Securing Africa’s land for shared prosperity: a program to scale up reforms and investments

Based on worldwide experience and encouraging evidence from country pilots in African countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania,and Uganda, this new report suggests a series of ten steps that may help to revolutionise agricultural production and eradicate poverty in Africa. These steps include improving tenure security over individual and communal lands, increasing land access and tenure for poor and vulnerable families, resolving land disputes, managing better public land, and increasing efficiency and transparency in land administration services. 
Although poor land governance is daunting, the report argues that the problem is not hopeless. The last decade has witnessed an increase in concerted efforts by African countries and development partners to undertake land policy reforms and to pilot innovative approaches to improve land governance. Many of these countries either have legislation in place or initiatives in progress to address communal land rights and gender equality, the basis for sound land administration. Surges in commodity prices and foreign direct investment have increased the potential return on investment in land administration. It will be necessary to match the evidence in this report with political will and leadership in order to transform African agriculture and Africa’s development prospects.