Assessing the Role and Challenges Of Local Government in Community Development in Zambia

Local government is the lowest level of government anywherein the world. Its significance lies in the fact that it is closer to thepeople. Local governments were created to serves a two-fold purpose. The firstpurpose was the administrative purpose which was the supplying of goods andservices; the other purpose was to represent and involve citizens indetermining specific local public needs and how these local needs would be met.It carries a multi-purpose role in terms of carrying out socio-economic servicein the local areas, promoting the democratic process, serving as trainingground for national political leaders and serving as medium of communicationbetween the people and the higher tiers of government. In Zambia, localgovernment is seen through the town mayor to the cancellers, market chairmenamong others. These people reach the citizens and act as a link between thepeople and the government (Eisenstein, 2019). Despite the unfortunate part thatmost political cadres have filled most areas of the fraternity; leading toblockages in the efficiencies of the local resource mobilization strategies,Inequalities in financial resources, economic and social inequality, little orno citizen participation in the development process among many others.

This paper took a systematic approach in solving varioushighlighted problem through the goal of assessing the roles and challengesfaced by Local government in community development in Monze district which wasspecifically achieved by investigating the challenges of local government inthe implementation of programs in Monze district local council, examining thelevel of citizen participation in the district local community projects and discoveringthe extent of sensitization of the people on the district projects in Monze.

The study was conducted on a total of eighty respondents whoincluded sixty respondents from among the community citizens and twenty keyinformants who were the Monze district council workers.

The results were analyzed using the statistical package forsocial science (SPSS) which made it possible to cord the responses fordescriptive statistics through tables and charts. The last part coined thepossible solutions to the problems which were discovered in the study.