Synthesizing the dilemmas and prospects for a peri-urban land use management framework: Evidence from Ethiopia

Evaluating the Quality of Land Information for Peri-Urban Land-Related Decision-Making: An Empirical Analysis from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

“…First, the institutional and organizational structures within a sector itself are not sufficiently organized to provide appropriate and complete land information that can support the decision-making processes (see Section 3.1, Tables 3 and 4 and Figure 3); second, there is isolated land information for urban and rural land administration as the land information from the respective sectors are managed by urban and rural land administration institutions separately with different standards, and information management systems (see the result Section 3.2); and finally, perhaps the most fundamental one, due to the fact that the peri-urban areas remain unrepresented in the existing system. This context supports the arguments of Wubie et al [24], who argued that managing the properties of peri-urban land in Ethiopia is still difficult and vague due to the fragmentation of institutional and legal frameworks. These combined could imply that the peri-urban land-related decision is far from being respected and trusted by the citizens.…”

“…From the discussions, one can note that the fragmentation of information repositories makes data sharing and dissemination more complex and ineffective for making decisions. This problem is more magnified in peri-urban areas where there are different land information developed by both urban and rural land administration institutions independently [24]. In this context, effective governance of land information is necessary [21].…”

“…Ethiopia invested heavily on finance and resources to modernize urban and rural land information systems separately [24]. To make this clear, the country has two fragmented and distinct land information systems-one for urban and the other for rural land sectors [25].…”

“…This is because the fragmentation of information repositories makes data sharing and dissemination complex and ineffective. Additionally, the institutional representation of the peri-urban areas across public sectors in Ethiopia is weak [24,26]. All these factors combined have negative implications on the magnitude to which land information can support decision-making in peri-urban areas effectively.…”

“…This means that the governance of land information requires clear institutional representation with clear task division and responsibilities. The second indicator is the availability and workability of standards/legal frameworks for acquisition, updating, and governance of land information [24]. Here it is important to note that land information is dynamic in terms of space and time; hence, there should be a clear framework for updating the existing data sources in line with the dynamics of information, purpose, and the needs of the users.…”