For the past few decades, efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration — individually or with a spouse — may support tenure security in specific contexts, the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate.

This paper examines the impact of land reform on agricultural productivity in Tajikistan. Recent legislation allows farmers to obtain access to heritable land shares for private use, but reform has been geographically uneven. The break-up of state farms has occurred in some areas where agriculture has little to offer but, where high value crops are grown, land reform has hardly begun. In cases where collectivized farming persists and land has not been distributed, productivity remains low and individual households benefit little from farming.

In the next 30 years, Africa’s population is expected to double, and the continent will be home to 2.5 billion people. Almost half of this population will be living in urban agglomerations. Metropolitan cities, such as Lagos, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam or Abidjan will host several tens of millions of urban dwellers. Peri-urban areas are most affected by the cities’ expansion and undergo important social, political and economic transformations.This Ifri briefing analyses how these changes translate into land governance, a key sector of urban development.

Secure land and property rights are essential for improving the livelihoods of the poor and ending poverty. Effective and equitable land governance can also contribute to economic development, domestic resource mobilisation and climate change resilience. Promoting fair and transparent land tenure systems should therefore be a priority for national governments.

Given its seemingly beneficial aspects to socioeconomic development and environmental well-being, the legislative reforms initiated under the Land Act of Bhutan, 2007 have raised so much consternation as well as hope in the minds of the Bhutanese people who either depend on livestock husbandry or leasing out such rights to others with livestock and compensated with payment in cash or kind in the form of livestock products.

This one-pager provides details on the LAND-at-scale project in Rwanda. This project is implemented by Kadaster International and IDLO, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency. 

Semi-nomadic yak herders of Bhutan depend on high altitude rangelands and yaks for their livelihoods. Conflicts over high altitude rangelands among herders can lead to sub-optimal management with negative impacts on the environment, livelihoods and socio-economic well-being of semi-nomadic yak herders.

This report summarizes the background, achievements and emerging outcomes of the Securing Access to Land and Resources (SALaR) project implemented towards improving land and natural resources tenure security for rural poor smallholder farmers, including women, men, youth and vulnerable groups in Uganda, Philippines and Laos.

This report assesses the costs and effectiveness of responsible investment practices in emerging market contexts. Its results make the business case for investments in social risk mitigation and avoidance practices. Such practices include community engagement efforts, impact assessments and the establishment of grievance resolution mechanisms. Implemented correctly, responsible investment practices engender confidence and trust between investors and local communities, which secures social buy-in and mitigates the financial risks associated with disputes.

El presente trabajo analiza las situaciones problemáticas de tenencia de la tierra, particularmente las que afectan a la pequeña producción familiar. Partiendo del estudio realizado por PROINDER en base a la información del Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 1988, se presentan los cambios de tenencia y estructura de la tierra a nivel nacional incorporando los datos del Censo Nacional Agropecuario 2002. En segundo lugar se realiza una actualización de la información sobre las situaciones problemáticas de tenencia de la tierra identificadas en el trabajo anterior.

La Ley de Tierras dispuso la necesidad de realizar un relevamiento a nivel nacional con el objetivo de determinar la totalidad de tierras rurales en propiedad o posesión de extranjeros. Junto con el relevamiento, creó el Registro Nacional de Tierras Rurales (RNTR) en el ámbito del Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación, quien tiene a su cargo aplicar integralmente y en todo el país la ley 26.737. Este primer informe contiene los resultados de ese relevamiento realizado por el Registro Nacional de Tierras Rurales.