Browsing by Author "Mmbaga, Richard B."

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    Mobilizing the mass for participation in self-help projects: a study of road construction and maintenance in same district
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 1982) Mmbaga, Richard B.
    This study is on mass mobilization towards undertaking self-help projects, where road construction and maintenance in Same District is taken as a case study. Since self-help projects are viewed as a part of the development process in society, the mobilization of the mass towards undertaking S.H.P is also viewed as a process where the success of one stage leads to a higher stage, thus improving the living conditions of the participants. In this particular study, it is clear that road construction in itself does not lead to improved transportation, without the provision of transporters, which in turn will call for the maintenance of the road. It follows that the mass mobilization process has to deal with road construction, after which it is expected that the results of the first stage will lead to a higher stage where unless the participants have attained their expectations, they are unlikely to be motivated to continue with the next phase by the way they had done in the previous one. It is thus the impact of road construction which influences participation in road maintenance. Whereas in this study the importance of people participation in decision making process has been given due weight, at later stage of undertaking the programme it appears that there was less involvement of mass decision making, following by failure to attain the expected objectives, resulting in building roads for the economic exploitation of the participants by truck owners, through businessmen who are final decision makers as far as pricing of commodities sold in the villages shops is concerned. Among other problems in the mobilization process, it is realized that there is declining number of participants in manual work during S.H.P which we feel is a sign of declining morale in the projects, at least as far as rural conditions are involved. Another factor in the changes in socio-economic conditions in the area which have led to some people seeking employment elsewhere. Although some villagers are paying cash interest instead of doing the manual work the failure to have an organized system to ensure that each of the expected participants, do participate fully in the programme and that those who fail to do so are restricted from enjoying the fruits of the labour of others (within the accepted by laws on the project) the mobilization process can generally be regarded as a failure. The revival of the mass mobilization towards undertaking S.H.P will largely depend on the will of the leaders to ensure that all would be participants in the projects are involved fully at all stages of decision making process, so that they are always aware of the problem in hand and the solutions there to, as will have been decided on by the people themselves.