Multilevel governance and Coproduction in urban Flood-risk management - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 124

Multilevel governance and barriers to municipal capacity
The multilevel governance structure critically constrains municipal capacities for
autonomous self-governance and provision of key services and infrastructure,
in particular at the local level (ward/sub-wards). Tanzania has basically a
three-tier government structure characterized by a strong unitary state with
de-concentrated services at a regional level, a relatively autonomous yet weak
municipal level, and an even weaker regional elected level (with fairly recently
established regional councils and weak administrative capacity). However,
the regional state administration has key mandates in strategic urban planning,
coordination of services, land management, enforcement of land-use zoning
and resettlement of flood-risk prone families through Regional Secretariat
and Regional/District Commissioners (RC/DC). Two of the key ministries
that intervene or invest in urban development are the Prime Minister's Office
for Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) and the
Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development (MLHHSD).
PMO-RALG provides policies on decentralization and control of deployment
of human resources of the municipality. MLHHSD is the 'custodian' of all land
in Tanzania, and is central to urban land management and enforcement, since
land is defined as state-owned. MLHHSD has also taken charge of developing
the new Dar es Salaam Master Plan (2010-2030) (Moss and Happold 2012) (see
Figure 7.1 ) .
A key constraint across all sectors and levels is the lack of financial and other
resources for operations and enforcement (also at state levels and with public
service corporations). This can be seen in the limited overall annual budgets
for the three city municipalities of the city, Kinondoni Municipality included.
The annual budget represents only about € 31 per capita, whereas budgets at
sub-ward levels are only about € 1-2 per capita per year (PMO-RALG 2012).
By contrast, a typical Norwegian municipality would have an annual budget
per capita of approximately € 5000 (Satterthwaite and Dodman 2013). Beyond
the general budget for fire and rescue services, there are no specific budget
allocations for adaptation or disaster-risk management. Financial resources
are even more constraining at ward and sub-ward levels, where funding goes
mostly to cover the running costs of a small office, with very limited funding for
the ward/sub-ward development plans. One planner in the Ministry of Lands
explained, the 'ward in their development plans do prepare a list of priority
development activities but finances for these are very limited' (interview,
MLHHSD decision-maker/planner, 4 June 2012). Key urban development
programmes are mostly funded directly by central government agencies, public
enterprises or by external partners (donors).
Knowledge and capacity within the multilevel governance structure is often
enhanced by various long-standing ties that urban officials and municipal
politicians have had with networks, international agencies and bilateral partners.
Moreover, important networks involving local and international researchers