Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

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the benefit of the doubt. Zambia has experienced two such occasions. The
first one was when Chiluba replaced Kaunda as president, after winning the
multiparty elections. The second was when Chiluba, two presidential periods
later, was succeeded by Mwanawase. In both cases the incoming president
was elected on a strong anti-corruption agenda.
The dialogue and the changing modalities of development
co-operation
The dialogue has passed through a number of stages over the years and is
closely linked to the aid modalities of the various stages. The first stage
Rural water supply (1960s and 1970s)
The Tanzanian rural water supply programme was a major part of the Swedish
Tanzania co-operation from the late 1960s and Sweden was its largest
donor until the early 1980s. The Government of Tanzania in 1971 adopted
a twenty-year plan according to which the whole rural population would be
provided with access to piped water by 1991. In the Ujamaa era the aim of
the programme was politically attractive, particularly as water was considered
a free commodity for the consumers. The technology was based on
diesel-pumps and long distance pipes, demanding maintenance and supply
of spare parts. It was large scale and capital intensive. When international oil
prices increased in 1973 and 1979, the programme became financially unsustainable.
The ownership of the programme by the beneficiaries in the
villages was low. The dialogue related to this project consisted mainly of
engineers, linked to the programme, talking to engineers, linked to Sida. On
the political side the rapidly increased resource flow to the Ministry of
Water increased the status and power of the ministry and its leadership.
Evaluations soon reported lack of maintenance and weak or non-existent
local ownership. A broader and more transparent dialogue, including the
feasibility of the twenty-year plan at an early stage, would possibly have
resulted in a more sustainable programme.
In 1975 the planning of a new programme started, based on the experiences
from the rural water supply programme. The result was HESAWA,
described in one report as “the most ambitious among donor funded projects,
based on participation and integration of health, sanitation and water activities”
(Therkildsen, 1988). The conceptualisation was donor-driven and
consultant-intensive. At the same time participation by the beneficiaries
was significant and a number of impressive results were recorded during a
period with a very difficult macro economic environment. HESAWA thus
developed into a programme, which at the same time was donor driven and
highly participatory. The trust and the quality of the dialogue was high
between the donor agency and the project management, while that between
those partners and the responsible ministry became more and more eroded.