Morogoro Paralegal continues its way forward

Morogoro Paralegal Center (MPLC) has managed to get major funding (a strategic grant) from the Foundation for Civil Society focusing on women’s access to land in Mvomero District.

A selection of staff at the Morogoro Paralegal Centre. Photo: Pernille Baerendtsen

MPLC has collaborated with the Foundation for Civil Society for many years, in fact since its start in 2003, where MPLC received a small grant of about TSH 5,000,000. After that MPLC applied for medium grants until last year when they realised that they could no longer continue to apply for the medium grants.

‘We were a bit nervous to hear that we now have to apply for the strategic grant because the donor demands are higher than for the medium grant’, says Flora Masoy, coordinator of MPLC.

The recently approved grant shows though that there was no reason to be nervous.

The two-year project will start next year and will work towards land ownership for more women. Much has already been done by MPLC for women’s land rights, but there are still very few women who actually own land. The planned project will, among other issues, focus on joint land ownership between husband and wife, and it will assist women who own land to get documentation of their ownership.

The result should be clear: More women owning land.

MS Tanzania has assisted MPLC in 2006 to conduct a survey on ‘Women’s access to land in Mvomero District’. This survey shows that women who own land make up only 0.2% of a village's population. In numbers, there were found to be 2-3 women owning land in each village, which is very few considering the amount of awareness-raising which has taken place already. The survey has assisted MPLC in getting facts on the situation of women’s access to land in Mvomero District, which has contributed to the formulation of projects for fundraising.

The development worker from MS Tanzania working at MPLC, Christoph Lodemann, assists the organisation with fundraising. He says: ‘Morogoro Paralegal Center is a growing organisation. Every time we have managed to get more funds we have also needed to improve organisationally. This is a healthy process, but also challenging.’

He has no doubt that the new two-year project with the Foundation for Civil Society will help to increase the organisation’s capacity further.

Morogoro Paralegal Center continues its way forward and its work towards a society that respects and protects human rights, especially those concerning women and children.