Tanzania Baseline Survey of Civil Servants and Water Communities

Project Timing

August – December 2018

Sector

Economic Development, Water and Sanitation

Location

Tanzania

Client

The World Bank

Current Status

Complete

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The World Bank estimates that over 40% of Tanzania’s rural water points are not functional and that 25% of all points break down within two years of construction. Investment efforts often serve to finance new infrastructure rather than the operation and maintenance of existing infrastructure.

A Payment-By-Results (PbR) financing scheme supported by the Government of Tanzania and Department for International Development (DFID) provides targeted financial incentives to Local Government Authorities (LGAs) to expand rural water access in eligible districts. The objective of the PbR is to increase the availability and sustainability of functional rural water points and shift the emphasis towards long-term sustainability. This involves output-based incentives whose aim is to strengthen focus on maintaining existing water points (and rehabilitating old ones), rather than focusing only on the construction of new water points to increase coverage. To measure the impact of the PbR scheme a performance evaluation will be conducted as well as an impact evaluation of PbR’s complementary intervention. The intervention is expected to last two years in parallel with PbR’s roll-out. These evaluations form the framework for this assignment. The baseline collection consisted of two surveys which EDI was responsible for implementing:

Water Community Groups Survey will consist of two parts:

Water Community Groups Survey

The Water Community Groups survey was conducted in 129 rural LGAs of mainland Tanzania. The sample comprised of eight villages per LGA, for a total of 1,032 villages. The Chairperson and Treasurer of the Water Committee identified in each village were surveyed on:

  • Demographics and Administration;
  • Water Points Maintenance Practices;
  • Organisational Structure and Governance;
  • Perceptions of Responsibilities;
  • Accountability;
  • Collaboration with LGAs;
  • Challenges.

Distribution Points Survey

In each sampled village, the functionality of two distribution points were surveyed – a total of 2,064 distribution points across rural mainland Tanzania. Survey modules included:

  • GPS and Administration;
  • Type of Structure;
  • Flow at the time of checking;
  • Flow Regularity;
  • Quality;
  • User Satisfaction.

For the Water Community Groups Survey EDI was responsible for recruiting supervisors and enumerators, field management, survey training and logistics, and data processing.

Civil Servants Survey

The broad objective of the Civil Servants Survey was to assess the state human resources in the public sector (the water and health sectors specifically) to help inform and develop strategies for acquisition and development towards improved service delivery. The Civil Servants Survey was conducted in all 185 LGAs of mainland Tanzania across the water and health sectors. At the LGA level, there was five interviews per sector in each LGA, namely 10 interviews per LGA. Respondents included public servants who work full time for Ministries, Regional Secretariat, Water Authorities, Agencies and Departments. In total, this survey included around 2,380 interviews. Survey modules included:

  • Demographic and Work History;
  • Management Practices;
  • Internal Labour Market of the Public Sector;
  • Information;
  • Motivation and Attitude;
  • Time Use;
  • Stakeholder Engagement;
  • Service Delivery;
  • Reform;
  • Skills and Knowledge.

For the Civil Servants Survey EDI was responsible for field management, survey training and logistics, and data processing.  The Government of Tanzania was responsible for recruiting supervisors and enumerators as well as providing administrative support as required.

 

PROJECT UPDATE

September 2018:  Full pilot of survey tools

October 2018: Training for Water Community Survey and Civil Servants Survey

October – December 2018: Field work

The intervention is expected to last two years after which a follow-up survey is expected to take place.