This article examines the evolution of policy recommendations concerning rural land issues since the formulation of the World Bank’s “Land Reform Policy Paper” in 1975. That paper set out three guiding principles: the desirability of owner-operated family farms; the need for markets to permit land to be transferred to more productive users; and the importance of an egalitarian asset distribution.
Despite progressive provisions on gender equality in Tanzania’s land laws, women have little representation in land allocation decisions, including meetings of village councils and village assemblies. Mainstreaming gender in local regulations can help to address this problem.
This report constitutes one of four countrywide assessments produced under the International Institute for Environment and Development’s (IIED) ‘Gender, land and accountability in the context of agricultural and other natural resource investments’ initiative. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen rural women’s livelihood opportunities by empowering them in relation to community land stewardship and increasing their ability to hold agricultural investors in East and West Africa to account. The main aim of this report is to provide a backdrop of relevant policies and practice.
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