Challenges of Local Government 11- Gaps In Development Planning

Challenges of Local Governance – Structural Gaps in Development Planning

By Dumisani O. Nkomo

In this second instalment I will seek to take a closer look at development planning processes as a key component of local governance. Community based planning is a key component of local governance as it shapes the development agenda. Specifically, it then becomes critical to analyse the architecture of rural development planning. Notably whilst Zimbabwe ostensibly has a fairly good framework for rural development, this framework as I noted last week largely does not work and needs to be strengthened and reformed for it to deliver the development dividend. For the purposes of focus I will dwell more on development planning vis a vis rural local governance.

VIDCOS AND WADCOS

The Traditional Leaders Act and the Rural District Development Act before the advent of the omnibus Local Governance law envisages Village Development Committees and Ward Development Committees as key players in the process of rural development. The Village Development Committees [VIDCOS] are elected by the Village Assembly cyclically and are headed by Village Heads who are not elected by are in place by virtue of being traditional leaders. Their key mandate is to facilitate development at Village level and critically to formulate Village Development Plans. At ward level there is the ward development committee which is headed by the councillor the elected representative arm of local government. The assumption is that the Village Development Committees are able to produce plans at village level which are then synthesized at ward level by the WADCO and approved by the Ward assembly which is chaired by the headperson i.e. headman or woman [Umlisa ] and consists of all village heads .It is obvious that the development of wards cannot be left entirely to unelected structures and or individuals . Whilst VIDCOS are elected the Village heads who head the VIDCOS are not elected and go on to represent the villages at ward level.  

The underlying problem is that most of these VIDCOS are either dysfunctional or have a congenital incapacity to develop Village plans. The result most of the time is that that the councillor sits under some tree and writes up a ward plan on behalf of the villagers.

 My proposals are as follows:

1.  Village Assemblies should be headed by elected chairpersons who have a reasonable track record in development and leadership at local level.

2.Secondly VIDCOS and WACOS must be provided with a planning template for the village and ward plans.

3. VIDCOS and WADCOS must be sufficiently trained on their functions especially those relating to planning which by nature is a technical process and cannot be left to people accidentally chosen from the ranks of the unemployed “. Rural district councils and Non-Governmental Organizations can work together on this.

Linking District, Provincial and National Processes

Ideally the development plans are supposed to then move to the Rural District Development Committee [R.D.D.C] which consists of heads of government line ministries, council subcommittee chairs, experts as well as the district heads of the intelligence, the army, the police etc.. The last bit is clearly unacceptable and has no room in a modern nation state. After making technical input into the plans, the consolidated draft plan is then supposed to go to the Rural District Development Committee for fine tuning, adoption and implementation.

The district plans largely remain illusionary and romanticist because they are divorced from the five year strategic plans of local authorities and the local authority budget consultative process which is done at ward level. Budget prioritization, budget formulation and development planning must be integrally integrated if development planning is to yield the desired results

The local authority budget should largely speak to the development agenda in the District Development Plans and not be a stand-alone process.

Provincial Plans and Budgets

Tragically there is no clear link besides lines of command between the development processes that begin at village level and end at district level with development planning at provincial and national level. The Provincial Assembly and its attendant structures are ideally seized with this but the reality is that without provincial budgets allocated to provincial development structures this model of local governance planning will not work.

In Swaziland which has five regions, each region or province has an allocation annually and this makes provincial government responsive to the demands of the citizenry. An elected provincial governor must chair a provincial assembly which has a budget vote or allocation from central government. If each of the countries ten provinces was allocated let’s say U. S100 million this could go a long way in facilitating development.

The current constitution provides a fairly good framework for allocation of resources between the different tiers of government namely national, provincial and local.

 Section 298 [ii] states that revenue raised nationally must be shared equitably between central government, provincial government and local tiers of government “. This clause must be as a matter of urgency be implemented so that the development and service delivery agenda of local governance is achieved.

An alternative model could be retention of revenue raised locally or at provincial level with a certain component let’s say 30 %going to the national coffers. This would enable both local authorities and provincial governments to be effective in their mandate of delivering development and allocating resources to communities. Section 301 of the constitution of Zimbabwe speaks eloquently to the imperative of allocation of capital grants between provincial and local tiers of government.

Local and provincial government planning processes will continue to be a mirage if they are not underpinned by allocation of resources through public finance and budget processes.

Dumisani O. Nkomo is the Chief Executive Officer of Habakkuk Trust, a social entrepreneur and commentator and spokesperson for Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition  – He writes here in his personal capacity