Community participation in improvement of travel and transport at the village in Tanzania

Long term goals for most of the projects implemented in developing countries are not attained. This can be explained by the fact that there is a substantial difference between the environment under which the projects are implemented and the up keeping of the projects' outcomes soon after their completion. This study therefore scrutinises successes and failures of one project on "Travel and Transport at the Village Level" which was implemented in Tanzania for the purpose of identifying strengths and weaknesses accompanied with methods of executing such projects. Travel and transport are among the key requirements to human development. For many years emphasis has been put on roads and cars as the major means of travel and transport on land. However, recent studies have shown that most travel and transport in developing countries do take place within the villages whereby roads and cars are rarely available and therefore seldom used. Loads' carrying is normally on human heads, shoulders and backs accompanied with walking long distances in search for human needs of survival. Recognition of this fact has led to establishment of pilot projects or programmes in different parts of the world in an attempt to develop simple strategies of reducing travel time and effort spent in carrying these loads. Such strategies are expected to be of low cost and affordable technology that can be implemented locally without much assistance from outside. One of such projects is the Makete Integrated Rural Transport Project, which was executed in Makete District, Tanzania from 1985 to 1996. The outcome of this travel and transport study led to the introduction of interventions aimed at providing solutions to the identified problems. The project was planned in such a way so as to involve the communities (Villagers) in the execution process. It was therefore the wish of the project to have the successful outcomes maintained and continued beyond the project period. Nevertheless, the detailed survey that was carried out in May 1999 in the District showed that only two out of eight interventions that were identified and executed by the project are prospering satisfactorily. The reasons for this poor performance have been summarised as improper design of the project and administrative deficiencies. It is finally concluded that realisation of positive outcomes in involving communities to solve travel and transport problems at the village level is, and will still be far beyond the reality until such time that the aforesaid bottlenecks are removed.