The contribution of community development initiatives tasaf project in poverty reduction: the case of urban west region in zanzibar, tanzania.

ABSTRACT

The study on contribution of CDI TASAF in the reduction of poverty was conducted in Zanzibar Urban West Region. Specifically, the study aimed at assessing community awareness on the process of implementation of the TASAF projects; to determine the contribution of TASAF on initiation and implementation of community development initiative (CDI) projects; to determine the contribution of TASAF projects on improving the standard of living of the community and lastly to assess people’s attitudes towards TASAF CDI projects. A cross-sectional research design was employed, and Semi structured and structured interview schedules and FGDs were used to collect primary data. The sample size of 120 respondents was drawn through stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using SPSS version11.5. The FGDs were used to verify the responses from the respondents. Generally, the findings reveal that the majority (82%) of respondents, were aware of the procedures used in the initiation and implementations of the TASAF projects. Also findings show that TASAF contributed more in education related projects, (about Tsh 400 million), than to health and water supply projects at Tshs 322 million and Tshs 300 million respectively. Further, the study revealed that the majority, (96.0%), of the respondents accept that CDI through TASAF has improved their living standard. Based on the findings of the study it is concluded that TASAF has increased initiation and implementations of community development projects and has contributed toward poverty reduction. It is recommended that to achieve greater poverty reduction, more area based development programme/projects are needed in the pro-poor growth areas