advances with securing and protecting land rights from a gender perspective: promoting gender...
TRANSCRIPT
Presented by:Irene Fugara
Environmental LawyerLawyers’ Environmental Action Team
ADVANCES WITH SECURING AND PROTECTING LAND RIGHTS FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE: Promoting gender equitable and participatory decision-making
processes on land investments
25 years of Providing Legal Services to Vulnerable Women
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Basic facts
• Land in Tanzania is divided in three categories i.e. General Land, Village Land and Reserved Land;
• Village Land make about 70% of all land, while Reserved Land covers about 28% and General Land covers only 2% of Tanzania land;
• 80% of population in Tanzania leave in the rural areas while 20% leaves in the urban areas;
• Thus, about 80% of the population depends on the 70% of Tanzania Land (Village Land) for their livelihood;
• Village Government under the administration of Village Council, subject to approval of the Village Assembly have legal powers to grant right of occupancy, allocate land, enter into agreements with investors on their land, as well as create the derivative right of occupancy under their Village Land.
Village Land Management Institutions and Decision Making Process
Village Assembly and Village Council;• Village land is under the management of the Village
Councils;• In managing land, Village Councils report to the Village
Assemblies who are the final decision markers in the Village governments.
• A Village Assemblies is the supreme authority in the village and it is comprised of all village members who have attained the apparent age of 18 years and above;
• The Village Assembly regularly meets after every three months; whenever there are elections and whenever there is an extra ordinary meeting convened by the chairperson.
• The quorum for the Village Assembly meeting is not provided in the law.
• The Village Assembly elects the Village Chairperson and the Village Council members.
Cont.…
• The Village Council is comprised of at least 15 to 25 members elected by the Village Assembly and headed by the Village Chairperson.
• Women form 25% of the total number of the members of the Village Council.
• The quorum of its meetings is at least half of the members of the council;
• The law does not provide how many women form part of the quorum for the meeting.
• The law gives the Village Council powers to grant a right of occupancy as well as to provide a derivative right of occupancy in the village land.
• In determine and deciding over land matters, the Village Council reports and obtains the approval of the Village Assembly.
• The Village Council may only allocate or grant a right of occupancy on the village land after the approval of the Village Assembly.
Cont.…
Village Land Council and Village Permanent Committees
• The Village Council nominates seven people to form the Village Land Council subject to Village Assembly’s approval.
• Three out of seven Village Land Councilors must be women.• The Village Land Council is responsible for settling land disputes
in the Village.• The quorum for Village Land Council meeting is four people, at
least one is a woman.
• The Village Council has powers to appoint members form village permanent committees so as to delegate some of its powers to them.
• There are no regulations in place that guide the Village Councils in formation of the Village permanent Committees.
• In Practice, the members of the Village permanent Committees are also members of the Village Council.
Cont.…
Village Adjudication Committee (VAC)• This committee is established by the Village Council,
and it’s members are elected by the Village Assembly.• VAC is comprised of at least 6 to 9 members out of
which not less than 3 are women;• The functions of the VAC, among others are;
To determine the boundaries of and interest in land which is the subject of a village adjudication; and
To settle disputes over all claims made during the course of a village adjudication.
• Where there are 6 members of the VAC, the quorum of the meeting is 4 members, and where there are more than 6 members of the VAC the quorum is 5 members; in either way, women in the quorum must be not less than 2.
Change of Land Category
The law provides that the President may transfer the category of land use from General Land to Village or Reserved Land or Village Land to General or Reserved Land and/ or from Reserved Land to General or Village Land.
According to the Law, the President may transfer land category for “public interest”.
Public Interest in the same law is referred as the investments of National Interest.
Acquisition of Village Land for Investment:
Acquisition through application in the Village Government (Village Derivative
Right of Occupancy)An Investor may apply to the Village to be granted a derivative right of occupancy in accordance with section 32 of Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999. The Village Council processes the application and presents it to the Village Assembly for their approval.
Cont...Investor-villagers’ Negotiation and Transfer of
Land Category into General Land After determining a favorable land for investment,
an investor negotiates with villagers in a Village Assembly meeting convened by the Village Council.
If the Village Assembly approves, the investor registers land at the Ministry of Lands, and the President transfer the use of that Village Land into General Land.
The Land gets allocated to Tanzania Investment Council (TIC), which then creates a Derivative Right of Occupancy to the Investor.
WOMEN’S ENGAGEMENT IN COMMUNITY DECISION MAKING PROCESS ON LAND ACQUISITIONS
A CASE STUDY OF KISARAWE DISTRICT
Sun Biofuels is a UK based company which invested in Jatropha production in Tanzania, particularly in Kisarawe District.
The Company, by way of negotiations with the Village Council, acquired about 211 Ha of land from 12 villages for Investment purpose.
In this acquisition, Village Land was transferred to General Land and a derivative right of occupancy of 99 years was granted to the company.
The research findings revealed that: The Investor got a support of a local member of
parliament residing in their villages; The Village Councils negotiated the deal with the
investor while the rest of the villagers were not full aware of the acquisition;
Women were not specifically consulted on the acquisition process so as to be part of decision making;
The Village Councils had no professionals (such as lawyers and land experts) to help them in negotiations, while the investor had all professional assistance;
To date, some villagers are still not aware that land acquired by the investor is no longer village land since it was transferred to general land;
The mode of communication between the Village Council and the Village Assembly employed in this acquisition was in form of information rather than consultation.
Way Forward:
There is a need to establish gender sensitive model by-laws specifically for internal use of the village governments. The model by-laws will address on village natural resources administration and equal gender participation in decision making and political representation.There is a need to formulate national guidelines addressing the best practices on village land management and gender participation in decision making processes.
