Presented by Akrofi, E. O.: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Akrofi, E. O., &...

Presented by Akrofi, E. O.: Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science and TechnologyAkrofi, E. O., & Arko-Adjei, A.: Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana , Clarissa Augustnus, Danilo Antonio, Samuel Mabikke, Cyprian

Selebalo : UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya.

LAND TOOLS FOR CUSTOMARY TENURE

IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

KWAME NKRUMAHUNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

GLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMMEGLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMMEGLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMME

Introduction

Objective of study

Methodology

Results

Key success factors

Best practice tools

CONTENT

Land Tools for Customary Tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa


GLTN BRIEFING AND PROGRAMME

Introduction

●Paradigm shift:From:oImpediment to economic growth oMajor cause of rural poverty in sub Saharan Africa oInsecure land rights

To:oCustomary tenure could be secure and has the potential to alleviate poverty in sub Saharan Africa.oMajority of sub Saharan dwellers depend on customary tenure




Internal factors External factors• Population growth• Land conflicts• Gender inequality in

accessing land

• Urbanization• Rural urban poverty• Low agricultural

productivity• Food security• Climate change

Most tools aim at securing rights for marginalized groups in urban and rural areas

Factors




Tools Development

●Several approaches have been used to deal with the

challenges

●Top-down attempts to eliminate or ‘streamline’

customary tenure and make it ‘productive’ …oFormal Mapping and RegistrationoCompulsory Acquisition;

achieved very little success

●Search for new and innovative tools continue

spearheaded by Customary communities, UN-Habitat,

IFAD, FAO and other development agencies.




Objective of study

● Identifying, reviewing and analysing customary

tenure security toolsodeveloped and/or delivered through customary

governance systems, oeither as part of a statutory system, at the

community level oas partnership between community and

government structures/outside partners

oor a combination of the above




Methodology

●Data Collection

oReview of literatureoAnalysis of various project reports on customary

tenure reformoDevelop a comprehensive analytical framework

for understanding the interrelationship between customary tenure and GLTN core values




Results

●Local recording of land rights and transactions:oDocumenting land transactions using informal

processes managed by families or communities.

●Local capacity development:oUsing simple, pro-poor, accountable and equitable

tools to develop the skills of customary groups to improve the security of tenure.

●Grassroots participation:oStrengthening the participation and influence of

grassroots communities that the tools are meant to serve.




●Registration and certification:oRecognizing and documenting of land rights and providing security of tenure for groups and individuals.

●Informal settlement upgrading:oMeasures aimed at improving access to land and housing for urban poor staying in informal areas.

●Equity and gender responsiveness:oStrengthening gender equality, particularly recognition of women’s rights and women’s access to land.


Results cont’d



●Governance:oDeveloping transparent and accountable systems that give legal patterning of land rights within customary societies and the way in which rights are regulated.

●Dispute resolution:oProviding and alternative and pro-poor dispute resolution mechanism

●Economic empowerment and natural resource management:

oUsing business models for improving income levels and livelihood of small farmers and vulnerable groups and also ensuring sustainable use of natural resources.


Results cont’d



Tool Strength Weakness

Participatory spatial and development planning (Mali and Tanzania)

• Decentralised tool• Promotes participation

and good governance• Ensures sustainability

• Lack Capacity• Unequal power play• Lack of interest by

community

Empowering Grassroots Women (Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda)

• Awareness creation• Capacity building• Empowerment

• Entrenched customary practices

• Illiteracy and lack of resources

Participatory enumeration and mapping (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda)

• Transparent and accessible land information

• Design, implementation and maintenance costs are prohibitive for local communities

• Lack of local capacity

Tools for Grassroots Participation and Empowerment




Tool Strength WeaknessInformal recording of land transaction and land information Petits papiers’ (Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana)

• Use of local resources• Easily updated and

maintained• Availability at the grassroots

• Poor record keeping• Records may not be

accessible to the general public

• Lack technical competence

• Land rights of women and young may not be captured

Land allocation committees (Ghana) and informal land offices (Kenya)

