainstream gender. Finally, it will strengthen the capacity of IFM staff to translate labour market demands into short and long-term programmes and to offer on-the-job support.