Development of a Strategic Framework for the Financing of Local Governments in Tanzania
[Project Details]
The International Studies Program at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies has been providing extensive and ongoing technical assistance and capacity building support to the Government of Tanzania in support of local government finance reform in Tanzania since September 2002.
Significant reforms are taking place in the system of local government finance in Tanzania. For instance, in February 2004, Tanzania’s Cabinet approved a proposal to introduce a formula-based system of recurrent sectoral grants for the funding of primary education, health, and other local priority sectors. At the same time, the Minister of Finance announced substantive changes in the assignment of revenues to local authorities by announcing the elimination of the Development Levy, the elimination of significant reduction of other so-called nuisance taxes, and the introduction of a closed list of local revenue sources. Due to the sudden elimination of these local revenue sources, the Government introduced an unconditional compensatory grant to local authorities.
Given the speed of ongoing decentralization reforms, the Government of Tanzania determined that it would be useful to undertake a comprehensive review of the policy framework underpinning the structure of the financing of local government in Tanzania, including local government revenues. To consider the issues systematically, and to provide a solid policy foundation for considering individual local government revenue sources, Georgia State University was contracted to assist the Government in developing an overall and strategic framework to guide decisions on the structure of the financing of Local Government Authorities, intergovernmental transfer schemes, and on specific local taxes.
Click here to access the reports and study documents that have been produced for this study.
| Project: | Development of a Strategic Framework for the Financing of Local Governments in Tanzania |
| Date: | November 2004 - July 2005 |
| Team Leader: | Dr. Jamie Boex |
| Project Team: | Dr. Roy Bahl, Dr. Jamie Boex, Dr. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mr. Philip van Ryneveld, and Dr. Andrey Timofeev. |
| Client: | Government of Tanzania through the Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) |
| Location: | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
| Funding Agency: | Tanzania Ministry of Finance (Royal Netherlands Embassy) |
