Centralized versus participatory planning: a case study of the Archdiocese of Mwanza and TASAF projects in Misungwi district, Mwanza region

This study was on Centralized Versus Participatory Planning:A case study of the Archdiocese of Mwanza and TASAF Projects in Misungwi District, Mwanza Region. The two approaches were examined to see their effectiveness with regard to project life cycles, from formulation to evaluation. The approaches were examined in relation to the beneficiaries’ participation in each phase of the projects. A qualitative design and purposeful sampling were used. The sample consisted of 67 respondent who were interviewed orally using a set of questionnaires for four different stakeholders. Chapter One formed the preliminaries of the study, while Chapter Two presented the literature review that saw the need to compare the two approaches in project management. Chapter Three formed the methods sections. Until recently, community development had nearly exclusively been understood as an effort to meet people’s basic needs, a goal that could be reached either by top-down or bottom – up approaches. Two institutions, namely, The Catholic Church of Mwanza and TASAF, were used where each had two projects. The Church had Heifer and Dam Rehabilitation, while TASAF had Dairy and Borehole projects. TASAF propagated participatory methodologies as opposed to centralized planning used by the Church. In Chapter Four, the study revealed that projects succeeded in a more suitable way and the beneficiaries sacrificed more for what they had participated to create, than for blueprint plans handed down to them for implementation from ‘experts.’ From this observation, it was recommended in Chapter Five that, more participatory approaches were preferable to centrally planned methodologies, since more people were involved or consulted the greater would be their commitment in the implementation and maintenance of the projects involved. In addition it was recommended that, further research was needed in order to increase the scope and depth of the study.