The Impact of Financial Incentives on Female Land Ownership in Tanzania

Key activities

“Residents in the surveyed blocks were given the option to repay a heavily subsidized cost of 100,000 Tsh (US $67) in exchange for a land title. Residents in comparison blocks were still able to purchase land titles for the full government price, in excess of 500,000 TSh (US $335). Within treatment blocks, households were randomly allocated up to two vouchers redeemable for different discount levels on title price:

• Conditional voucher: Roughly half of vouchers were made redeemable only if a female household member was included as an owner on the title application.
• Unconditional voucher: This voucher was a general, unrestricted price discount. 

Vouchers took on values ranging from zero to 80,000 TSh (US $54) in iterations of 20,000 TSh (US $13). The research team presented vouchers to households after short presentations by WAT about the benefits of title ownership and co-titling at a block-wide information session.” (J-PAL, 2016).

Outcomes/results

Cited from (J-PAL, 2016).

• “Receiving a conditional subsidy increased the probability that households included a woman’s name on their land title by 3–3.3% for every 10,000 TSh (US $7) increase in subsidy.” 
• “Offering price discounts increased resident demand for land titles. On average, researchers estimated that residents were willing to pay between US $40–50 to purchase a land title. An increase of 10,000 TSh (US $7), or 10% of the default CRO price, reduced the probability that residents would purchase a title by nearly 3%.” 
• “Conditional vouchers raised the number of women listed on titles by nearly twice as much. Nearly all households that received conditional vouchers listed women on titles, achieving near gender parity in land ownership with no reduction in demand for titles.” 

Key enabling environment factors for the intervention 

• Legal pathways already exist in Tanzania that enable women to gain access to formal land tenure rights.
• The intervention received interest from local governments in participating in the program design.

Key design elements and principles that led to successful outcomes

• The intervention was designed to take place in areas with low rates of female land ownership and limited access to infrastructure and public utilities.
• The program incorporated presentations and information sessions on the importance of land ownership into the program design.
• The program was made to be affordable through a subsidy pricing model, enabling low-income women to participate in the intervention who had previously been excluded from obtaining land titles.

Potential for scale/replicability

The combined cost of town planning and surveying for the project was considerably lower than the Ministry of Land’s estimates, signifying that cost of the program itself might not be a barrier to scale or replication. However, the program did experience delays from the government, which is an issue to keep in mind for future replication projects. 

Challenges encountered during the program

Unfortunately, external factors have prevented the actual issuance of tiles to applicants. After flooding in 2011, the Ministry of Lands rezoned the majority of the study area as ineligible for formal land titles. The government also increased the price for the NGO to process applications. However, the results of the study indicate that this subsidy model increases demand among women for formal land ownership, signifying that there is an opportunity for future research to replicate this model and follow through with the land granting process to see how legal land rights impact women’s empowerment/livelihoods.

Recommendations from the research

The research team recommends that future programming and research will consider whether or not changes in land ownership affect women’s bargaining power inside the household. Additionally, after witnessing the challenges associated with working with the government, the team hopes that future programs and similar interventions will delve deeper into the challenges in the delivery and enforcement of land rights by the state.