Amman | Johannesburg | London | Mexico City | Ramallah | Washington African Land Tenure Where are we now? Richard Baldwin, Felicity Buckle, Owen Edwards,

Amman | Johannesburg | London | Mexico City | Ramallah | Washington

 African Land Tenure Where are we now?

Richard Baldwin, Felicity Buckle, Owen Edwards, Clive English, John Leckie

DAI Lands Group.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Intervention Paradigms

3. Land Tenure issues in Africa

4. Lessons Learned and Emergent Best Practice

5. Next steps

Introduction

Well documented history of interventions in land tenure projects starting from Thailand 1980’s (Bank supported)

In ECA region 1994-2015 - World Bank projects - over 40 projects and USD1.2 billion (Torhonen) – leveraged X 10

In Africa – by 2012, World Bank projects USD 229 million (Byamagushi) – leverage?

By 2015 most Eastern Europe land tenure systems largely established and functional – why did it work?

What can we do to achieve the same in Africa? Are we on the right track? Do we have the right models and intervention tools?

1. Introduction

2. Intervention Paradigms

3. Land Tenure issues in Africa

4. Lessons Learned and Emergent Best Practice

5. Next steps

Intervention Paradigms

Multi purpose Cadastre

Cadastre & Land registers

Land Markets e-Government

Governance & Transparency

1980- 1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 2010 -2015

Citizen / Investor led - Demand

Remote Sensing

Open Source

Social Media

GIS & DBMS

Inter Operability

PC technology Internet /online systems

GPS field survey

Operative paradigm

T

echnology

Driver

s

Resource management

Basic Land Administration

Service Delivery

Open Access Land

information management

????? Public Sector Led- Supply

Incr

easi

ng tr

ansp

aren

cy

Intervention Paradigms - Eastern Europe

From early 1990’s intense reform period driven by market transition and for many, goal of EU entry

Early projects focussed on ownership -technical cadastres, restitution, compensation, privatisation support

Importance of land and property in western style market economy became focus

Land Markets paradigm from later 1990’s became well developed and successful intervention tool.

Real estate and related services can contribute large percentage of GDP

By 2015, most countries have well functioning land administration systems

Was this a unique experience or are “land markets” the driver for wider land tenure reform?

Land Markets ParadigmIdea was that by kick starting the reform process and creating functioning institutions, the market would then take over and drive the development

Intervention Paradigms

Drivers today Emphasis on governance and transparency Increasingly citizen or investor led Technologies are now pervasive – social media, open source,

cloud based technology, digital imagery, “fit for purpose” concept largely accepted

Policy Level Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of

Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests VGGT (2012) Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and

Food Systems (2014), EITI etc African Union Land Policy Initiative G8 Land Transparency , Global Donor Group on Land

What is next?

1. Introduction

2. Intervention Paradigms

3. Land Tenure issues in Africa

4. Lessons Learned and Emergent Best Practice

5. Next steps

Land Tenure Issues in Africa - scale

40% of estimated one billion people live in urban environments (UN Habitat 2010)

Half of population is under 25 >70% do not have secure land tenure / property rights Population doubled in last 30 years Population will be 1.9 Billion by 2050

Risk is that in the future the majority will live in urban environments and constitute the urban poor who will be living in marginal areas, townships, and within informal or illegal settlements

Land Tenure Issues in Africa - reality

Drivers traditionally: food security, security of title, access to credit (??).

Question of Customary tenure v Individual Title. Large Titling programmes have focussed on individual rights, but have

these then been updated and maintained? Can be different tenure system in urban and rural 60% of urban dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa live in informal

settlements (often with poor infrastructure, sanitation, utilities and located on poor and marginal land)

The institutions responsible for registration, planning, and environmental control are not able to deal with existing problems and so most of the urban properties remain outside of the formal legal system.

The urban and rural poor cannot enter the formal land market

Land Tenure Issues in Africa – customary v formal

Land Rights form a continuum.

Recording of formal and informal rights

Land Tenure Issues in Africa customary v formal

We recognise that Land Rights form a continuum. removes focus on absolute and individual title

Recording of formal and informal rights Increasing evidence that customary land tenure systems and informal

markets are able to support access to land and meet local land occupiers’ needs. For example Incremental tenure improvement approach of Urban LandMark (Napier, et al, 2013)

Spatial Units can represent both formal and informal rights Social Tenure Domain Model (Lemmen, 2010) and LADM SOLA and Open Tenure (Pullar, 2014) MapMyRights (McLaren, 2014)

We can record or register the informal or customary right, without necessarily converting it to a formal land right

Land Tenure Issues in Africa - key issues

Food Security and poverty alleviation. Sub Saharan Africa has a high proportion of land suitable for agriculture, yet has some of the highest poverty rates in the world. 70% of rural population are subsistence farmers.

