Contextualizing International Voluntary Guidelines into Country Specific Land Investment Governance Systems: Experience from Tanzania

This preliminary study involved consultation of responsible district government officials and relevant Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on various issues related to land and investments. Among other areas, the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) was selected as a study site and study used the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to obtain information. Questionnaire designed reflected land investment governance process thematic areas. This ranged from investment pre-planning and organization stage, negotiation and preparation of investments contracts to implementation of investments.

Throughout this paper, different issues are discussed including but not limited to inadequate awareness and understanding of Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) mandate and the land allocation process among land based investment stakeholders; Practices that do not adhere to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) principle; Existing compensation practices that are conducted in an inadequately and vague processes ; Dispute resolution mechanisms that are inadequately culturally sensitive and with a bias against women and evidences of weak land-based investment monitoring and evaluation system. The paper concludes that there is inadequate implementation of land investment governance good practices principles in Tanzania. The study further recommends Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and government to address highlighted gaps in land investment governance.

Publication Date: 
2017
Location: 
Tanzania