Good Governance Initiative in Handeni District

11/16/2017

In fostering transparency, accountability, and citizen’s engagement, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) in collaboration with the Civic Education Teachers Association (CETA) is currently implementing a project on Public Expenditure Tracking Systems (PETS). The project builds on an international model that provides training to PETS commitees at the local level. PETS commitees consist of selected personal at village and hamlet level who receive training on how to track expenditure of public funds. The first phase of the project will benefit 18 villages from 6 Wards of Handeni District, namely Mazingara, Kwasunga, Kitumbi, Komkonga, Kwedizinga, and Kwamatuku.

Group photo of the workshop participant, from Left Sitting Project Officer Hanns Seidel Foundation Ms. Kadele Mabumba, Handeni District Commissioner Ms. Husna Msangi. and Handeni Acting Director Ms. Zawadi Ngendo

This project is in line with the Tanzania government initiative on governance of public administration whereby Tanzania joined the global Open Government Initiative in September, 2011 to make government business more open to its citizens in the interest of improving public service delivery, government responsiveness, combating corruption and building greater trust .

In order to include local district authorities in the project, who are responsible to implement development projects on the local level, HSF and CETA organized a one day Workshop for district government leaders and officials at Handeni District, Tanga Region. The event took place on 18 April 2016 at Country Villa Hotel, Handeni. The main objective of the workshop was to broaden the reach of democracy and good governance and deepen commitments among government leaders and officials to increase transparency and accountability in planning and implementation of development projects from Village to District level.

The workshop gathered participants from Handeni district council including the District Commissioner, Acting District Director, District Administrative Secretary and heads of department. Other participants were Ward Executive Officers and Ward officers and a total of 33 participants attended.

“This workshop helps us veer away from the culture of doing business as usual towards empowering us to work closely with our community in a transparency way. We have a lot to accomplish but this training means so much to us, encouraging us to work for open government” Hon. Husna Rajabu Msangi, The Handeni District Commissioner said in her opening speech.

Hon. Msangi added that transparency and accountability eliminates gossip and increases performance, she therefore urged all participants to engage the community and provide precise information to them but also get information from them that would help in improving social service delivery.

The session enriched the group as participants shared their personal experiences on the importance of good governance but also being leaders at District level they promised to engage citizens in the planning, implementation and monitoring of their resources and development projects. The training thus laid the foundation to a fruitful cooperation between district authorities and PETS committees. The same training will be held with ward level authorities as a next step.