USAID has contracted Development Alternatives International (DAI) to implement a Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) programme as part of the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) in the Districts of Kilombero, Iringa and Mbeya. The project will be implemented over four years and provide assistance to local level authorities in the delivery of land tenure services under the village land laws and acts of Tanzania. The LTA has three objectives:
- Assist villages in completing the land use planning process and delivering Certificate Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) through the use of open source mobile technology (Mobile Application for Secure Tenure MAST);
- Build capacities of village and district land governance institutions, and individual villagers, to complete the land use planning, complete the process of issuance of CCRO to village land owners effectively manage land resources, respect women’s land rights and build agriculture-related business skills through education and awareness raising activities; and
- Raise awareness of the MAST technology (and related procedures) within the GOT, civil society, academia and private sector, with the goal of increasing uptake of the MAST technology (and related procedures) on a national level.
The work will be undertaken through four activities. Activity 1 relates provision of assistance in the delivery of village land use plans (VLUP), and Activity 2 to capacity building and public awareness and education.
MAST will be extended to provide a sustainable solution that can both capture and subsequently manage and maintain land rights records and support transactions at District and Village levels in the post CCRO issuance period. DAI have developed the Technical Register Under Social
Tenure (TRUST) that will provide this. It will be seamlessly linked with the existing MAST functionality.
The LTA programme provides a time bound plan for assisting District and Village Authorities in the implementation of the Village Land Act No.5, 1999 and the Land Use Planning Act No.6, 2007 in the delivering of CCROs at village level in at least 41 selected villages. The Assistance will include support to the preparation of the village land use plans (VLUP) (for those target villages where these plans do not exist or have not already been completed) and land regularization, first issuance and registration of CCROs. This will be supported by a programme of capacity development and building. Subject to progress under the project, village work and capacity building activities will be extended to Mbeya District Council through the District Land Office.
MAST has been tested to Proof of Concept (Feb2015- March 2016) in two villages in Iringa District in Ilalasimba and Itagutwa. A third village, Idodi was not completed and has been substituted for Kitayawa village.
Scope of Work
The scope of work under LTA will involve:
- Design and development of district and village land administration systems, procedures that are inclusive and fully participatory – with delivery of VLCs, VLUPs and CCROs.
- Development of village capacities to implement regularization of tenure and registration of land using the mobile applications – MAST.
- Assist and participate in the selection of target villages.
- Institutional capacity building at District and Village levels.
- The use of technology to assist in the processing and management of data collected through the use MAST and TRUST.
- Public information and consultation, development of media messages and delivery strategies.
- Ongoing government and donor consultation on LTA and development of protocols.
- Monitoring and evaluation.
The LTA programme will be strongly action/implementation oriented and will focus on activities that can build a strong field involvement with District Land Staff and Village Leaders. It will draw on lessons learned from the MAST Pilot Programme, but will also bring additional experience learned from other African countries low cost registration systems that have been or are in the process of being applied. The LTA will be implemented through four interrelated activities. The methodologies and work programmes are the subject of this inception report.
Inception Period
The Contract period commenced December 6, 2015 for a term of four years. The Start-up Team arrived in Tanzania on January 4, 2016. The Acting Chief of Party arrived on January 11 while the Chief of Party arrived on 23rd January 23, 2016.