• Use local resources in keeping land records

• Easily maintained

• Nepotism on the part of committee members

• May be based on outdated customs and therefore gender biased

Allocation note(Ghana)

• Use of local resources • Not supported by legislation

PFRs (rural land plans)(Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin and Guinea)

• Legislative support • Community participation and

partnerships• Perceived increased

transparency and fairness in the process

• Requires external financial support or subsidy

• May lack transparency• Unequal power play

Tools for Local Recording of Land Transactions




Tool Strength WeaknessVillage and community titling initiatives (Tanzania, Mozambique)

• Partnerships between local authorities, community leaders and local communities help to strengthen land administration, improve land use and reduce land conflicts

• Bureaucracy in processes• Lack of resources at the

local level• High cost of establishing

village registries• Changing legal framework

Land regularisation(Rwanda)

• Ensures Gender equity in land distribution and management

• Facilitates access to finance (use as collateral)

• Dependent on subsidy and technical expertise

• High development and maintenance cost

Flexible land tenure(Namibia),

• Built on local practices• Use of paraprofessionals• Partnership between

community and local government

• Upgradeable tenure rights

• High initial cost• High registration cost• Perpetuation of inferior

rights

Tools for Registration and Certification





Urban land registry(Benin, Nigeria)

• Improves taxation• Uses systematic

procedures

• Lack of community ownership

• Needs technical experts to design databases

Rural land certificationand registration (Ethiopia)

• Flexibility of implementation and therefore scalable

• Pro-poor tool ensuring equity in land distribution

• Use of local resources

• Local capacity building for • maintenance and

sustainability

STDM (Piloted in informal settlements in Uganda and Kenya)

• Its flexibility ensures social legitimacy

• Can be adapted to community needs

• Technologically based• Need to build local capacity

Land Tools for Customary Tenure in Sub-Saharan AfricaTools for Registration and Certification cont’d




Residential license(Tanzania)

• Partnership approaches between community local authority and civil society used to establish and maintain tool

• Inadequate human and financial resources at local level

• Slow and cumbersome registration process

• Loss of land rights of the poor after registration due to informal distress sales

Communal Land Trust and Associations (Kenya, Zambia)

• Partnerships between community and government in development of the tool

• Equity with respect to gender in access to land rights and decision making

• Preservation of group tenure rights

• Development and maintenance cost prohibitive to informal settlers

• Inadequate manpower to manage and maintain tool

• Unaffordable cost of lease

Slum upgrading (SouthAfrica)

• Supported by legislation instruments and international conventions

• Ensure secure tenure for the urban poor

• Limited human and financial resources

Land Tools for Customary Tenure in Sub-Saharan AfricaTools for Registration and Certification cont’d




1. Gender evaluation criteria

• Facilitate gender equity an land rights and government

• Flexible and can be adapted in different environments

• Lack of enforcement in areas where there are no explicit legislation due to deep-rooted customary practices.

2. Spousal consent (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Uganda)

• Protects land rights of women and other vulnerable groups

• Lack of enforcement in areas where there are no explicit legislation due to deep-rooted customary practices.

3. Awareness creation (Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique)

• Bring to the fore the plight of women in accessing land and contributing to decisions affecting land use and its management.

• Lack of financial support and political will

• Inability to break entrenched masculine cultural practices

Tools for Gender and Equity





4. Community dialogue (community conversation)

• Freedom of expression by all sectors of society

• Encourages active participation of women and other vulnerable groups

• Expensive venture• Skewed power relations

may negatively affect dialogue

5. Community self- analysis (Rwanda)

• Freedom of expression• Identification of gender

inequalities in community

• Costly to develop and implement

Tools for Gender and Equity cont’d





Compensation approaches(Ghana)

• Vulnerable customary land rights are given a portion of land proceeds/compensation when land is taken away for other uses

• In some cases vulnerable groups have no negotiating power, they only receive ‘whatever’ they are assigned

Outlawing outmoded Inheritance laws (Mozambique, Ethiopia, Rwanda)

