Innovation for land rights in Africa

Many people in Africa do not have the security of formal titles to land. Policymakers can learn from the various approaches that different countries have taken to improve land tenure security.

Land tenure systems reflect the influence of history, culture, population growth, urbanisation and contemporary politics. Research from the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK examines current trends in land tenure and sources of insecurity. Using seven case studies, the paper describes new approaches to securing tenure rights in Africa.

Throughout Africa, there is a general trend towards increasingly insecure land tenure for low-income city dwellers, small farmers, pastoralists and other marginalised groups. Land ownership is becoming concentrated in the hands of a small elite group of people, and there are fewer fair opportunities to acquire land, particularly for women and young people. Land rights are becoming increasingly individual and privatised at the expense of communal users, such as pastoralists.

Current efforts to strengthen land tenure security focus on clarifying the nature and duration of land rights claims, and improving ways to document and uphold these claims. This is typically achieved through formalising the terms of deeds, contracts and registration. However, formalising tenure agreements is a technical issue as well as a governance issue. The institutions that issue land agreements must be socially acceptable to people and have the power to enforce rights.

The case studies provide useful examples of how to improve land tenure security for marginal groups:

• In Ethiopia, land registration and certification of user rights has been decentralised in four regions. Using simple, traditional land measurements, electing local land committees and organising extensive community consultations successfully achieved this.
• In Namibia and South Africa, urban citizens have grouped together to purchase land for housing and to upgrade services.
• Where formal institutions have failed, as in Kampala, Uganda, people have made use of informal mechanisms to control land access. This includes informal written and verbal agreements. These agreements can be formally ‘upgraded’ when government land surveys take place.
• People in Mozambique recognise both individual and community land registration processes. Investors must consult communities before they can access community land.
• In Niger, legislation recognises the collective rights of pastoralists, giving them priority access to resources in their ‘home areas’. They also receive compensation if their lands are appropriated by the State for public use.
• In Ethiopia and Namibia, women have the right to register land under their own names.

These approaches mean that land tenure systems include poorer social groups. Appropriate techniques to include these groups include local government and community ownership rights, gradual approaches to improving tenure security, and new land registration technologies. To build on such approaches, the researcher recommends:

• improving the skills and resources of government, for example by re-training land professionals
• enabling the poorest groups to obtain tenure by improving their access to finance, savings, loans and subsidies to cover the associated costs of formal land tenure
• improving governance systems to include new ways to resolve conflicts over land.

Source(s):
‘Innovation in Securing Land Rights in Africa: Lessons From Experience’, Briefing Paper, IIED: London, edited by Nazneen Kanji, 2006 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: Sida; DGIS

id21 Research Highlight: 5 January 2007

Further Information:
Lorenzo Cotula
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London, WC1H 0DD
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7388 2117
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7388 2826
Contact the contributor: Lorenzo.Cotula@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

Other related links:
'Land disputes in Ghana: can the state courts deal with them?'

'Rwandan orphans denied land rights'

'Legal titles to land are not enough in Nicaragua'

See id21's links for land and soils