‘Rush for land’ and land availability:. The food and agriculture, forestry, extractive industries are increasingly involved in land based investments, financed both publicly and privately, with an estimated 20 million hectares of land transferred to investors since 2000 (Vhyugen)

Weak governance: Weak land governance in many countries is often the result of poor governance structures and affects tenure, economic growth, environmental sustainability and economic growth

Institutional Structures. The roles and responsibilities of the institutions may be overlapping or the responsibilities can be fragmented across many different bodies and can further problems due to decentralisation

Land Tenure Issues in Africa - key issues

Implementation of existing land laws and Laws. Laws may exist but are not necessarily implemented

Designation of Village, customary, communal lands. Many are not established and requires considerable effort

Incomplete planning processes at local level. Often capacity limited. Land use plans often seen as a prerequisite to effective land use management and confirmation of land rights

Land that appears to be unutilised is not necessarily land that is available for investment. In some countries, law provides that where land is considered “unused” then the tenure can be changed to a different form and assigned under central authority to an external investor. This may disregard interests of pastoralists etc.

Encourage investment, protect communities. Need to be effective ways that local people can collectively or individually work with external investors to mobilise land resources while protecting local interests.

Dispute Resolution. Need local support for dispute resolution (ADR)

Human capacity and decentralised land administration. The sheer scale of a decentralised land administration system can provide significant challenges.

Urban land markets need to be more accessible to the poor. This is a problem also for many middle income countries and how we deal with this will be one of the big challenges of the next century.

Land Tenure Issues in Africa - key issues

Many of these problems are well known but how to deal with them?

1. Introduction

2. Intervention Paradigms

3. Land Tenure issues in Africa

4. Lessons Learned and Emergent Best Practice

5. Next Steps

Lessons learned & emergent best practice

Lawry, et al (2014) – looked at impact of formal registration of individual rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to Asia and Latin America, found had not had same effect, suggested it was due to Pre-existing institutions. Do we undermine pre-existing customary

systems by advocating formal registration of individual rights? The wealth effect. Farmers in Africa operate closer to the

subsistence level and lack resources for translating tenure rights into commercial production.

Lack of complementary institutions or reforms. Investments in Africa have not been coupled with investments in necessary complementary institutions or infrastructure “public capital”

This is supported by the E Europe comparison where there was comprehensive institution building, wealth effect was strongly driven by investment and in most cases institutions were understood and accepted

Lesson One: Its not just about land rights

Lessons learned & emergent best practice

Community based low cost registration is now possible and can be completed in short periods.— This can be individual titling or customary / informal

Women’s empowerment is significantly advanced through property rights— Property rights influence power perceptions and can change

behaviour “Fit for purpose” is opening up possibility of new tools and

techniques that can be used at community level— Image based methods, accuracy of surveys, customary rights,

mobile apps, cloud-based solutions

Lesson Two: Get the communities involved directly

Lessons learned & emergent best practice

Can large scale land investments benefit both local communities and the investor?— Emerging evidence that this ca be done, if designed and set

up properly Enhancing economic growth through land tenure requires

wider market interventions. — Registration of land by itself does not create economic growth— Need wider interventions (Lawry)

Lesson Three: Need to actively involve private sector

Incremental Improvements in land tenure offer an alternative approach for informal settlements

Lessons learned & emergent best practice

Lesson Four: There may be new non traditional approaches

“Informal settlements occupy an important place in the urban land market and play a critical role in urban land access”. Urban LandMark

Clear Roadmaps are needed that sets out step by step process for how to improve tenure security and encourage responsible and sustainable investment.

These roadmaps need to be holistic in their approach and must use a methodology that is Accepted by the people low cost, robust, Fit for purpose Sustainable and can be maintained in the future

Lesson Five : Need Clear Plan or RoadMap

Lessons learned & emergent best practice

1. Introduction

2. Intervention Paradigms

3. Land Tenure issues in Africa

4. Lessons Learned and Emergent Best Practice

5. Next Steps

Next steps - where are we now?

1. Commitment. An unprecedented coming together of Governments, Donors, Multilateral institutions, CSO/NGO, the Private Sector and practitioners- G8, VGGT, RIA.

2. Fit for Purpose. The acceptance of the “Fit for Purpose” paradigm and the establishment of national level programmes supporting low cost participatory methods

3. Recognition and acceptance of the continuum of rights paradigm embracing range of rights and the emergence of open source tools for capture and management.

4. Recognition that registration itself is not the end of the project: The land tenure reform is only complete when there is an operational system in place to support land transations

5. Intervention Systems. New intervention models including market based systems approaches that go beyond conventional land administration reform

How to create wider approach including involvement of the private sector and mobilisation of communities?

Next steps - the future?

Thank You

The Real Estate Industry

Private Sector services— Real Estate Agents— Valuers— Mortgage Brokers— Banks and Mortgage Providers— Lawyers— Cadastral Surveyors— Information Services and IT

Public Sector services— Cadastre and Land Registry— Physical Planning/ urban & rural management— Local authorities

The Real Estate industry involves both private and public

sector organisations and businesses.

The Real Estate Industry

Private Sector services— Real Estate Agents— Valuers— Mortgage Brokers— Banks and Mortgage Providers— Lawyers— Cadastral Surveyors— Information Services and IT

Public Sector services— Cadastre and Land Registry— Physical Planning/ urban & rural management— Local authorities

The Real Estate industry involves both private and public

sector organisations and businesses.

<10%

90%+