Pastoralist women’s rights & leadership forums in Tanzania

In an effort to open up opportunities for pastoralist women to secure their access to land, the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) and Maliasili Initiatives (MI) are involved in a project “Advancing the Rights of Pastoral Women in Tanzania” in Maasai communities in northern Tanzania. The ILRI Rangelands Research Report 3 entitled “Pastoral women’s rights and leadership forums, Tanzania: experience, impact and lessons learned” (2019, 34pp) by Josephine Dungumaro and Mkami Amos, documents progress and achievements with Women’s Rights and Leadership Forums (WRLFs).

One project purpose is to strengthen women’s capacity for collective social action on land issues. UCRT helped set up WRLFs to provide a space for pastoralist women to learn about land rights, strengthen women’s leadership and public participation, and empower women economically. A WRLF is made up of 24 people: 20 women and four male customary leaders. Both women and men are trained on women’s rights to land, and some WRLF members are trained as paralegals to support women in their communities to claim their rights. In addition, women are also offered training in entrepreneurial and leadership skills.

A study in 2018 revealed some key achievements of the WRLFs: i) active platforms created for raising women’s voices; ii) increased public awareness on women’s rights; iii) recognition of women’s rights in communities and issuing of individual land titles; iv) increase in number of local women leaders; and v) greater solidarity of women.

Some challenges the WRLFs face include: continued application of traditional laws and perceptions in some areas, nonparticipation of women in land-management activities, provision of individual tenure rights in a collective tenure system, poor law enforcement, long bureaucratic and sometimes corrupted procedures to access land, and the influence of “external” factors such as changes in policy, legislation or administrative procedures.

Posted on 22 January 2020 in Pastoralism, Gender & Youth, Pastoralism, Policy & Power