Transforming Land Administration Practices through the Application of Fit-For-Purpose Technologies: Country Case Studies in Africa

Access to land for many people in Africa is insecure and continues to pose risks to poverty, hunger, forced evictions, and social conflicts. The delivery of land tenure in many cases has not been adequately addressed. Fit-for-purpose spatial frameworks need to be adapted to the context of a country based on simple, affordable, and incremental solutions toward addressing these challenges. This paper looked at three case studies on the use of the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) tool in promoting the development of a fit-for-purpose land administration spatial framework. Data gathering from primary and secondary sources was used to investigate the case studies. The empirical findings indicated that the use and application of the STDM in support of the fit-for-purpose land administration framework is quite effective and can facilitate the improvement in land tenure security. The findings also revealed that the tool, together with participatory and inclusive processes, has the potential to contribute to other frameworks of Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFP LA) toward influencing changes in policy and institutional practices. Evidently, there was a remarkable improvement in the institutional arrangements and collaboration among different institutions, as well as a notable reduction in land conflicts or disputes in all three case studies.

Download Full-text

Fit-For-Purpose Applications in Colombia: Defining Land Boundary Conflicts between Indigenous Sikuani and Neighbouring Settler Farmers

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040382 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 382

Author(s):

Laura Becerra ◽

Mathilde Molendijk ◽

Nicolas Porras ◽

Piet Spijkers ◽

Bastiaan Reydon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conflict Resolution ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Field Measurements ◽

Third Parties ◽

Participatory Mapping ◽

Social Cartography ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Land Administration ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Communal Lands

One of the most difficult types of land-related conflict is that between Indigenous peoples and third parties, such as settler farmers or companies looking for new opportunities who are encroaching on Indigenous communal lands. Nearly 30% of Colombia’s territory is legally owned by Indigenous peoples. This article focuses on boundary conflicts between Indigenous peoples and neighbouring settler farmers in the Cumaribo municipality in Colombia. Boundary conflicts here raise fierce tensions: discrimination of the others and perceived unlawful occupation of land. At the request of Colombia’s rural cadastre (Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (IGAC)), the Dutch cadastre (Kadaster) applied the fit-for-purpose (FFP) land administration approach in three Indigenous Sikuani reserves in Cumaribo to analyse how participatory mapping can provide a trustworthy basis for conflict resolution. The participatory FFP approach was used to map land conflicts between the reserves and the neighbouring settler farmers and to discuss possible solutions of overlapping claims with all parties involved. Both Indigenous leaders and neighbouring settler farmers measured their perceived claims in the field, after a thorough socialisation process and a social cartography session. In a public inspection, field measurements were shown, with the presence of the cadastral authority IGAC. Showing and discussing the results with all stakeholders helped to clarify the conflicts, to reduce the conflict to specific, relatively small, geographical areas, and to define concrete steps towards solutions.

Download Full-text

Fit for Purpose Land Administration: Country Implementation Strategy for Addressing Uganda’s Land Tenure Security Problems

Land ◽

10.3390/land10060629 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 629

Author(s):

Moses Musinguzi ◽

Stig Enemark ◽

Simon Peter Mwesigye

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Implementation Strategy ◽

National Level ◽

Pilot Projects ◽

African Region ◽

Administration System ◽

Land Administration ◽

Lessons Learnt ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

The Republic

The Republic of Uganda is one of the five countries within the East African region. Uganda’s efforts to increase land productivity are hampered by land tenure insecurity related problems. For more than ten years, Fit for Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) pilot projects have been implemented in various parts of the country. Uganda is now in advanced stages of developing a country strategy for implementing a fit for purpose approach to land administration, to define the interventions, time and cost required to transform the existing formal (western type) land administration system into an administration system that is based on FFPLA principles. This paper reviews three case studies to investigate how lessons learnt from pilot projects informed a FFPLA country implementation strategy. The review is based on data collected during the development of the FFPLA strategy, in which the authors directly participated. The data collection methods included document review, field visits and interviews with purposively selected respondents from the pilot sites and institutions that had piloted FFPLA in Uganda. The study identified that pilot projects are beneficial in highlighting specific gaps in spatial, legal and institutional frameworks, that have potential to constrain FFPLA implementation. Pilot projects provided specific data for informed planning, programing and costing key interventions in the FFPLA country implementation strategy. The lessons learnt from the pilot projects, informed the various steps and issues considered while developing the national strategy for implementing a FFPLA approach in Uganda. On the other hand, the study identified that uncoordinated pilot projects are potential sources of inconsistencies in data and products, which may be cumbersome to harmonize at a national level. In order to implement a fit for purpose approach for land administration at a national level, it is necessary to consolidate the lessons leant from pilots into a unified country implementation strategy.

