United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

African cities are confronted in the new Millennium with the problem of accommodating the rapidly growing urban populations in inclusive cities, providing them with adequate shelter and basic urban services, while ensuring environmental sustainability, as well as enhancing economic growth and development. In implementation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, Target 11 (achieving significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020) regularization of the informal settlements is a key area.
Tanzania’s cities and towns are centers of industry, education, culture, and diversity. Thirty percent of the national population is urban and this group generates over 70 percent of the national gross domestic product. The annual urban population growth rate is 2.8 percent, indicating that it is among one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in the region. However, urban poverty is an issue of growing concern. The majority of the urban population lives in unplanned settlements with limited or no basic services.
Unplanned settlements in Tanzania, making up to 81 percent of Tanzania’s urban population, have inadequate service levels, tenure insecurity, poor hygiene and sanitation. In a country where over 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of US$ 1 a day (UNDP, 2002), uncoordinated and weak policy enforcement, unsatisfactory local level involvement, unaffordable and inadequate housing, and poor systems for monitoring land management and construction have led to the growth of unplanned settlements.
Appropriate strategies are needed not only to prevent the growth of informal settlements but also to assist the slum dwellers already occupying the numerous settlements in the country.
The Property and Business Formalization Program was conceived by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania with the objective of creating a unified legal and institutional framework that recognizes secured and accessible property rights constitutes an important stepping stone into wide range of economic benefits available in the formal market
Most of the properties in Tanzania are outside the current formal system in urban areas it is estimated at 81%
The Property and Business Formalization Program is implemented in four phases: -
 The Diagnosis (November 2004-October 2005)
 The Design of the Reforms (January 2006-June 2008)
 The Implementation of the Reforms (July 2008 to present) and
 The Capital Formation and good Governance
Currently the program is in its third phase the Implementation of Reforms. There are several proposals in changing some sections of the Laws, repealing some and enacting some. There are also changes in the Regulations and formulation of new regulations. The purpose of these changes is to simplify, fast track the formalization process and create opportunities for formalized properties to access capital from different sources including financial institutions
Previous initiatives by the Government to regularize informal settlements have been very expensive and unsustainable. Most of them were donor dependent and very expensive for example to regularize informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Bagamoyo the project costed USD 2.5 Million and was funded by UN Habitat, World Bank, UNDP and European Union

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The initiative to regularize informal settlements in a township, municipal and city setting were planned by MKURABITA management team from September 2009 in Njombe Town Council, Morogoro Municipal Council in June 2010 and Arusha City Council in July 2010 (three different settings of urban development). The beneficiaries are the three councils and slum dwellers in the wards that were identified in the urban areas. In Njombe town Mjimwema ward, in Morogoro Municipality Kihonda and Mbuyuni wards and in Arusha city Elerai ward. The technical teams were established in each council and were trained in order to implement the regularization program in their respective areas. In Njombe town 1,003 Certificates of Right of Occupancy were prepared, in Morogoro Municipality 850 Certificates of Right of Occupancy and in Arusha City 860 Certificates of Right of Occupancy. In Njombe town 300 Certificates have been issued to owners and 6 of them have used their Certificates as collateral to access loans from financial institutions. In Arusha and Morogoro the Survey plans and planning schemes have been sent to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development for approval. Contributions from owners have been Tshs 37,000,000 in Njombe (USD 26,131.24). In Arusha city Tshs 11,875,000 (USD 8,386.7) in Morogoro Tshs 11,500,000 (USD 8,121.9). Total costs for the initiative was Tshs 108,027,150 for Njombe (USD 76,294.1) Tshs 58,498,500 for Arusha (USD 41,314.5) and Tshs 71,132,600 for Morogoro (USD 50,236.9). The efficiency is measured by the cost of each certificate; in Njombe was Tshs 107,704 for each (USD 76). The cost that each owner was supposed to contribute in Njombe was Tshs 120,000 for each plot (USD 84.75). Therefore the costs are recovered from the owners and a balance is left for future expansion of the service. Only 300 Certificates have so far been collected other Certificates will be collected next year after the harvests. Contributions from the owners are expected to rise next year. In Arusha and Morogoro Certificates are being processed and contributions from owners are expected to increase once the certificates are ready to be issued.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Management Team of MKURABITA proposed the solution for participatory regularization program in order to make it more sustainable. Main activities conducted in urban land formalization are awareness campaigns, training, preparation of planning schemes, land surveying of individual parcels of land, preparation of planning schemes and cadastral survey plans, approval of planning schemes and cadastral survey plans, preparation of Certificate of Right of Occupancy (CRO) registration of the Certificates of Right of Occupancy and issuing CRO’s to land owners after endorsement by Commissioner of Lands (CL) and registered by Registrar of Title (RT). Processes involved in implementation in Njombe Town Council, Arusha City Council and Morogoro Municipal Council were identified and included in the work-plan as follows:- 1) Awareness campaign to stakeholders Before fieldwork, public awareness campaigns are conducted to different stakeholders as a participatory approach towards implementation of the project. Meetings are conducted with Regional Commissioner (RC), District leader (DC), Council Management team, Councilors, WEO’s, Sub-ward leaders and the Community. i) Awareness to Regional and District leaders Regional Commissioners and District Commissioners are political figures working closely to communities in their respective areas. They should understand the concept of urban land formalization in the context of MKURABITA, to facilitate sensitization of their community members. ii) Awareness to Management team Awareness to the management team of the councils is mainly for understanding MKURABITA and the formalization concept in urban land, time framework for implementation in pilot areas, procedure to be taken, cost recovery mechanism, responsibilities of different actors and expected output. During discussions, Management team agreed on areas to start implementation, urban land formalization implementation procedures proposed by MKURABITA and propose contributions to recover the costs from land owners. iii) Awareness to local leaders and community Sensitization to local leaders and community/residents is a continuous process. It is done at initial stage of implementation and while progressing with the implementation. Generally, awareness campaign to local leaders and communities is mainly on:- • Sensitizing the community to understand the program and urban land formalization objectives, • Processes involved in urban land formalization implementation, • Importance of land formalization and registering of real property (land), • Assistance of local leaders and community to experts in field, • Request for individuals in the community to give access to roads for their neighbors in areas without access, public services such as markets, schools and open spaces • Cost sharing for formalization activities on the side of individuals in the community

