Although numerous studies concerning local democracy have been carried out in Tanzania, most of them have fallen short of analysing crowdsourcing citizen participation in local democracy online. Local democracy aims essentially to promote fundamental rights of the citizen to participate in policy and decision-making processes. On the other hand, crowdsourcing in the modern digital age -is increasingly expected not only to transform relationships between local politicians and voters in democratic processes, but also to engage and empower ordinary citizens to have a voice in monitoring electoral procedures by new electronic means from below. Promotion of citizen participation with better platforms for monitoring local elections and information sharing in near real-time is a vital element for healthy local democracy. This is why in recent times; we have witnessed emerging of digitally empowered citizen voice platforms such as Uchaguzi open source and social media pages like Facebook for citizens' crowdsourcing systems. In that regard this paper attempts to map citizen crowdsourcing methods, trends and challenges of online participation in monitoring local elections in Tanzania. Crowdsourcing methods through information and communication technologies create an agenda for collective citizen participation, collaborative production and sharing of local information.
This paper explores how digital transformation has improved the delivery of immigration services. In contrast, this refers to the fact that, despite the existence of e-immigration services, there has been inadequate research to examine the e-immigration system in Tanzania. This paper explores the e-immigration portal, its advantages, and its challenges. Using a mixed-method, data were collected from secondary and primary sources through document review, portal analysis, interviews, and questionnaires. Primary and secondary data show that e-immigration portals can be accessed using personal computers, smartphones, and internet cafes. Also, the time for applicants to receive passports and travel documents has decreased from more than seven days in the old manual system to three days on average in the new e–immigration system. Following the transforming government process, immigration service delivery has been improved by implementing the e–immigration system. Thee–immigration services offer advantages to users like online application, online payment, time-saving, and costs, but challenges like digital literacy, inaccuracy of information, feedback, and network problems impact the system's smooth operation. Here digital literacy campaign, feedback mechanism, applicant support desk, and digital service desk are recommended.
Local government presupposes the existence of central authority to which is subordinate despite the relative autonomy of its organs. Three views paint the nature of relationships between central-local governments in Tanzania. The first view conceives local governments as instruments of the centre whose mandate is implementing public policies. Second, local governments are seen as partners of the centre, implementing public policies in a coherent manner with some levels of discretion. Third, central and local governments are certainly different governments which have mutual dependence. This article offers an overview on the dynamics of central-local relationship to uncover expectation of establishing self-governing authorities at the local levels as stipulated in the Local Government Reform and the D-by-D policy or the Policy Paper on Local Government Reforms. In addition, it highlights unwillingness of the centre to give autonomy to local authorities. Using document analysis, our analysis shows that local authorities have been agents of the central government, primarily responsive to their political master, not partners in national administration and development. These unhealthy arrangements limit local government capacity to serve their clients accordingly. Thus, considering autonomous local authorities as a vehicle to national development is essential for healthy decentralisation of central-local relations.
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