Sumbawanga Urban District is one of the four
districts in the Rukwa Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north
by Lake Rukwa, to the east by the Mbeya Region, to the south by the
Sumbawanga Rural District and to the west by the Nkasi District. The
district (and regional) capital is Sumbawanga.
According to the 2002 Tanzania National Census, the population of the Sumbawanga Urban District was 147,483.
Tanzania
has a long history of Local Government, going back to the pre-colonial
days. The purpose of taking cognizance of the history of Local
Government in Tanzania is to look at where we came from with the view of
improving the present and the future.There are many lessons to
learn from the various episodes of the evolution of Local Government in
the country. Nevertheless, it can be said that since Independence, the
Government has been taking deliberate steps to improve the effectiveness
and efficiency of Local Government culminating into the current Local
Government Reform Programme.
Defining Local Government
Local
Government can be defined as a sub-national, semi-autonomous level
government discharging its functions in a specified area within a
nation. By definition, Local Governments are the level of government
that are closest to the people and therefore responsible for serving the
political and material needs of people and communities at a specific c
local area. Such areas could be a rural setting or an urban setting, a
village, a town, a suburb in a city or a city, depending on the size.
