Exploring Land Tenure and Women Access to Land in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of Mabwepande Ward, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

This paper explores land tenure arrangement prevalent in the peri-urban Ward of Mabwepande in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, embedded rights, and how women are enjoying those rights. As much research and government legal reforms have focused on urban and rural areas with distinct land tenure arrangements, the emerging peri-urban areas with fuzzy land tenure arrangement have largely not received due attention. In order to operationalize the study, the research used mixed methods design in data collection and analysis employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Three specific research questions were used: (i) what land tenure arrangements are existing in the peri-urban areas of Tanzania; (ii) what land rights are embedded in land tenure regimes present in the peri-urban areas; and (iii) how women are accessing and exercising those rights. The choice of Mabwepande Ward was informed by a number of criteria including its diverse land tenure ownership arrangements; and being among the fast-growing peri-urban areas of Dar es Salaam. A total of seventy (70) households who have established residence in the area for more than three years were interviewed. The study revealed that a number of legal reforms in favor of women’s land rights have been done but the later have not sufficiently take up the opportunity. Further, awareness campaigns to enlighten women of their varied rights and how to pursue them have been done; but most of these were done in urban areas with little or no attention on the emerging peri-urban areas. The study also revealed that despite the legal reforms and awareness campaigns, women still don’t enjoy full opportunities with respect to access, ownership and use of the land where especially where customary and quasi-customary land tenure prevails It was also revealed that 75.7% of the land is owned by men; while the remaining 24.3% is jointly owned i.e., both husband and wife, conforming marginalized position of women with respect to access to the land, an important livelihood asset for peri-urban households. Further, the study unveils that rapid densification fueled by commercialization of the land have forced immigrants and recent land developers to access small pieces of land (between 300 and 400m2) which do not support multiple uses on the same piece of the land as it is expected for peri-urban livelihoods. The paper concludes that women’s rights to access, own and use of land in the peri-urban areas are still infringed despite efforts by the government to undertake a number of legal reforms with respect to women’s land rights. The paper recommends for more awareness campaigns on land rights among women in the peri-urban area. Acknowledging presence of quasi-customary land tenure and definition of the minimum dos and don’ts are also recommended

Mabwepande, peri-urban, quasi-customary, customary land tenure

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