Land is an essential asset for the livelihood and welfare of rural households in agriculture-based rural economies. This study utilizes land registry data from the First and Second Stage Land Registration (FSLR and SSLR) Reforms that took place in 1998 and 2016 in Tigray region of Ethiopia, the first region in Ethiopia to implement land registration and certification. Second Stage Land Registration and Certification (SSLR&C) provided households with parcel-based certificates with names of all holders.

Current Tanzanian land law offers registration of private interests in land in the form of Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) within a broader community lands approach. We conducted qualitative research on the issuance of CCROs along a mountain slope transect in Meru district in northeast Tanzania. This area features intensified smallholder agriculture that evolutionary theory suggests is well adapted for registration of private interests in land.

Ethiopia has implemented one of the largest, fastest and least expensive land registration and certification reforms in Africa. While there is evidence that this ‘first-stage’ land registration has had positive effects in terms of increased investment, land productivity and land rental market activities, the government is now piloting another round of land registration and certification that involves technically advanced land survey methods and computer registration.

Societal drivers including poverty eradication, gender equality, indigenous recognition, adequate housing, sustainable agriculture, food security, climate change response, and good governance, influence contemporary land administration design. Equally, the opportunities provided by technological development also influence design approaches. The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) attempts to align both: the data model provides a standardised global vocabulary for land administration.

Hybrid land tenure administration occurs in a number of South Africa’s state-subsidised housing projects and in the informal settlements from which the housing beneficiaries tend to be drawn. Ownership is the tenure form in most of these housing projects. Under ownership the law only recognises registered land transactions. Non-government tenure administration in Dunoon was organised by street and area committees that are part of the local South African National Civics Association (SANCO) branch, a community based organisation (CBO).

‘A Guide on Land and Property Rights in Pakistan’ was designed and prepared to facilitate the basic understanding of the complex principles of the Pakistani land and revenue administration system. The first edition, printed in December 2011, was warmly received by lawyers, national civil society organisations, community leaders, local authorities, donor agencies, and international affairs organisations, engaged in relief, rehabilitation, development or other similar works that necessitate some basic understanding of the land administration system in Pakistan.

The Afghanistan land sector is plagued by a multitude of problems linked to weak governance, corruption and lack of capacity. There are competing claims to land, widespread conflicts, resultant landlessness and poverty. Other issues are limited availability of undisputed farmland, difficulties in accessing grazing lands and many disputes over pasture lands. These issues are exacerbated by conflicting land ownership systems, insecure land tenure and registration, weak land governance environment and uncertain and incomplete legal frameworks.

The vast majority of land in Afghanistan is untitled and unregistered, further complicating the Afghan state’s ability to help sustainably resolve land disputes. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the Afghanistan Land Authority sought to address this problem by testing a new model of engaging community dispute resolution in formal land registration. This report examines the lessons learned from the pilot and proposes recommendations for reform.

Ethiopia has implemented one of the largest, fastest and cheapest land registration and certification reforms in Africa. While there have been evidences of positive impacts of this land reform in terms of increased investment, land productivity and land rental market activities, the government is now piloting another round of land registration and certification that involves GPS measurement and computer registration.

This paper assesses factors related to local land border conflicts and how low cost land registration and certification has affected land conflicts during and after land registration and certification using data from northern Ethiopia. Border conflicts were more common near district centers, further away from markets, and where property rights had been redistributed more recently.

Several studies have shown that the land registration and certification reform in Ethiopia has been implemented at an impressive speed, at a low-cost, and with significant impacts on investment, land productivity, and land rental market activity. This study provides new evidence on land productivity changes for rented land and on the welfare effects of the reform. The study draws on a unique household panel, covering the period up to eight years after the implementation of the reform.

Opening up land-related administrative data, combining it with data from other sources  and processing and making this data available as easily accessible information for women and men equally could be a means to counteracting land corruption in land management, land administration and land allocation. But does open data and enhanced data transparency indeed help to counteract land corruption?