Housing, Land, and Property in Gedeo and West Guji

Objectives

The purpose of this project is to address the numerous complex and overlapping issues related to housing, land, and property (HLP) in Gedeo and West Guji from a protection perspective. NRC’s assessments have found that conflict affected individuals in the region have had their land ownership documents and/or legal identity documents confiscated or destroyed, that it may be difficult to locate accurate land records at the kebele or woreda level, and that there are competing narratives about who owns what land. There are reports of secondary (illegal occupation), disputes over boundaries, and unlawful evictions. Given the above, as IDPs consider a return to their areas of origin, they will require legal advice about establishing ownership rights over their land. Likewise, humanitarian actors will require support in order to determine how best to assess competing ownership claims prior to providing assistance, particularly shelter assistance. This project aims to work closely with displacement affected communities (IDPs, returnees and host communities), providing information, counselling and legal assistance to beneficiaries seeking to demonstrate land use rights in the region, while also working with shelter actors already operating in Gedeo and Guji to ensure that a due diligence approach is adopted prior to any intervention. If HLP issues are not addressed from the outset of an emergency they can undermine the entire humanitarian response and exclude the most vulnerable.