Forced evictions violate a number of internationally and nationally recognized human rights. However, it directly translates to a denial of the right to adequate housing which forms the very foundational basis for the realization of other rights. In the long run, it affects people’s social and economic livelihoods. However, forced evictions remain a practice that is majorly carried out in urban centers in Kenya.

In many countries, unidentified private individuals and legal entities obtain significant economic benefits from land. This lack of transparency can make it harder for affected communities and governments to hold them accountable for land use decision-making and any sort of violation they commit. It can also leave investors open to risk if they do not know who is truly behind a company they are doing business with. 

This brief note identifies the consequences of land acquisitions in peri-urban spaces around the cities of Bamako and Ségou, Mali. This contributes to debates surrounding the rapid expansion of African cities faced with rapid rural-urban migration and new arrivals settling in precarious conditions. West Africa has a long history of urbanisation, in some cases accompanied by highly productive and intensified land use.

About the webinar

Corruption in the land sector affects every second citizen in Africa, with devastating impacts for individuals, communities and the development of fragile nations. Transparency International has adopted a range of community-led initiatives, which are helping to amplify the voices of women and men affected by land corruption and push for change to systems, structures, practices and cultural norms that allow corruption to flourish in the land sector.

The forum was co-hosted by the Mekong Region Land Governance Project and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Co-Conveners of the programme includes the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) and the Independent Mediation Group (IMG). The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg supported the Forum.

IN’s latest resource is an introduction to the topic Land and Water Grabbing: A discussion of integrity implications and related risks, which discusses the integrity implications and risks of land and water grabbing. The essay examines the link between land and water grabbing, the people that are most impacted by this, and legal frameworks related to both land and water rights. Land and Water Grabbing describes the impacts of land and water grabbing in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The training manual provides a complete course for journalists – covering all aspects of researching, constructing, and presenting a land corruption story – which can be downloaded (for free) and used by trainers with or without prior experience of investigating land issues. It is intended for anyone that provides training or capacity-building for journalists including facilitators, trainers, lecturers and teachers.

Women, Land and Corruption is a collection of unique articles and research findings that describe and analyse the prevalence of land corruption in Africa — and its disproportionate effect on women — pr

Community Land Scotland (CLS) has today published ‘Towards Land Ownership Transparency in Scotland’, part of a larger study led by Transparency International to test a framework for assessing land ownership transparency within countries.  The framework was presented at ‘Land Governance in an Interconnected World’, the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty in Washington DC on March 20^th.

The report was prepared for Community Land Scotland by Poppea Daniel, an independent researcher.   It concludes:

The International Land Coalition’s Commitment 8 seeks to ensure transparency and accountability, through unhindered and timely public access to all information that may contribute to informed public debate and decision-making on land issues. ILC’s Database of Good Practices provides concrete examples and guidance to Coalition members and partners on how to achieve this commitment. 

This topic guide presents an overview of land corruption in rural and urban areas, focusing on:

This policy brief presents strengths and weaknesses of state and traditional land justice institutions in relation to access, costs and speed in concluding the process of resolving land cases. In the current legal and institutional framework, strengthening of the customary justice system would bring benefits. With 93% of land in the Northern and Eastern regions under customary tenure, the most important institution is the clan, yet clan rulings are most often ignored by a parallel state system.