A two days High Level Awareness Seminar, on formalization of Property Rights in Tanzania was held on September 8-9 2003 at the Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam.

The Seminar was chaired by His Excellency Benjamin William Mkapa, the third phase (1995 – 2005) President of the United Republic of Tanzania on the first day and by Hon. Cleopa David Msuya, Former Prime Minister and 1st Vice President, on the second day.

It was attended by all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Regional Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Senior Government Officials, Head of Public Institutions, Civil Societies and the media.

The Seminar was intended to create awareness to the Tanzanian leadership on the link between formal property rights and wealth creation, within the context of inclusive and equitable socio-economic development.

Dr. Hernando de Soto, President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) presented the ILD model for formalizing the extra legal (informal) real estate and business sectors to create a unified national regimes of property and business rights.

Mr. John Schjelderup Olaisen, Managing Director of Norway Registers Development presented a report on the Workshop on Formalization of Properties in Tanzania held in May, 2003.

President Mkapa, who gave an impressive opening address on the subject, emphasized the relevance of property and business formalization to the Empowerment of the majority of Tanzanians for self development and poverty eradication, as postulated in the CCM Election Manifestos of 1995 and 2000 and reflected in the orientation of CCM policies of 2000 – 2010.

After the two days deliberations, the national leadership, resolved to create a Program to formalize extra legal real estate and business assets with an objective of empowering the owners of these assets to participate in the formal economy through the use of their formalized assets as security in accessing financial capital and other benefits in the market.

It was further decided to adopt the ILD four phases approach and to obtain its consultancy services in implementing the first two phases of the Program.

Implementation of the first two phases began in November, 2004 and were set to be completed in 31 months thereafter (July 2007). Due to several changes made in the scope and implementation arrangements the two phases i.e. Diagnosis of the Extra legal Sector and Reform Design were completed in July 2008.
The outputs, available in this address are:-

• Report on the Diagnosis – provided in the following seven volumes:-

1. Volume 1 – Executive Summary
2. Volume II – The Legal Economy: Its Archetypes and size
3. Volume III – The Legal Economy: Its institutions and costs
4. Volume IV – Barriers to using Property and Doing Business nationwide
5. Volume VA – Step by Step: The People’s experience of Legal Procedures (Real Estate Procedures)
6. Volume VB – Step by Step: The People’s experience of Legal Procedure (Business procedures).
7. Volume VI – Supporting Documents

• Institutional and Legal Reform Proposals provided in seven volumes as follows:-

1. Volume I – Executive Summary
2. Volume II – Property Formalization – Reform Outlines and Packages for Tanzania Mainland.
3. Volume III – Property Formalization Reform Outlines and Packages for Zanzibar
4. Volume IV – Business Formalization Reform Outlines and Packages for Mainland Tanzania.
5. Volume V – Business Formalization Outlines and Packages for Zanzibar.
6. Volume VI – Institutional Arrangements
7. Volume VII – Work Plan, Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and Cost Benefit Analysis.

The Third Phase of the Program, now in Progress, entails institutionalizing the Reforms and effecting properties and business formalization initiatives in line with a ten year implementation Program.

The fourth phase, often seamlessly connected to the third phase entails interventions to connect formalized assets to capital and other economic opportunities (Capital Formation) and effecting administrative simplification process in the management of properties and businesses as well capacitating key actors to strengthen institutional settings in property and business management (promoting good governance).

The implementation arrangements are centred on the Government Decentralization Policy.

MKURABITA Management Unit supports capacity building of Implementers in the Local Government, provides resources needed for the realization of predetermined aimed outputs, monitors progress and provides technical backstopping.

The Local Government Implementers are responsible for the actual implementation of the formalization activities while the Sectoral Ministries effect the legal and institutional changes geared at the establishment of the National Unified Architecture of property and business rights.

The proposed Reforms and implementation initiatives are living undertakings that allow changes in the course of implementation to respond to ascertained demands of beneficiaries.