Assessment of opportunities and barriers facing local government authorities in the governance of climate change adaptation in Tanzania a Case Study of Chamwino District, Dodoma Region

This study aimed to evaluate the opportunities and barriers for LGAs to effectively govern climate change adaptation. It is an attempt to promote LGAs participation in matters concerning climate change adaptation for the purpose of enhancing people’s resilience to climate change impacts. Chamwino district was taken as a sample study, district officers and farmers from two villages Buigiri and Chinangali II were involved in the study. The study sample comprises of 18 district officers and 36 farmers. A semi-structured interview was used to obtain data from district officers and a well-constructed questionnaire was used to interview farmers. Information from both district officers and farmers were organized and presented for interpretation. A computer aided software SPSS 16 was used to analyze the coded information by descriptive analysis. The results were presented using graphs and tables for interpretation. The study results reveal that at the local level (district level) climate change is not such an agenda for discussion although the impacts are felt. There is no clear budget earmarked for climate change adaptation, no personnel and department that deals directly with climate change adaptation. Also it was revealed that most of the projects for climate change adaptation are carried out by relevant ministries with little association to the LGAs. Apart from all these LGAs through its daily practices do help its citizen adapt to climate change impacts. The recommendations are given on the need for the central government to strengthen LGAs in terms of capacity building (Financially, technically and knowledge). This will enable them to be able to deal with climate change issues as climate change impacts are location specific.