Challenges facing local governance in the implementation of sanitation and hygiene promotion services:A case study of Rungwe district, Tanzania green

Abstract

Introduction Overall, the current status of hygiene and sanitation in Tanzania is one of the areas suffering from chronic neglect. Sanitation and hygiene is still low on the agenda of political platforms and receives a low priority among the community members and public sector. Competing priorities such as education and health (especially curative) contribute significantly in making sanitation and hygiene, an area of low priority at the household and community level as well as at the local, district, regional and national levels. Employing the principles of good local governance will help in the improvement of implementing sanitation and hygiene promotion services. Local government authorities have been implementing various interventions pertaining to improvement of sanitation and hygiene practices but they have not achieved the results to the expectation of the community. This required the exploration of challenges of local governance that could be contributing to low up-take of improved sanitation and hygiene practices in the country. Objective of the study The study aimed at exploring the challenges facing local governance in the implementation of sanitation and hygiene promotion services. The study intended to add knowledge and literature that will help the local government authorities to understand barriers to the implementation of sanitation and hygiene promotion services and possible solutions to overcoming them. Methodology The study was conducted in Rungwe District, Mbeya region, Tanzania. A qualitative research method was employed whereby in-depth interviews were used to obtain information from 16 Key-Informants. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim; and also content analytical approach was employed to analyze the data. Findings Results from this study show that there are several Major Challenges facing the implementation of sanitation and hygiene promotion services at the local government authorities. These include fragmented coordination; unclear roles and responsibilities; weak collaboration with stakeholders to scale up promotion; low participation in planning processes among stakeholders and inadequate financial and human resources. Conclusion and Recommendations The study concludes that there are a number of challenges that hinder an effective implementation of sanitation and hygiene services in the district. The local authorities cannot achieve sanitation and hygiene targets without putting in place good local governance mechanism that is capable of addressing the identified challenges. The District Authorities should, therefore, take local governance challenges identified by this study as opportunities to integrate well the sanitation and hygiene services as an integral part that plays a key-role to development activities. Keywords: Sanitation, Hygiene, challenges, local governance, implementation, Rungwe, Tanzania