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Objectives of the initiative were: - 1. To mobilize the communities to participate in the project in planning and implementation of the regularization project 2. To train the technical team of the councils in order to understand the reforms and processes of regularization so as to build capacities for future implementation in other areas 3. To mobilize the owners to use their certificates as collateral in order to access loans from financial institutions The strategies were to formulate different committees to work on the project as follows: - PROJECT STEERS Functions of Project steers are to roll out the Project. The composition Project steers is:- • Local Authority Executive Director– Chairperson to the Committee • Regional/District Administrative Secretary • MKURABITA Coordinator • Local Authority Coordinator of MKURABITA activities • Local Authority Town Planner • 3 members of Regularization Area Committee • Ward Councilor in respective area • Ward Executive Officer (WEO) in respective area Project steers shall meet four times a year (after every three months) TECHNICAL EXPERTS/COMMITTEE Functions of the Technical experts shall be to advice the Project steers on technical issues pertaining the undertaking of the project, take the management role in planning and implementation of the project. Also perform by designing, collecting, process all of information required for the Project and supervise the task force on the day to day activities in the implementation of the project. Its composition shall be: • Local Authority Town Planner – Chairperson to the Committee • Local Authority Coordinator of MKURABITA activities • Local Authority Surveyors, Valuers, Engineers, Sociologists and Land Officers from project areas • MKURABITA Technical expert on land matters • 9 members of Regularization Area Committee The experts shall meet twice every month REGULARIZATION AREA COMMITTEE (1) A regularization area committee shall be composed of:- a) The Ward Councilor for the area or any part of the ward which they represent which falls within the regularization area – shall be the Chairperson b) Chairperson of Mitaa, Vitongoji/Villages for the area or any part of the area which they represent which falls within the regularization area. c) Not less than seven nor more than eleven persons from the regularization area who shall be elected by secret ballot by all those qualified to vote under any law in force governing voting in local authority elections and shall serve on the committee for the same period of time for which a Ward Councilor is elected. d) Not more than three persons who do not reside or work in the area who may be co-opted on to the committee for up to three years at a time by the members of the committee referred to in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) (2) where the committee exercises its power to co-opt members to a regularization committee, it shall ensure that those persons who are co-opted are, by virtue of their involvement, interest or professional competence in matters of regularization, their knowledge of the area.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
STEP 1 -Awareness campaign to stakeholders Before fieldwork, public awareness campaigns are conducted to different stakeholders as a participatory approach towards implementation of the project. Meetings are conducted with Regional Commissioner (RC), District leader (DC), Council Management team, Councilors, WEO’s, Sub-ward leaders and the Community. STEP 2-Training Training to Council Staff is an innovation to decentralize powers for them to implement formalization activities efficiently without depending much on the Central Government. STEP 3- Property (land) identification, Land surveying of individual plots, preparation of cadastral plans and schemes of regularization Land property identification is conducted parallel with land surveying using questionnaire and taking photos of land owner(s). With both graphics and individual land owner’s information, comprehensive database is established using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. STEP 4- Land surveying and preparation of cadastral plans Survey methodology employed and equipments used were according to land ordinance as specified in CAP 324. Total station is used in field for fixing corner points of parcel boundaries. It is also used to check survey points if are insitu to be used as control points to new survey. STEP 5- Preparation of schemes of regularization Reforms proposed by MKURABITA for preparation of schemes of regularization is a participatory approach involving the Town Planners with the beneficiaries. The participatory approach mechanism through community negotiations to give access for road and other uses has been an innovation for having reliable schemes of regularization. STEP 6-Approval of Schemes of regularization and survey plans Draft of regularization schemes and a general plan showing individual properties/land, where to locate infrastructure services and other community facilities like schools, health facilities etc., is submitted and displayed to residents in 14 days for comments and acceptance and later presented to Urban Planning Committee for recommendation to authorized Authorities for approval. Parallel to schemes of regularization, cadastral plans are submitted to Director of Surveys and Mapping in MLHHSD for approval. STEP 7-Contribution cost to formalization processes Agreement on contribution cost is done by all stakeholders involved in urban land formalization process during awareness campaign. Cost contributed for formalization process in pilot Sub-wards shall be rolled out to other informal settlements. STEP 8- Preparation of Certificate of Right of Occupancy This is done by GIS experts at the council level and is done after the owners file an application for preparation of the certificates STEP 9-Approval of the Certificate of Right of Occupancy by the Zonal Assistant Commissioner for Lands The Zonal Assistant Commissioner for Lands is in Mbeya for Njombe and for Arusha is in Moshi for Morogoro is in Dar es Salaam. The Assistant Commissioners will sign on the certificates to approve STEP 10- Registration of the Certificate of Right of Occupancy Registration is done by the Registrar of Titles at the Zonal level the Registrar of Titles are also located at the same zones as the Assistant Commissioner for Lands. STEP 11- Issuance of the Certificates of Right of Occupancy Once the Certificates are registered they can be issued to owners

