Community participation practices and perceptions in stunting reduction: a case study from Tanzania

This research employed the concepts of participation, power relations and downward ac-countability to uncover problems of NGOs in Tanzania in realising transformative commu-nity participation among communities they serve. These concepts were first reviewed in the literature to understand existing contestations of various scholars in the discourse of com-munity participation. There is substantial agreement in the literature regarding problems of NGOs implementing community participation emanating from misinterpretation of partici-pation. Two NGOs implementing community nutrition project were chosen as a case in this study. A semi – structured interview as part of a qualitative approach was used to investigate NGOs’ perceptions of community, their participation practices and how they attempt to empower communities in an effort to achieve transformative community participation. This paper found that NGOs struggle to achieve transformative participation because of limited autonomy due to their over-dependency on donor funds. The prevalent assumptions among NGO staff that development projects are solutions for poor people deprives the community of their power to decide what is important for them. This paper argues that a holistic en-gagement of community members would perhaps enhance more sustainable solutions be-cause the project would tap local knowledge and identify cultural barriers to transformative participation. Finally, taking community as an integral part of the project cycle may reduce NGO biases against community and achieve more transformative community participation.