Download Full-text

The Fit for Purpose Land Administration Approach-Connecting People, Processes and Technology in Mozambique

Land ◽

10.3390/land10080818 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 818

Author(s):

Marisa Balas ◽

João Carrilho ◽

Christiaan Lemmen

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Project Delivery ◽

Community Based ◽

Land Registration ◽

Land Administration ◽

Management Capacity ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Available Technology

Mozambique started a massive land registration program to register five million parcels and delimitate four thousand communities. The results of the first two years of this program illustrated that the conventional methods utilized for the land tenure registration were too expensive and time-consuming and faced several data quality problems. The purpose of this research was to conceptualize, develop and test a country-specific Fit For Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) approach for Mozambique, denominated as FFPLA-MOZ, intertwining three pillars: people, processes, and technology, to solve the constraints faced in systematic registrations. Such a contextualized approach needed to be: (i) in line with legislation; (ii) appropriate to the circumstances and needs of the systematic registration; (iii) cost-effective; (iv) based on available technology; and (v) fit to establish a sound and sustainable land administration system. By connecting people, processes, and technology, the FFPLA-MOZ approach achieved several benefits, including cost and time reduction, increased community satisfaction, and improved quality of work and data. The FFPLA-MOZ approach also supported a more robust community engagement through a more participatory land registration, denominated community-based crowdsourcing. Initial observations indicated that strong leadership and commitment were of extreme importance to ensure change management, capacity development, and project delivery for the success of these initiatives. The research only focused on the registration of land under good faith and customary occupations, as well as community delimitations. The next stages should focus on other land management activities and integrate other cadastres.

Download Full-text

Do Design Science Research and Design Thinking Processes Improve the ‘Fit’ of the Fit-For-Purpose Approach to Securing Land Tenure for All in South Africa?

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050484 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 484

Author(s):

Simon Hull ◽

Jennifer Whittal

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Design Thinking ◽

Design Science ◽

Science Research ◽

Design Science Research ◽

Land Administration ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Land Administration Systems ◽

Research And Design

In South Africa, land tenure security is a challenge for 60% or more of the population who hold interests in land outside of the formal system of registered title. There is a need for the cadastral and land administration systems to be reshaped, and for new land tenure forms to be developed to record all land rights and interests so as to improve land tenure security for all. In this paper, we undertake a reflective retrospective of the processes of land administrative reform in South Africa using a thematic framework that includes fit-for-purpose, design science research, and design thinking processes. Literary sources are coded using the thematic framework to identify potential contributions of foregrounding design science research and design thinking in fit-for-purpose land administration (FFP LA) approaches. Design science research paired with tools of behavioral science add value in understanding the context, problems, needs, and objectives and in communicating the results of critical reflection. The design thinking process has much to offer in capitalizing on the human abilities of empathy, deep understanding, and challenging assumptions, setting the scene for unconstrained creative thinking. Design science research and design thinking within FFP LA may promote innovations in land administration systems reform initiatives that deliver restorative justice in the South African land sector.

Download Full-text

Are Land Conflicts Documented Sufficiently in India?

International Journal of Rural Management ◽

10.1177/0973005221997591 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 097300522199759

Author(s):

Pramod K. Singh ◽

Abhishek Nair ◽

Jofri Issac

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

English Language ◽

Sociocultural Factors ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Land Conflict ◽

Land Administration ◽

Territorial Conflicts ◽

Primary Driver ◽

Land Tenure System ◽

The Government

Land conflicts are impediments to socio-economic development. Understanding drivers and types of land conflicts is vital for peaceful conflict resolution and enhancing the effectiveness of institutions and agencies dealing with such issues. This article tries to develop and apply a methodology for tracking and characterising drivers and the types of land conflicts in India. We have applied the methods to peer-reviewed articles and thesis in the English language on land conflicts in India. Our results shed light on the most evident drivers and types of land conflict in India while challenging and supporting common assumptions. The key finding of our study indicates land administration as being the primary driver of land conflicts in India, followed by political, socio-economic and sociocultural factors. The most important type of land conflict occurring in India involves boundary or territorial conflicts. Of late, several conflicts are reported over special economic zones, which are also related to poor land administration and erroneous planning processes by the government actors. However, the published study reporting land conflicts in India fails to identify the root cause of such conflicts. In order to ensure better land administration, there need to have reasonably accurate and up-to-date records, which studies have not been able to identify. Another primary reason of land conflicts, which the studies have failed to acknowledge, is the problems germane to the prevailing land tenure system in India.