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Challenges Lack of land for public use- Solution: Negotiation with local leaders and the community/compensation Absentees land lords – Solution: Mass mobilization, sensitization, local leader representation, require acceptance and collaboration by the communities, mass mobilization and sensitization Initial cost very high- Solution: Initial central government funding Suspicion and distrust- Solution: Transparency, timeliness, adequate sensitization and inclusion of local and community leaders. Uncooperative individuals- Solution: Focused sensitization, local participation Political will- Solution: Involve all stakeholders, massive sensitization for local and political leaders. Wrong information concerning land parcels- Solution: Involve as many stakeholders as possible. Insufficient funds- Solution: Introduce cost recovery mechanism

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The seed capital for initializing the regularization process was provided by the Central Government. But the owners are obliged to recover all costs. The costs recovered will be used to formalize other informal settlements making the initiative sustainable in the long run. In Njombe Tshs 108,027,150 were spent (USD 76,294.1) In Arusha Tshs 58,498,500 (USD 41,314.5) and Tshs 71,132,600 for Morogoro (USD 50,236.9) the technical teams were employees from the councils Land Surveyors, GIS experts, Town Planners and Valuers with assistance of staff from the Regional Secretariat and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development. The Survey equipment (total Station) was rented in Njombe, and in Arusha was borrowed from the Regional Secretariat. In Morogoro the council owned its own total station therefore was used for surveying

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative started in Njombe town council in September 2009 and was replicated in Morogoro and Arusha city in June 2010 and July 2010 respectively. Since the initiative is participatory it can be easily replicated in other areas. What is needed is seed capital the costs are recoverable from the owners. The technical and Human resources demands can be met by the councils and in case of human resources are also available at the Regional Secretariat. Tanzanians are known to be very good at self help projects therefore can contribute willingly financial resources and even their land for public purposes. The bottom line is adequate mobilization of the communities, once they realize the regularization process is for their own benefit they contribute willingly. The owners of informal settlements realize the benefits as being better services and infrastructure, and access to capital for having formalized properties. The contributions from the owners are amazing even before the certificates are issued several people make their contributions before hand

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Being a very participatory initiative the initiative has become a success. The current Laws have made the regularization process very difficult! It requires a lot of interventions from the central Government. With MKURABITA reforms most of the decisions are made by the Local Councils and planning is done by the people themselves instead of Town Planners. The owners willingly provide their land for public infrastructure such as roads, sewage facilities, markets, open places and schools. The costs for the initiative are recoverable from the owners and are manageable. Compensation of the affected owners through the regularization process is covered by the people themselves making the process very participatory and sustainable. The process once started can continue all over the urban areas making it very sustainable program. Financial contributions from one area are used as resources to other areas (seed capital) and so forth. The technical staff area already available at the councils what they need is only training! Since the process is sustainable it encourages the councils to buy survey equipment and be equipped for further projects • Standard of living: Acceptance of residents to provide land for public use such as roads, sewage, open space, schools, market etc, is expected to improve infrastructure and standard of living of the people. • Capacity building: Capacity in terms of human resources, training, equipment and instruments in our Councils shall sustain urban land formalization process in respective Councils and minimize cost for implementation. • Capitalization: It is envisaged that end result of this intervention shall be squatter upgrading and capitalization of assets for residents in the area.


Institution Name:		The Property and Business Formalization Program
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Eng. Ladislaus Salema
Title:		Program Coordinator
Telephone/ Fax:		+255222126250
Institution's / Project's Website:		+255222126252
E-mail:		ladislaussalema@yahoo.com
Address:		P.O Box 7975
Postal Code:		N/A
City:		Dar es Salaam
State/Province:		Tanzania
Country:		Tanzania

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information