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Most Significant Change Stories from Securing Your Family's Future: Course for Men - Lessons from Tanzania

Countries
Tanzania
Sources
ICRW
Publication date
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1. Introduction

1.1 Context of women and land property in Tanzania

The Constitution of the Republic of Tanzania (1977) upholds equality before the law and promotes women’s ownership and inheritance of land/property. The Village Land Act (VLA) of 1995 gives the Village Land Committee, Village Council, and Village General Assembly powers to allocate plots to individuals. However, this Act also promotes the customary right of land that grants occupancy rights. The Law of Marriage Act, 1971 promotes joint ownership of land or property by couples and protects inheritance rights, and the Mortgage Financing Act 2008 guarantees spousal consent in land/ property transactions. The Land Acquisition Act, cap 118 provides for land documentation while the Court (the land dispute settlement) Act, 2002 guides management of landrelated disputes.

Despite these rights being enshrined in law, customary practices, lack of legal knowledge, and social norms hinder the realization of these rights in Tanzania (Slavcheska et al., 2016). Customs, patriarchal systems, norms, laws, and policies favor men’s land and property ownership rights and reinforce gender inequalities (Kisambu, 2017; Dancer, 2017). Social and political challenges are associated with land inheritance and succession rights in Tanzania; addressing these would require understanding how customary law is practiced and that kinship ties lie at the heart of family land management practices (Dancer, 2017). Pastoralist women are likely to be disproportionately affected by land tenure insecurity due to their general vulnerability as a discriminated group (Daley, 2011). More generally, Daley (2014) found that some men are not ready to transform patriarchal systems to allow women to own land. Most men are not aware of women’s rights and therefore continue to violate them. Kisambu (2017) also notes that community members’ negative attitudes and perceptions concerning women’s rights are still a big challenge to women’s land and property rights.

Few interventions have sought to transform men’s attitudes, self-efficacy, intentions, and perceptions of social and peer norms focusing on women’s land and property rights. In this regard, approaches that engage men with the intent to transform peer norms around land allocation and land use while fostering women’s equal access to land and property rights are ground-breaking.

1.2 Overview of the Securing Your Family’s Future: A Course for Men

In 2018, a pilot course, Securing Your Family’s Future (SYFF): Transforming Peer Norms about Women’s Land Rights—A Course for Men was developed by Lori Rolleri Consulting in collaboration with the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) (Tanzania), KELIN (Kenya), UCOBAC (Uganda) and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). This course is a curriculum-based intervention designed to change peer norms about women’s land rights among men in local communities. The curriculum, which comprises six sessions, was piloted with 100 men in Ngorongoro District, Tanzania, by Lori Rolleri and PWC in 2019.

Before the training, a social norms assessment jointly conducted by PWC and representatives of the pastoralist communities in five villages of Ngorongoro district identified the predominant social norms in the different villages which the SYFF course for men sought to respond to (see Fig 2).

The Theory of Change illustrated below guided the course implementation and evaluation.

The Key behavioural outcomes anticipated through this course include:

Women’s behaviors

a. Women acquire (through purchase, gifts, or inheritance) and register land in their name

Men’s behaviors

b. Fathers allocate land to daughters (regardless of marital status) as they do for boys Men include women as joint owners of land

c. Men bequeath women (including daughters) land in their wills

d. Men (husbands) seek women’s consent before selling family land (and property)

Land Management Structures (LMS) behaviors

a. LMS assure gender equality in LMS membership

b. LMS include women’s priorities (e.g., agriculture, grazing, etc.) in land use plans

This report highlights the reflections from the participants and the local communities on the impact of the SYFF course for men.