Land tenure governance in the first decades of the 21st century : progress, challenges, and lessons from 18 countries

Abstract

This article is based on a review of the governance of land tenure in 18 countries—16 in Africa and 2 in Asia—carried out from 2021 to 2023. It uses international guidelines on land policy and tenure governance as benchmarks to assess progress in each country through reviewing policy documents and literature, and obtaining inputs from key informants. This paper shows that, during the last decade, there has been significant progress in land tenure policies that have improved the recognition of customary and other communal land rights and improved women’s land rights. The formal registration of individual rights to customary and community land has now been achieved cost-effectively, with more rights going to women in a number of settings, and without leading to widespread commoditisation or land dispossession. There is a mixed picture, with countries trying different ways to grapple with common challenges such as securing customary tenure rights, unlocking development potential, improving women’s land rights, and managing the contesting interests in land. There are important examples of best practices in some countries that can be learnt from, such as the legislation of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) requirements and processes of large-scale land rights registration. Despite progress achieved in several countries, too many people are not enjoying the benefits of improved land tenure security; some countries still need to adopt new legislation, while others need to improve their implementation of existing legislation. More needs to be learnt from the range of different approaches to dealing with land tenure as national governments attempt to find solutions that accommodate contesting interests. The lessons and trends identified will be of value to country-level and international work on improving land tenure governance.