Fit-for-purpose land administration: lessons from urban and rural Ethiopia

Abstract

Lessons for designing fit-for-purpose land administration and land management activities, where the stated purposes are poverty alleviation, food security, and good governance, are provided. Contemporary developments from urban and rural Ethiopia provide the empirical basis: data is synthesised from fieldwork and other research activities undertaken between 2011 and 2013. With its large population and important geopolitical location, Ethiopia will continue to act as a yardstick for measuring the success of the global development agenda, particularly in Eastern Africa. Observations from training sessions conducted with cadastral and urban planning experts in Addis Ababa reveal challenges and opportunities regarding capacity development for urban land administration, urban land markets, and state land management. From the city of Bahir Dar, an alternative perspective of urban land administration is provided: the presented results shed light on the varying quality of cadastral development, but also the positive and negative impacts of cadastral implementation. Meanwhile, results from Dilla Town reveal the opportunity to link cadastral development to other infrastructure development activities (e.g. road construction and upgrade). The case also reveals the ongoing tension between ensuring adequate compensation payments relating to land acquisition, whilst also delivering a broader community benefit. Outputs from exploratory design work on the potential for land consolidation in the Amhara region are also articulated. The status of cadastral development in rural areas is revealed, along with future challenges for using cadastral data in land consolidation activities. Overall, the synthesised studies expose how fit-for-purpose ideologies are increasingly informing Ethiopian cadastral design, and under what conditions these designs can support poverty alleviation, food security, and good governance.

Participatory Land Administration on Customary Lands: A Practical VGI Experiment in Nanton, Ghana

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Innovating Along the Continuum of Land Rights Recognition: Meridia’s “Documentation Packages” for Ghana

“…They also seek to recognize land rights in a continuum as advocated by UN-HABITAT [6]. In the form of scaled-up variants, fit-for-purpose approaches seek to develop land administration systems that are flexible, participatory, inclusive, affordable, reliable, upgradable, and attainable [7,8]. Innovative approaches are being promoted and implemented in various countries around the globe [9,10], but how and in how far they work out in practice has not yet been studied systematically and with little reference to theory.…”

Needs Assessment in Land Administration: The Potential of the Nominal Group Technique

“…The link between secure land rights, physical development, wealth creation and social justice is increasingly emphasised by global, regional and national agendas to the point that land administration systems (LAS) are now considered as critical public good infrastructures [1] and the focus of billions of dollars of foreign development aid [2]. However, this approach to funding has resulted in a tendency towards short-term approaches that favours the selection of technologies in response to project-based objectives over ensuring that users' needs are appropriately evaluated and addressed [3,4]. Such projects have also been criticised for its lack of community engagement and needs assessment [5,6].…”