Rungwe District is one of the eight District Council which form Mbeya Region.
Council Vision
To be a highly competent and autonomous Local Government Authority which prepares and enables the community to act and achieve sustainable development.
Council Mission
Rungwe District Council is committed to improve the people standard of living through all stakeholder collaboration in utilizing available resources and other opportunities for development and deliver quality social and economic services.
Geographical Location
Rungwe District lies between Latitudes 80 30’ East at 9030’ South of the Equator and Longitudes 330and 340 East of Green wich Meridian. The District shares borders with Kyela District in the South, Ileje District in the West, Makete District in the East and Mbeya District in the North. The District headquarters is situated at Tukuyu which is about 72 km from Mbeya District along Uyole Ibanda Highway which passes Kyela District on root to Malawi.
Land Area
The District covers a total of 2,221Sq km of which 1,668.259 Sq’ km or 75 percent of total area is land. The remaining land is covered by 44.5Sq km of forest and 498.3Sq km is mountainous and residential area. The District covers 3.5 percent of the total Regional land area.
Climate
The climate condition of the District is a function of altitude. The District is mountainous with Rungwe Mountain and Livingstone ranges rising from an altitude of 770 meters to 2265 meters above the sea level. Rainfall average ranges from 900 mm in the low land areas to 2700mm on the highland. Temperature are generally modest and range from 180C – 250C Throughout the year.
Administrative structure
The District consist of 4 divisions namely Tukuyu Urban, Ukukwe, Pakati and Busekelo. There are 37 Wards and 162 registered villages. The village are further sub-divided into 742 sub-villages, popularly known as hamlets.
Population size and density
On the basis of the year 2002 population census, Rungwe District Council had 306,380 people out of which 161,344 equivalent to 53% were females and 145,036 equivalent to 47% were males. At growth rate of 1.9 percent per annum the District is projected to have 378,332 people by 2010.r
The district’s population density is 171 per sqm
STAKE HOLDER ANALYSIS
Stakeholder analysis attempts to understand perceptions, expectations, and priorities of all those who have an interest either direct or indirect in an institution.
However, in order to identify key issues for Rungwe District, the Council undertook stake holder analysis exercise and its results are expressed as indicated in table 2.
SOME OF KEY STAKE HOLDERS
District residents, businessmen, Traders, Council staff, Political leaders (Councilors, village Chairpersons etc) Donors, Financiers, Central Government/Regional Secretariat Public Institutions and Other service providers, Religions Organization
Table 2. Stakeholders Analysis Summary Sheet
STAKE HOLDER
EXPECTATIONS/INTERESTS
POTENTIL IMPACT OF NOT FULFILLING EXPECTATIONS
RANKING
District residents
Get necessary social Economic service
Peace, order and good security
Governance
Law tax payment compliance
Non involvement and participation in Council affairs
Unrest and social disorders
H
Traders, Businessmen
Get necessary social Economic services
Peace order and good security
Good Governance
Conducive environment for conducting their business
Law tax payment compliance
Non involvement and participation in Council affairs
Unrest and social disorders
H
Council staff
Get remuneration
Recognized and respected
Conducive working environment
Poor performance at the work place.
Decline the moral of work
H
Political leaders(council vllage chairperson)
Incentives
Recognized and respected
Conducive working environment
Poor performance of council formation
Inability to meet the goals of the council
Poor cooperation.
H
Donor funded Development programmers/financiers
Accountability
Good Governance
Cooperation in delivering service to the community.
Decreased level of service provision
Pressure group
M
Central Government/Regional secretariat
Abide with government policies directives
Perform Council function
Accountability and good governance
Sanctions disciplinary actions and decreased subvention
H
Public institution and other service providers
Conducive environment
Decreased Level of service provision
L
Religious organization
Recognition
Law and order
Unrest
L
NB: H – High, M – Medium and L - Low
ISSUES FOR STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
It is clear that there is a broad range of issues to be addressed by the strategic plan. Critical issues relate to two broad areas that require significant improvement. The first is service delivery. This applies to all the sectors in which the Council is mandated to provide basic services (namely education, health, community development, co-operatives, trade, infrastructure development, urban and rural planning, agriculture, livestock development and natural resources)
The second areas concerns Council’s operational and efficiency since the improvement service delivery depends on good governance, competent staff, the availability of adequate equipment and tools and the efficiency of the administrative systems.
KEY ISSUES
Environmental scan analysis shows that there are key issues which must be taken into account so as to meet the Council MTEF objectives and targets.
The key issues include high quality live hood, Good governance, promotion of gender equality, women empowerment, reduction of child mortality rate, improvement of health service, Reduction of the rate of infections of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STI).
ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
Recently the main target is to increase role of private sector contribution to economic development and service provision to the community, trade liberalization, Government non Involvement in production and reforms in Provision of social services.
The challenges to district Council is to create conducive environment for private Investment, outsource or privatize some of its service provision while making sure that the community gets better services. In the contest of ensuring that there is democratic procedures, follow up of rules and regulation, Anti – corruption measures, Transparency and accountability to the community.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
Good governance entails good cooperation with all stake holders conducting all statutory meetings and public hearing to insure community ideas and suggestion are taken into account.
AVAILABITY OF RESOURCES
The Council collect its revenue from various sources also gets support from other donor and the funds obtains are used to finance various development activities so that to provide satisfactory services to the community.
CAPACITY DISTRICT AND EFFICIENCY OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Council staffs are the key resource in the Council. The Council needs to have capable staff with ability and motivation to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in providing services to the community.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION
Community and other stakeholders must be involved in planning implementation and evaluation of the Council development plans for the successful provision of services. If the community is involved, it is easier for them to accept their responsibilities, contribute to costs involved and even pay taxes.
POLICIES AND STRATEGIES
The Council has developed a number of strategies in order to achieve the policies as well as its mission as follows:-
To carry out participatory planning whereby all stakeholders and the District residents at large are involved in preparation of development plans.
To ensure that the District Council deliver efficient and improved services
To create conducive environment for District resident be able to increase their income so that to alleviate poverty.
To make by laws, this will ensure that the development plans and service delivery are implemented.
To ensure good governance within the current legislative laws in order to ensure transparency and farness among all stakeholders in carrying out Council affairs.
To enhance revenue collection within the District in order to ensure that the outsourcing will be done to private agencies or individuals
To carry out Local Government Reforms Programs (LGRP)
To ensure that capacity District building of District staff through the term and short term courses in order to improve their skills so as to increase their level of service delivery to District residents.
PROBLEMS/LIMITATION TO EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION
Some of challenges and limitation which has faced Rungwe District Council to implement its the current budget include;
The Council by laws which were the base for revenue collection was not passed in time and so affecting its revenue collections.
Grants from Central Government are not received on time as per our action plans.
Unforeseen changes like increase of the number of the Councilors that is proportional to the increase of the allowances.
