By Hamad Rashid.
Land represents a crucial asset essential for all individuals’ economic, social, and welfare advancement. This domain is governed by diverse policies and regulations to ensure efficient land resource management, thereby fostering sustainable advantages for all Tanzanian citizens.
The policies governing the Land sector are the National Land Policy of 1995 and the National Housing Development Policy of 2000.
In Tanzania, citizens and land rights stakeholders have repeatedly spoken out about land ownership and its sovereignty, with organizations such as Landesa, Mviwata, and Haki Ardhi specifically mentioning women and youth groups facing various challenges in owning land.
As Tanzania launches a new Land Policy in mid-March 2025, the 2023 version, which has been improved from the 1995 one, the question arises how the Policy will bring a vision for the future for women and youth to own land?
However, Landesa, an international non-governmental organization dedicated to land rights, is among the stakeholders’ shaping changes in Tanzania’s land sector. Masalu Luhula, a Senior Land Tenure Specialist at Landesa, noted that the new land policy does not clearly define the role of youth in land ownership.
“I have not seen where the Policy has specifically stated about land ownership and its protection for youth, instead they have been placed in the group of all Tanzanians, which has always been the case, a youth has not been recognized as a youth, while statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) tell us that youth are a larger community than other groups in terms of age,” said Masalu in an interview with The Loyal Media.
Masalu added that “if this group of young people is large and not considered in important resources such as land, the interpretation is that we are missing a large part of the producers and the challenge is that many young people have been obtaining land in systems that the Law does not directly recognize, but rather recognizes them as part of a group of other members of society and therefore remain disadvantaged”
Masalu Luhula: Senior Land Tenure from Landesa
According to the 2022 Population and Housing Census, Tanzania has a total population of 61,741,120.
The number of women in the country in 2025 is estimated to be 34,732, 602, equivalent to 50.96 percent of the total population, while 25.80 percent of those aged 15 and above own land – (NBS)
A young (Small farmer) from Chamwino District, Dodoma Region, Joseph Ndaga says, “Young people owning land is a very sensitive issue because you can have land but getting a title deed is difficult, you can also find young people inheriting land or buying it but they don’t have a title deed, if we young people own land it would be a very important thing because the land is for us and our generations”
Rights for women and the challenges they face.
“At least there is an emphasis in this new Policy, stating that a woman has the right to inherit ancestral land without considering issues of tradition and custom” Masalu Luhula speaking from the perspective of a woman in the new land Policy.
In the next stage of obtaining the amended or newly made laws, Masalu has warned that it is important for the lawmakers to recognize that there are also laws that deny women a place in land ownership.
“For example, we have the Law on Customs and Traditions from the 1963 Declaration order. The Declaration has not yet been legally repealed, meaning it is still a living law that puts women below men in terms of land inheritance,” explained Masalu.
Women’s Rights in Land Ownership Narratives!
The Loyal Media brings these stories narrated by women who are small farmers living in Wanging’ombe District, Njombe Region, after interviewing them about the role of women in land ownership following the launch of the new National Land Policy.
“In our community here in the Bena tribe, many women are not given land ownership, once you get married your parents tell you, we cannot give you land ownership but they give it to men, we have received this new Land Policy well but we still have the pains that come from the patriarchy, we women are unable to own land, as well as widows do not get their rights at all, they lack property rights even their farms are confiscated and they are alienated, we ask President Samia to help us,” said Emma Charles.
Another woman is Vumilia Mwanzalila and she also narrated, “My parents once stole a Farm that was used for growing tomatoes from me. When I went to my husband, he told me, ‘You don’t have any land here, so you will just cultivate it without being given ownership.”
And, Betha Damson explained, “Sometimes we women seem to have no respect for land. Once you get married, you lose the right to own land. Sometimes you find that your aunt will lie to you that she is taking care of the land for you so that if we have problems, she can help us, but if the husband dies you get nothing.”
Launch of the New National Land Policy.
At the launch of the National Land Policy of 1995, 2023 version, on March 17, 2025, in Dodoma, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan assured Tanzanians that the issues set out in the new Policy have not changed the foundations of the 1995 Policy.
“Land will continue to be public property and the President is the trustee on behalf of all citizens. The right to own and use land acquired either by appropriation or by the government or customary law will continue to be the only system of land ownership. What we have done is to eliminate the misconception that a woman cannot own land,” President Samia addressed Tanzanians.
President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan during the launch of the New Land Policy.
Landesa’s contribution to the the New Land Policy making process (version 2023).
The government states that the process of formulating a new policy began in late 2015. Stakeholders involved include ministries, departments, government agencies, public institutions, the private sector, civil society organizations, development partners, higher education institutions, non-governmental organizations, and citizens.
Senior Land Tenure specialist Masalu Luhula stated that Landesa participated in the policy development process and, in collaboration with other stakeholders, submitted recommendations through a special document. These recommendations emphasized protecting women’s land ownership, ensuring land remains in the hands of the people by protecting the rights of the small holder producers, and cautioning that investment projects and other competing uses should not negatively impact village land.”
Moreover, addressing one of the policy’s challenges, Masalu said, “There is no single system of inheritance law when someone dies. I think this is one of the issues that should continue to be discussed to bring about change.”
“We as Landesa see this Policy as another area to develop a sense of urgency in undertaking an in-depth analysis of the policy to properly advise the government, law makers and other stakeholders so that the risks that comes with the policy do not cause unrest in society, we also urge citizens to read and understand this Policy because this will contribute to more than 70 percent of the Laws that will be enacted in terms of future legal changes, another thing is that journalists and their media are important to be part of this process to help convey information to the public,” concluded Masalu.
Understand the features of the New Tanzania Land Policy.
The New National Land Policy is composed of six Chapters, starting with the introductory one, followed by the second Chapter of importance, “Vision, and Objectives, “Arguments, objectives, and policy statements, “Legal Framework,” and “Institutional Framework, monitoring, and evaluation.”
Why has the 1995 Land Policy been improved?
The 2023 Land Policy has listed among the challenges and shortcomings of the old Policy that led to the improvements in the new Policy, including the absence of a policy framework to require all landowners to register their lands, the absence of a policy framework for each piece of land to contribute to Government revenue, the absence of a system for coordinating geographic information among Government institutions and other stakeholders, the absence of a mechanism to enable foreign property developers investing in the housing sector to sell those houses to institutions and people with needs and shortcomings, and the absence of a policy framework to strengthen international borders and protect land in those areas.
The objective of the New National Land Policy 2023 version.
In addition, the Policy has identified some of its objectives as, strengthening the land tenure and management system to enable all citizens to have equal rights to access land and protect Government land, transparency, and fairness in the acquisition and cancellation of land tenure, strengthening land registration systems and land transactions, strengthening the security of agricultural and pastoral land tenure for sustainable land use, strengthening the security of fishing land tenure, and facilitating the sustainable use of land resources provided for investment.
Read related articles: Tanzania has a large amount of land that has not been fully used for agricultural production – The Loyal Media