• Legislation give equal inheritance rights to male and females

• Laws are not fully enforced in some customary areas because of entrenched customary practices

Statutory recognition of occupancy rights, slums and informal settlements (Kenya, Namibia, Botswana)

• Improves security of tenure• Encourages provision of

infrastructure

• May encourage distress sales by poor groups as property values rise as a result of the preserved tenure security

Tools for Governance





Anti-eviction (Uganda, SouthAfrica)

• Improves security of tenure• Encourages provision of

infrastructure

• May encourage distress sales by poor groups as property values rise as a result of the perceived tenure security

Tools for Governance cont’d


Tool Strength WeaknessInformal dispute resolution (Alternative Dispute Resolution) mechanisms - Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Benin, Kenya.

• Win-win conflict resolution mechanism affordable and familiar to customary communities

• May be based on community practices and therefore biased to vulnerable

Tools for Dispute Resolution




Joint venture cash crop plantations (rubber plantation in Ghana

• Making resources available to the poor and improving access to markets thereby reducing poverty

• Likely power play in the pricing of crops to the disadvantage of farmers

Community-based natural resource management schemes (Irrigation, Water, Fishing, Livestock associations)-Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Uganda, Kenya)

• Community based management and public participation encouraged in natural resource management

• Community takes active interest to ensure sustainability

• Effective participation and ownership of schemes ensures sustainability

• Conditions for such cooperative schemes make them more affordable to majority of the members

• Sometimes landholders are not directly involved in negotiation of the conditions for such cooperation

Economic empowerment and natural resource management




Tool Strength WeaknessGNSS, Remote sensing, GIS

• Improves security of tenure• Reduce boundary disputes• Improves documentation

• High investment cost, Technical experts,

Participatory Mapping

• Requires relatively minimal training and investment cost

• Active involvement of community

• Elite capture

Tools for Mapping


Tool Strength WeaknessGroup right secured through community associations

• Local knowledge and inputs

• Community participation in planning and management ensures sustainability

• Conflict with adjoining communities

Tools for recognizing and documenting group rights



Key success factors

●Level of implementationoSubsidiarity is an important success factor

●Level of community participationoCommunity involvement and consensus building are crucial for success

●Build on existing structures or new structuresoBuilding on existing customary governance structure and norms is faster and cheaper than creating new institutions




Key success factors cont’d

●Empowerment – devolution of powers

●Technical Autonomy

●Cost – Donor dependence or self-sustaining?

●Legitimacy- Statutory or social/local legitimacy




Best Practice tools

●Tools for grassroots participation

Participatory spatial and development planning

Empowering Grassroots Women

Participatory enumeration and mapping

●Tools for local recording of land transactions:

Allocation note and land committees (Ghana)

Informal recording of land transactions and land

information (Benin, Ivory Coast and Mali)




●Tools for local capacity development:

Customary Land Secretariat (Ghana)

●Tools for registration and certification:

Village and community titling initiatives (Tanzania,

Mozambique),

Rural land certification and registration (Ethiopia) and STDM

(Uganda and Kenya):

●Tools for informal settlement upgrading

Participatory slum upgrading (Kenya and South Africa);


Best Practice tools cont’d



●Tools for gender and equity

Spousal consent (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Uganda),

gender evaluation criteria,

awareness creation and

community self-analysis (Rwanda);

●Tools for governance

Compensation approaches (Ghana),

Outlawing outmoded inheritance laws (Mozambique, Rwanda,

Ethiopia) and

anti-eviction (Uganda, South Africa);

Land Tools for Customary Tenure in Sub-Saharan AfricaBest Practice tools cont’d



●Tools for dispute resolution:

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism

●Tools for economic empowerment and natural

resource management

Community-investor partnerships and Community-based

natural resource management schemes (Irrigation/Water/

Fishing/Livestock associations) – (Zambia, Mozambique,

Swaziland, Uganda, Kenya).


Best Practice tools cont’d



THANK YOU



Land Tools for Customary Tenurein sub-Saharan Africa

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