Contribution of systematic land formalization in women’s land ownership: a case of Ifakara Town Council, Tanzania
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Date
2024-05
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Land is important as one of the production inputs and investments.
Official land ownership provides opportunities for the owners to
utilize it for economic development purposes. Women often belong
to the disadvantageous group in land ownership due to different
factors including inheritance related aspects. Access to and
ownership of land officially contributes to reducing discrimination.
Understanding the benefits derived from official land ownership and
factors impeding women's access and ownership to land is crucial
for policymakers and law implementers. Land ownership in this
study is described as the rights an individual is given by the
government after acquiring land through inheritance, purchase or
customary tenure arrangement. The state provides the right to
transfer, sell, and use the land for investment or production without
interference. The government of Tanzania implemented the pilot
Land Tenure Support Programme (LTSP) from year 2016 to 2019,
which applied a systematic land formalization approach in Ifakara
Town Council in the Morogoro region. This study assessed the
contribution of a systematic land formalization approach to women‘s
land ownership in rural areas of Tanzania. Specific objectives of this
study were to assess the influence of socio-cultural factors on
women‘s right to land ownership and to determine the benefits of the
systematic land formalization approach on women's land ownership
in Ifakara Town Council.
The study area was selected based on the presence of beneficiary
landholders in the programme, that is, those who possessed
Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCROs). The
CCROs were acquired through the Land Tenure Support
Programme (LTSP) implemented in the area using a systematic land
formalization approach. The programme aimed at providing a road
map for accountability for land governance and effective land
administration systems. The systems were expected to contribute to
securing legitimate tenure rights in favour of rural poor, women, and
vulnerable groups that would result in increasing incomes and contribute to job creation. This area where LTSP was implemented
comprises people from different ethnic groups with different social
and cultural norms and values, which often hinder women‘s rights
from owning land. The approach as authored by De Soto (2000) and
which originated from the comprehensive tenure reform of land and
the evolutionary theory of land rights (ETLR) (Platteau, 1996) was
used to guide the study. The theory and approach assume that there
are benefits and obstacles resulting from the application of land
formalization approach.. The study employed a mixed-methods
approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research
methods for a better understanding of the contribution of the
systematic land formalization approach to women‘s land ownership.
A cross-sectional research design was applied for data collection
from sampled households at a single point in time in the Land
Tenure Support Programme implemented area. A multistage
sampling technique was applied in this study. Three of the nineteen
wards were selected purposely from the programme implementation
area, followed by a simple random selection of six villages among 28
villages. A sample of 120 households was determined by using
Krejcie and Morgan's formula. A simple random sampling technique
was applied in the selection of 120 participants from the list of
landholders who possessed CCROs.
The study used a structured questionnaire administered to 120
households for collecting quantitative data and a checklist of
questions for collecting qualitative data from 8 Focus Group
Discussions (FGD) and 9 Key informant interviews (KIIs). The
participants for FGDs and KIIs interviews were selected based on
their capacity to offer relevant information on how systematic land
formalization contributes to women's official land ownership. The
qualitative and quantitative data were tracked through designed
tools and predetermined periodic checks whereby information and
communication technologies (ICT) were used in data collection
through the use of the Open Data Kit (ODK). Quantitative data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24
software and in this case, descriptive and inferential statistics were
computed. The descriptive statistics entailed frequencies,
percentages, mean, and standard deviations. Content analysis
(conceptual and relational) was used for analysing qualitative data.
The analysis determined the effect of systematic land formalization
based on the views of the respondents on women‘s right to land
ownership, socio-cultural roles, and practices related to it, including
socio-cultural status attached to women‘s land ownership.
A non-parametric test (Mann-Whitney) was applied to assess the
association between opinions and socio-cultural factors that
contribute to women‘s right to land ownership, and to test the
hypothesis about the role of socio-cultural factors and the difference
that exists between males and females.
According to disaggregated data from the programme report (LTSP),
about 29 per cent of women as individuals managed to acquire
CCROs as an achievement; 65 per cent for men as individuals, 56
per cent for co-ownership with women.
The findings showed that 67.8 per cent of women respondents were
married to single woman orientation meaning one woman to one
man, and the majority of them (51%) owned land officially. Polygamy
marriage, which accounted for 30.5 per cent influenced women's
land ownership mostly in a negative way. The results showed further
that 28.8 per cent of females married at child age of between 14 and
17 years, according to the Marriage Act of 1971 of the Laws of the
Republic of Tanzania. As for the education level, the findings
indicated that 60 per cent of women with higher education could
access, control, transfer land and use it for investment, and there
was a statistically significant difference between females with high
education and those with lower education. The findings further showed a statistically significant difference
(p<0.05) between males‘ and females‘ mean rankings for socio-
cultural factors namely property ownership, polygamy, the
reproductive role of women, men‘s supremacy, and migration of
men, that influence women‘s rights to land ownership. Women who
owned land officially had their social assets increased, and the
majority (78.8%) gained acceptance in their community and
increased their decision-making power in the community.
The findings also indicated the higher mean rank of above 59.00 on
the economic use of land certificate as the right to rent out, sell, and
use the land as collateral and for business. Also, findings showed a
statistically significant difference in ranking between those with and
without land certificates (CCROs) in the same economic benefits
(p<0.05). The results indicate that there were social benefits derived
from land certificates ownership such as the reduction of domestic
violence at the household level, and income generation using land
for agricultural production and livestock keeping. The findings
revealed that about 114 per cent of the respondents' landholders
agreed that CCROs can be used to access loans from financial
institutions. The findings indicated that 14.3 per cent of the
respondents managed to access the loan by using CCROs worth
TZS 500 000 to 8 000 000.
There was a statistically significant difference in ranking those with
and without land certificates (CCROs) in terms of social benefits for
violence reduction and holding land for the future (p<0.05). The
findings indicated a statistically significant difference between
women, with those possessing land certificates having more
chances to participate in land management, marketing of the
produces, and attending training and workshops than those with no
certificates (P<0.05).
The land is a vital input to economic development in many settings.
Official land ownership is important to the poor and disadvantaged groups including women. In many societies, land ownership follows
socio-cultural values and norms, which discriminate against females
and favour males. The findings showed that socio-cultural factors
contribute to some extent to limiting women from participating in the
systematic land formalization approach, which offers them
Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCROs). Women‘s
low education level was also one of the factors that hindered women
from owning land officially. The study found that the systematic land
formalization approach has brought about some benefits among
women from their use of CCROs. From CCROS, women gained
security, and the land became an asset, which brought about social
and economic benefits. Through owning land certificates, women
are recognized in the community and involved in community
governance as well as decision-making.
The study recommends that the local government of Tanzania
should promote a gender-responsive land tenure system through
locally made bylaws to scale up the land formalization approach
countrywide to benefit the majority of women. Such promotion will
increase the number of women who will legally own land by reducing
or removing the socio-cultural and economic barriers to women
associated with their deprivation of land ownership.
Description
MA. Dissertation
Keywords
Systematic land formalization, women’s land ownership, Ifakara Town Council, Tanzania