Project officer - Land Governance and Accountability

Duty of Station: Arusha
Reporting to: LBI – Coordinator

Purpose of the position: To lead all implementation and reporting of all the activities under Land Governance and Accountability Project. S/he will work closely with Volunteers and other trainers/research assistants from TNRF.

Background of the Project
Land Governance and Accountability Project, is a one year project funded jointly by Welthaus and DKA from May 2017 to April 2018, which can be replicated to other two districts in year two and three. The regions covered for this program is famous for land use conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. The conflicts are caused by multiplicity of factors which, for purpose of this projects are grouped in three folds. The first fold includes lack of knowledge on land rights and weak institutions responsible for village land governance, corrupt leaders who collude and favor one group of producers, and lack of active citizenry who use democratic process to demand accountability and transparency. The second folds of program are those which are beyond control of the conflicting parties, they include, expansion of agricultural activities caused by huge infrastructural investment made by the Government. The third and last fold includes historical factors which have made Pawaga the temporary settlement of pastoralists who have been evicted from other areas of Tanzania such as Ihefu and the newly established district of Chemba which was cause the decrease of land for pastoralist and its geographical vicinity to other districts with large number of livestock. The main objective of this project is to enhance land governance and accountability, at the local institutional level. The project will creatively address the involvement of community in land governance focusing on land policies and the local institutional framework, at village and district level.
This project, for the first year, is expected to be implemented in Pawaga Division in Iringa District and in Kwamtoro Division in Chemba District. Pawaga and Kwamtoro are posed with growing land pressure caused by multiple land uses consisting of conservation, agriculture and pastoralism. The project activities focus on enhancing the interrelationship between the village leaders and the villagers in order to strengthen the community’s legal protection for their lands and natural resources, by conducting various forums and trainings with villagers, village leaders, and members of the loose coalition, district officials and other stakeholders from the private sectors. Although different actors and factors have cause land dispute, the findings from TNRF have established that there is serious knowledge gap on land governance between and among actors and inadequate participation of communities in addressing land governance issues. This project, therefore, significantly contribute in strengthening land governance in Pawaga and Kwamtoro.