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Graduate Student Research (2020 Deadline)
Tanzania - Project E3-005: Land tenure in Tanzania: economic loss experienced from exclusion of women and youth in land security
Mentor: Emmanuel Mwang’onda, Institute of Rural Development Planning
U.S. Partner: Jessica Rudder, University of California, Davis
Mentee: Deodatus Lubinga
Dates: July 2020 - September 2021
Project Overview
Security in ownership of major economic resources such as land increases possibilities of economic growth and development in developing societies. Access to secure land tenure helps to ensure that individuals may enjoy prosperity as an output of the production process. Land tenure systems that are designed to incorporate all groups in society—especially women, youth, and marginalized groups—will promote long-term investment on land, sustainable usage of land resources, increased government revenue, and peace and harmony among society members (Alvarez and Huth, 2017). In Africa, land is an essential factor in production in many societies; however, due to the customary regulatory and legal framework in place, the resource is enjoyed only by a minority of large landowners. Data from USAID in 2017 indicates that more than 70 per cent of land in developing countries is unregistered or unsecure. In securing the land rights, in most cases men tend to benefit more than women, even though women have proven to be more efficient that men in efficient utilization of land resources when given access (FAO, 2018). The situation on the also shows that not only women in most cases are deprived from land ownership and control but also many youths experience similar segregation from full access to land ownership and control, thus limiting their participation in society’s development process.
This study focused on analyzing data collected through previous USAID-funded projects conducted in the Iringa and Mbeya Districts in Tanzania, such as Mobile Applications for Secure Tenure (MAST) and the Technical Register for Social Tenure (TRUST). The project was planned with the aim that its findings would help accelerate the process of scaling up and integrating MAST in the issuance of Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy in most villages in Tanzania, thus helping to resolve land disputes, intensify long-term investments in land, increase access to formal financial institution funding, empower youth and women, and encourage sustainable utilization of land resources. To this end, the project sought to understand land tenure security in various contexts, estimating factors influencing land ownership among women and youth, as well as possible economic loss associated with female and youth exclusion from land ownership. The researchers also aimed to examine awareness among young people and women on the potential of securing land rights.
Final Summary of Project Activities
The team conducted a literature review and trained 13 enumerators for pilot and final studies. They improved the final data collection tool and trained on Open Data Kit, after which they interviewed more than 1,300 respondents. Work on the project helped improve student data collection techniques and their advanced use of STATA.
The researchers randomly selected a total of 22 villages from a set of 65 involved in the land tenure assistance program and studied responses from at least 64 participants from each village. After data cleaning and elimination of observations with missing information, about 1,000 respondents remained.
The team found overall awareness of securing land rights to be low, but men were more aware of land rights compared to women. Being female lowered the odds of inheriting land, but gender, age, and household size did not matter in acquisition of land through purchase. There was no significant variation in types of land use by gender, but when a woman had control over the land, the odds of having a having long-term investment, use of land as collateral, and selling or renting for economic gain doubled. There were no differences observed between participants who were active in the land tenure program and those who did not participate. As of the time of submission of their final report to PEER, the PI and his graduate student Deodatus Lubinga were still working to prepare a least one manuscript for publication.
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