The impact of stakeholder participation in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems on value for money in Nachingwea District Council projects in Tanzania

This study discussed an account of stakeholder engagement on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and their effects on value for money (VfM) in the monitor and evaluate project implemented by Nachingwea District Council, Tanzania. The study followed a positivist philosophy and was guided by the theory of change with a descriptive research design. Purposive and simple random sampling were used to select a sample of 134 respondents out of 200 council staff. Structured questionnaires were used to gather data on a five-point Likert scale and analyzed by SPSS (Version 27) with the help of descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analysis. The results suggest that despite the prevalence and perceived positivity of stakeholder participation (especially stakeholder inclusion and decision-making participation), the effectiveness of M&E systems in terms of producing VfM outcomes, including sustainability, efficiency, transparency, and attaining the desired outcomes, is low. By regression, the collective relationship between stakeholder participation factors and VfM is statistically significant but weak, with only the inclusion level of stakeholders becoming a significant individual predictor. The research finds that stakeholder engagement leads to VfM improvement only when it is strategically incorporated into institutional structures, budgets, and accountability systems and suggests improving structured engagement mechanisms, capacity-building interventions, and standardized policy to increase the effectiveness of participatory M&E systems in local government authorities.