Displacement of Urban Poor in Dodoma Municipality: A Case of Two Selected Wards, Ng’ong’ona and Ntyuka, Central Tanzania

Displacement of both urban and rural poor has been taking place globally as a result of establishment of various development projects. In recent years, there has been the displacement of urban poor in many areas of which has led to them becoming vulnerable to unpredictable events. This paper discusses displacement of urban poor in Dodoma municipality. Specifically, the study examined land displacement practices, the effects of displacement of urban poor on livelihood and the strategies used by the Planning Authority to reduce the effects of displacement on the livelihoods of urban poor. The study involved 64 respondents and 5 key informants. The cross-section study design was used where by, observation, interviews, documentary review and focus group discussions were used to collect data on the field. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 20 was employed in inferential and descriptive analysis. Paired samples t- test, was employed for describing the difference between the variables whilst descriptive analysis was employed to describe the distribution of scores among the variables. The study findings revealed that the community members were displaced to give way to the establishment of the University of Dodoma. It was found that displacement brought about more negative effects than positive effects. It led to the decrease of crop yields from 1,984.8Kg per year per household to 451.2 Kg per year per household before and after the displacement of urban poor respectively. Also the commuting distance used by the community members from their residence to their farms changed from 0.972Km to 6.8Km before and after the displacement respectively. The paper recommends to the development stakeholders that basing on the time value of money as well as the change in land price, the land acquisition by the government should be accompanied by fair, full and prompt compensation to reduce complains, currency inflation and income loss. The Planning Authority and development actors ought to critically undertake resettlement planning as to maintain community's resilience and promise security of land tenure to victims of displacement.