Strengthening Local Land Governance
Refresher Course Tanzania
Land policies are intended to guide access to land, land reform and land development. These are central themes in the ITC Land Administration programme. The registration of people’s rights to land is an important component as it may help to protect rights against third parties.
Land policies are reflections of the ideology and political ideas of the governing (urban) elite. When policies are implemented and reach local and remote realities, there might be a mismatch between the policy perceptions and priorities and the local conditions. Especially in countries where a dual tenure system is found (customary and statutory), the mismatch may be big. The analysis of land policies with their implicit perceptions and local conditions was the theme of a refresher course financed by NUFFIC for the East African Region. The course took place in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, between 14 and 25 June. NFP alumni from ITC, ISS and IHS joined the programme, which was organized as a workshop.
The Land Administration Unit within ARDI University in Dar es Salam, a partner of the UNU-ITC School of Land Administration Studies, was the counterpart in the workshop and provided all the logistical support in an excellent manner. Applications for the workshop had to be accompanied by an abstract of a presentation and paper to be delivered in the programme. Participants were selected based on these abstracts. A group of 16 participants and some ARU staff joined the programme. Johan de Meijere and Anthony Arko Adjei from ITC facilitated the programme, while ARU staff and resource persons from other agencies provided additional lectures.
The presentation of each participant was summarized and documented in a “mental map”. Towards the end, some 20 of these maps were available. Participants then clustered them in themes to summarize findings and draw conclusions. Four themes were identified: land policy − formulation and implementation; access to land and land information; public goods and land acquisition compensation; customary systems and change.
A major finding was that East African countries have been subject to dramatic changes in tenure regimes imposed by new ruling classes. Customary or feudal regimes are being overruled by colonial, military, socialist, tribal and other elites. Since the 1990s, African nations have adhered to liberal market economic ideologies, combined with concepts of good governance. Land tenure, though, is only being slowly or partially reformed. Land in many countries still belongs to “the people” (i.e. the state and vested in the president). Often the interests of foreign investors supported by the government prevail over the rights to land of traditional land users. In how far the criteria of good governance are really being met at central and local levels is a topic for further analysis and research.
In neo-liberal land policies, issuance of certificates to “improve tenure security” is a favourite topic. Big projects have been undertaken in several countries to issue such documents, but the usefulness and institutional embedding of such titling programmes have not been proved. Interesting were the findings that small farmers in Ethiopia perceive the document as a guarantee that no new policy reform, with corresponding land tenure regime change, will occur in the short run. The finding that perceived (freehold) tenure in informal urban areas of Dar es Salam was better and more flexible than the Certificate of Residence as issued by the state (restrictive leasehold) is also very interesting.
The abuse of political power in allocating public/state land to elites is a phenomenon that has occurred on a massive scale in Kenya, and possibly continues in several countries. The lack of public land registers facilitates such practices. Once registered in formal private land registers, it becomes almost impossible to remedy these injustices from the past, as the experience in Kenya shows.
Many more interesting findings and conclusions were discussed, stimulating our critical thinking about land administration. The well prepared presentations of the participants and the active participation of all, combined with the beautiful location on the shore of the Indian Ocean, made the programme a refreshing experience in many ways. The exchange of professional and personal experiences in the workshop was of great value, and we are happy that NUFFIC offered the opportunity for this refresher course, as it produced a lot of added value for all − alumni as well as staff from the educational institutes offering land administration courses.
Read the presentations
More information on Refresher courses 2010