Project Details

ICMA is an implementing partner in the Enabling Growth Through Investment and Enterprise (ENGINE) Program in Tanzania, a project designed to increase private-sector investment leading to inclusive, broad-based economic growth in the agricultural regions of Mbeya, Morogoro, and Iringa, as well as in Zanzibar.

ENGINE is a four-year Feed the Future activity funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and awarded through the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), with the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) taking the lead.

Components of the Project

The project has three component objectives:

1. Implementing Policies for Growth: Build the capacity of the private sector to work effectively with the government to set the policy agenda and improve the capacity of the public sector to implement policies that promote an environment that enables business. An indicator of success is a 20 percent increase in formally registered businesses in targeted local government authorities (LGAs).
2. Equipping for Growth: Foster the growth and capacity of a sustainable market for business development services in Tanzania, with the result that at least 24 suppliers of these services are sustainable by the end of the project.
3. Financing for Growth: Broaden access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, specifically for women and youth entrepreneurs, to facilitate increased investment and growth, with the result that more than $7 million of Development Credit Authority loans are extended to women- and youth-owned businesses.

ICMA’s Role

ICMA’s role is to advance the first objective, implementing policies for growth, by guiding and managing a local governance analyst and fielding local, regional, and international volunteers. ICMA’s specific tasks are to:

• Recruit and Manage Volunteers. ICMA’s approach is to motivate a cadre of executive-level volunteers with specific and relevant experience and skill sets in national and local policy development. The local government advisor and volunteers work with a local consulting firm to ensure sustainability of results.
• Employ Learning-by-Doing Capacity Strengthening. Volunteers in each of the regional capitals support local efforts with mentoring and coaching, training, and direct technical assistance to build local capacity. Some possible outcomes include streamlined business registration and licensing, improved “own-source” revenue from the LGAs, services on quality standards, market access and information, and other business support services.
• Improve Policy Analysis, Design, Advocacy, Adoption, and Monitoring. ICMA is deploying experts in economic governance and ICMA volunteers from the political and administrative leadership of U.S. cities for short- and medium-term assignments to work with the LGAs, the business council working group, and private-sector and civil society organizations to better articulate evidence-based messaging and adopt effective advocacy methods.

For more information, see About Global Programs on our website, or contact global@icma.org.

Throughout much of the U.S., the overall lack of affordable housing combined with ongoing problems in addressing older, obsolete, and rundown housing stock have created a housing crisis that is having an impact on the economic health of communities and on the quality of life for community residents and their families. As local governments struggle with how best to address these interlinked issues, it has become clear that traditional approaches to neighborhood and community planning are not producing the desired results for residents.

To address this, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Choice Neighborhoods Program. This comprehensive approach to neighborhood planning takes into account the economic and social needs of residents in public and assisted housing beyond those of their physical environment. With HUD funding, ICMA coordinated a study of three smaller cities (Salisbury, North Carolina; Suffolk, Virginia; and Norfolk, Virginia) that received funding from the Choice Neighborhoods Program.

Based on the study, ICMA prepared a report, Evaluating the Role of Local Government and Project Stakeholder Engagement in Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Planning and Implementation.