Institutional context, household access to resources and sustainability of River Basin Resources in Tanzania: towards an analytical framework

River basin resources contribute in diverse ways in the livelihoods of rural people in Tanzania. People living around these areas depend on small scale agriculture, subsistence forestry, artisanal fishing, livestock keepings, artisanal mining and small-scale trade as sources of livelihoods. While it was expected that these important livelihood assets would be used in sustainable ways, the destructive practices behaviour related to the use of basins resources are increasing. Increase of population, declining of agricultural productivity without increase of employment in industrial sector are among the factors that lead to competition for the use of river basin resources. This paper aims at providing an analytical framework that elaborates the relationship between people’s access to and control over resources and sustainability of River basin resources in Tanzania. It uses the concept of livelihood framework, together with institutional theories to build the analytical framework that elaborates multiplicity of factors that affect sustainability of river basin resources in Tanzania. The livelihood framework is modified to include the concept of Ostrom’s polycentric governance system to study how different institutions interact in the governance of river basin resources in Tanzania to affect the sustainability of River basin resources. This is the first paper to link the concept of polycentric governance system with the livelihood framework. This paper is part of the literature review that will feed into the PhD research on household development strategies and their linkage to RBR degradation in Tanzania.