United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Launched in 2014, the project developed a participatory methodology
to implement the pilot by combining use of technology with village-wide
training.
Dubbed “Mobile Application to Secure Tenure (MAST), the project
aims at building knowledge and strengthen capacity to help resolve
disputes in the villages.
It also helps villagers to identify parcel boundaries and gather
the demographic and tenure information to enable the government to issue
formal title deeds for their land.
About 75 per cent of Tanzanians live in rural households with
little opportunity for economic growth and access to safe water,
sanitation and land tenure.
Through MAST more than 940 villagers of Ilalasimba received formal documentation of their Land, launched in 2014.
USAID has developed a participatory methodology to implement the
pilot, combining the use of technology with village-wide training on
Tanzania’s land laws to build knowledge, strengthen capacity and dispute
resolution.
The pilot tests an innovative approach to mapping and registering
land rights at Ilalasimba through easy to use, open-source mobile
application.
The project empowers villagers with the training and tools to
identify parcel boundaries and gather the demographic and tenure
information, which government officials need to issue formal land rights
documents called Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy.
The founders, USAID, implemented the project as well as Cloudburst
Group the consultant, CARE International and a local Tanzania Grassroots
Oriented Development (TAGRODE), based in Iringa.
According to Executive Director of TAGRODE, the first phase of the
pilot is Ilalasimba, Iringa Rural District that falls in the Southern
Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), a zone of interest for
both Tanzania and USAID.
Maize is the principal crop, but there are several secondary cash
crops grown by inhabitants like tomatoes, sunflower and tobacco.
“The village has an estimated area of 31sq km and a small
population of 325 households or with more than one thousand people,” he
said.
He said Cloudburst Group implemented MAST project for USAID, which
is piloting a project to crowd-source land rights information at village
level in the country for mobile technology.
The Cloudburst Group Mobile Technology Lead (Land Tenure and
Natural Resources Management), Jeffrey Euwema, said MAST project
supports identified needs of Tanzania to improve land governance and
lower the cost of land certification programmes.
The pilot tests a new, participatory approach for capturing land
rights information, as well as a lower cost methodology for quickly
building a reliable database of land rights claims.
“MAST may be particularly helpful to the government as an
alternative to more traditional, and more costly, land administration
interventions,” he said.
He said formal land administration systems (LAS) in developing
countries have generally not met the need for accessible, cost effective
and appropriately fine distinction land registration.
Harold Carey, Economic Growth Officer from USAID, said that large
majorities of rural people (and many urban people) live without
formalised rights to land and other valuable resources.
He said lack of documentation may constrain the ability of
individuals and communities to leverage their land-based assets for
improved economic outcomes, to limit environmental harms, and to engage
in collaborative contracting with prospective investors in land that
leads to equitable sharing of benefits.
Simon Elias Salichuma (49) who is one of the beneficiaries of
Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO) told The Guardian
that the arrival of MAST project was a savior.
There were lots land conflicts involving farmers and animal keepers
and also between farmers and herders. The project is also expected to
transform their lives, using CCRO to get loan from financial institution
as collateral.
And also Yolanda Ngunda (51), a widow from same village, said she
was happy with the project because it has demarcated her parcel of land
and added that they would be no boundary conflicts.
Ilalasimba village at Nzihi Ward in Kalenga Division is fairly representative of an average Tanzania village.
Ilalasimba women have greater security and protection for their
assets, with MAST registering 30 per cent of parcels in the names of
women alone.
Forty per cent were registered jointly to men and women and another 30 per cent to men alone.