The Mobile Technology and Crowdsourcing to Strengthen Land Tenure Security Pilot (hereafter referred to as Mobile Technology Pilot) seeks to test a concept of a participatory or “crowdsourced approach” to capturing land rights information using mobile technology to efficiently and affordably create an inventory of land rights.
Under its Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) contract, the USAID Land Tenure and Property Rights Division will implement the proposed pilot activity. Under the ERC, the Mobile Technology pilot fits into USAID’s strategic reform agenda pertaining to the use of science and technology to resolve development problems. In February, 2014, USAID mobilized its ERC implementing partner, the Cloudburst Consulting Group, to explore the applicability of utilizing mobile technology to collect property rights information in Tanzania.
An inception mission was conducted between February 3 and 14, 2014 and was intended to determine whether the proposed activities envisaged in the Mobile Technology Pilot concept could be implemented in Tanzania, and that there would be interest in the program by stakeholders. Over the course of the mission a series of meetings with stakeholders from the Government of Tanzania, the donor community and civil society organizations were held, in parallel to an assessment of the land administration system to determine the applicability of the Mobile Technology Pilot.