Land governance arrangements in Tanzania: Actors, processes and instruments

Fredrick Bwire Magina & Hidaya Kayuza

Volume 5 Issue 1, March 2025

Abstract

Land governance in most developing countries remains a big challenge because of many factors particularly those related to tenure systems and institutional frameworks. This paper presents land governance arrangements in Tanzania whereby two dominant tenure systems, granted and customary, prevail. An exploratory research design was used in the study. As such, a critical review of documents embracing land governance arrangements and practices as well as training workshops on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGTs) of 2012 conducted in four regions were useful in capturing primary data that exhibit real life cases that impact on land governance arrangements. The key respondents were professionals in the land, forestry and fisheries sectors who were the main targets in the VGGT programme. Findings revealed that Tanzania is rich in policies and laws which govern land; but still there are many challenges on land governance which have given rise to land use conflicts over time. We conclude that although a number of steps to improve land governance, poor land governance in the land sector is pivotal. Aspects of inclusive transactions, land use planning and implementation processes, local land administration capacity, transparency around valuable natural resources, women’s de facto land rights, and negotiate community driven solutions are crucial in the land governance spectrum.

Keywords

Author information & Contribution

Fredrick Bwire Magina. Corresponding author. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Email: maginafredrick@gmail.com.

Hidaya Kayuza. Senior Lecturer in the Department of Land Management and Valuation, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Email: hidaya.kayuza@gmail.com.

“All authors equally contributed to the conception, design, preparation, data gathering and analysis, and writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

Disclosure statement

Funding

Institutional Review Board Statement

Data and Materials Availability

AI Declaration

Notes

Acknowledgement

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Cite this article:

Magina, F.B. & Kayuza, H. (2025). Land governance arrangements in Tanzania: Actors, processes and instruments. International Review of Social Sciences Research, 5(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.53378/irssr.353140