Disclaimer: Media scans and other posts are intended to monitor and share current news and information relevant to the land and resource governance sector. Posts and media items included in the scans are not endorsements and do not represent the views of USAID or the U.S. Government, unless stated otherwise.
Research shows that strengthening women’s land and resource rights has a striking and positive impact on women’s empowerment. And yet, across much of the world, formal and informal laws and customs hinder women’s access to land and resources, leaving them unable to fulfill their full potential as agents of economic and social change. USAID is…Read More
In rural Tanzania, as in many other low- and middle-income countries, land is a crucial asset that supports livelihoods and enables individuals and households to expand their economic opportunities. Most Tanzanians in rural areas are farmers who obtained their land through long-standing customary norms. However, weak land rights protections and a lack of documented ownership…Read More
In Tanzania, smallholder land registrations are critical to protecting local land rights. However, since passing the Village Act in 1999 to provide for the management of village lands, the process of registration has moved slowly due to limited operational capacity. To bring the law into full effect, procedures for registration and administration need to be…Read More
USAID’s Mobile Applications to Secure Tenure (MAST) initiative started small. Launched in 2014 in three pilot villages, the initial goal was to test a simple but powerful idea: with some training and support, could underserved communities use mobile phone mapping technology and participatory approaches to document and secure their land rights? Five years and four…Read More
By USAID PUBLICATIONS How documented property rights gave a Tanzanian widow financial stability Asiah Samila is a farmer with five children. She lives in Mlanda, a village located outside Iringa in central Tanzania. When Asiah’s husband died, their youngest child was just a newborn. He left her with their house and farmland in Mlanda village….Read More
By Deborah Espinosa and Patrick Gallagher, USAID’s Land Technology Solutions Program Persistent and pervasive gender inequality is a global development challenge that constrains economic growth, educational opportunities, and health outcomes. It jeopardizes food security and undermines poverty reduction strategies. The world over, some formal and many informal laws and customs operate to hinder women’s empowerment…Read More