Supporting LTSP implementation in Tanzania

LEI has been working in Tanzania since 2005 under various contracts to the World Bank to support land reform activities under the Private Sector Competitiveness Project (PSCP) and, more recently, to support the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania (GoT) to prepare the Strategic Plan for Implementation of Land Laws (SPILL, 2013). Our experiences in Tanzania have exposed us to development pressures on land – particularly in rural areas – resulting from rapid population growth, growing demand for agricultural commodities, and increasing government and private sector demand for access to land for large scale agricultural investment. Most recently, LEI has established a team of advisers to support the major Land Tenure Support Programme (LTSP).

Secure land tenure and transparent, efficient land administration and governance are at the heart of the GoT’s vision to become a middle income country by 2025 (as set out in Tanzania’s Development Vision 2025). The strategic Road Map to be developed under the LTSP will become the foundation for significant, country-wide scale up and roll out of activities to support the government achieve its targets. The LTSP needs to achieve concrete results quickly, efficiently and sustainably by building on the past and revised versions of SPILL.

The GoT has set ambitious targets of several million certificates of customary rights of occupancy (CCROs). To achieve this ambitious goal, the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD) needs to pilot a low cost system that can quickly scale up across the country, while safeguarding the needs and interests of all land occupants, especially women and vulnerable groups, and navigating the complex institutional and political economy landscape to achieve broad-based support and clarity over the legal framework. LTSP is starting with two pilot regions, Kilombero and Ulanga, with a view to developing and testing a methodology that can be applied nationwide.

The proposed LTSP pilots will test and evaluate the impact of a lower cost, simplified approach for rapid issuance of CCROs – drawing on information from, and building the capacity of, district and village staff. Our work to date on the PSCP and the World Bank/UK-funded (since September 2020 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)) project, Developing Low-cost Ways to Issue Certificates of Right of Ownership in Tanzania, will provide a sound basis for future partnerships to implement land tenure regularisation in rural areas.

For more information on this project, please see https://www.devex.com/projects/tenders/land-tenure-support-programme-in-tanzania/147821 and http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/home-news/47113-land-tenure-support-programme-pilot-project-kicks-off