Abstract:
Tanzania has had an interesting history of Environmental Impact Assessments (EA). Few assessments
were conducted prior to 2004 leading to a process of voluntary compliance without explicit laws to
enforce the process. Even without a comprehensive legal and institutional framework, those EIAs
generated useful policy decisions. Fundamental changes came after 2004 when Tanzania adopted the
first ever-comprehensive legal and institutional framework – that is, the Environmental Management Act
Cap 191. This Act promotes Environmental Assessment, gives it the legal support and defines the
institutional set up for the management of the environment. However, Tanzania still grapples with EIA
ineffectiveness in guiding development decisions and environmental management arising from various
projects. Numerous studies on the effectiveness of EIA have explored governance issues such as
stakeholder participation, legislating EIA process, capacity building and institutional arrangement. Few
studies have looked at governance issues such as accountability of responsible institutions in
enforcing environmental assessments and procedures. This article discusses accountability challenges
in enforcing laws for EIA by exploring the experiences of selected development decisions in the post
2004 in Tanzania. The article argues that, inadequate or lack of accountability in enforcing the
Environmental Management Act is a governance failure that renders the EIA process ineffective. The
article calls for a re-assessment of the theoretical arguments used to understand effectiveness to
include sociological and psychological factors that influences accountability actions by environmental
agencies and planners.
