Field visits enable a diverse range of community members, including community leaders, youth club members and young women to express their viewpoints to decision-makers.

In 2007 DFID Tanzania’s key advisors were brought into direct contact with target beneficiaries. The two-day ‘reality check’ consultations and visits were an important part of assessing local government accountability mechanisms, building on the aims of the DFID Tanzania Country Assistance Plan 2006-10.

Problems addressed

• Development policy and practice can end up being based on inaccurate or dated understandings of the reality of poor people’s lives and circumstances.
• Donor agencies and governments have minimal contact with the evolving realities for young people and their communities on the ground. This case study will be useful for organisations where this is not yet ongoing standard practice.

Objectives

• To gain direct connection between decision-makers and poor/excluded groups;
• To gain understanding of the success and challenges of implementing policies on the ground, particularly for policy development and implementation;
• To learn of implementing partner and local government practices in order to assess the reforms needed.

Youth as beneficiaries

• Young people feature as residents in the localities visited by participants in the programme, with the opportunity to share their experiences. Policies improved, which in turn benefited young people.

Youth as partners

• A ‘partner’ approach would involve young people co-facilitating and conducting the visit.

Process

• Reality checks are planned and organised with the theme agreed in advance. For this example, government accountability mechanisms was the requested thematic area to be checked. The implementing partner, Students Partnership Worldwide, then began the process of engaging local government authorities, local NGOs and service providers, local councillors, and citizen groups.
• A draft timetable was designed and fed back to the relevant DFID representative, discussed and agreed, after which SPW led the process of consulting and sensitising participating government personnel. The reality check itinerary included meetings with the above groups, project site visits, and focus group discussions with citizens:
  • Meeting with village executive officer, ward executive officer and village chairperson;
  • School visit and interaction with community action group member;
  • Interaction with young people (volunteer peer educators);
  • Community festival and youth centre visits.

Results

• DFID advisors were better able to understand local government operations, which enabled a more effective government accountability strategy to be developed.
• Increased personal motivation and commitment to development for the poorest.
• Clear communication of the co-operative intentions of large institutions regarding the role of poor people in development processes.
• Increased accountability for effective utilisation of resources and implementation of high-level policies and strategies.

Lessons learned

• Visits should take place where organisations are already working in order to achieve the objectives.
• Time and care must be taken to ensure that the visit is culturally sensitive and not a token consultation. This can be achieved by involving and consulting local community members in design, as appropriate.
• Delegations should meet with local citizens both together and separately from their local leaders.
• Target groups should be briefed and debriefed in order to clarify expectations.
• Partners should ideally have a pre-existing relationship with the donor agencies in order to maximise impact.
• Particular costs to consider: refreshments for local community participants.

Potential challenges

• Urban location of government/donor agency staff and their distance from isolated rural areas where host communities reside.
• Without careful attention to setting, cultural formality and politeness may impede the ability of citizens to communicate openly, especially young people.

For further information contact:

Students Partnership Worldwide, www.spw.org or DFID Tanzania