Download Full-text

SmartSkeMa: Scalable Documentation for Community and Customary Land Tenure

Land ◽

10.3390/land10070662 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 662

Author(s):

Malumbo C. Chipofya ◽

Sahib Jan ◽

Angela Schwering

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Land Rights ◽

Land Administration ◽

Land Relations ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Indigenous Land Rights ◽

Customary Land ◽

The Many ◽

High Level ◽

Indigenous Land

According to the online database landmarkmap, up to an estimated 50% or more of the world’s habitable land is held by indigenous peoples and communities. While legal and procedural provisions are being made for bureaucratically managing the many different types of tenure relations in this domain, there continues to be a lack of tools and expertise needed to quickly and accurately document customary and indigenous land rights. Software and hardware tools that have been designed for documenting land tenure through communities continue to assume a parcel-based model of land as well as categories of land relations (RRR) largely dimensionally similar to statutory land rights categories. The SmartSkeMa approach to land tenure documentation combines sketching by hand with aerial imagery and an ontology-based model of local rules regulating land tenure relations to produce a system specifically designed to allow accurate documentation of land tenure from a local perspective. In addition, the SmartSkeMa adaptor which is an OWL-DL based set of rules for translating local land related concepts to the LADM concepts provides a more high-level view of the data collected (i.e., what does this concept relate to within the national LADM profile?) In this paper we present the core functionalities of SmartSkeMa using examples from Kenya and Ethiopia. Based on an expert survey and focus groups held in Kenya, we also analyze how the approach fairs on the Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration tools scale. The results indicate that the approach could be beneficial in scaling up mapping of community and customary lands as well as help reduce conflict through its participatory nature.

Download Full-text

Applying the Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration Concept to South Africa

Land ◽

10.3390/land10060602 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 602

Author(s):

Christopher Williams-Wynn

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Administration System ◽

Land Administration ◽

Tenure System ◽

The People ◽

Land Tenure System ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

The Republic ◽

Land Administration Systems

What potential will the fit-for-purpose land administration concept have of working in the Republic of South Africa? This question is asked against the existence of a high-quality cadastre covering most of the South African landmass. However, a large proportion of the people living in South Africa live outside of this secure land tenure system. Many citizens and immigrants reside on communal land, in informal settlements, in resettled communities, in off-register housing schemes, and as farm dwellers, labour tenants and other occupants of commercial farms. Reasonable estimates suggest that there are more than 5 million land occupations that exist outside the formal land tenure system and hence outside the formal land administration system. This paper looks at the current bifurcated system and considers how the application of the fit-for-purpose land administration system can expand the existing cadastral system and provide security of tenure that is beneficial and acceptable to all. It demonstrates that, not only could it work, but it is also considered to be necessary. This paper uses South Africa as a case study to demonstrate how adjustments to institutional, legal and spatial frameworks will develop a fully inclusive, sufficiently accurate land administration system that fits the purpose for which it is envisioned. These country-specific proposals may well be of international interest to assist with the formulation of fit-for-purpose land administration systems being developed in other countries.

Download Full-text

Quality Assurance for Spatial Data Collected in Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration Approaches in Colombia

Land ◽

10.3390/land10050496 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 496

Author(s):

Luz Angela Rocha ◽

Jonathan Montoya ◽

Alvaro Ortiz

Keyword(s):

Quality Assurance ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Spatial Data ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Quality Model ◽

Positional Accuracy ◽

Technical Standards ◽

Land Administration ◽

Fit For Purpose ◽

Technical Specifications

The Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) approach uses flexible techniques under basic regulations, avoiding complicated systems and aiming to fulfill the objective of land tenure security for all. In addition, a land administration system should evolve, starting as a simple system in rural areas and gradually evolving into a more complex system in more populated areas where requirements and quality increase progressively. The system can develop to a precision system. Implementing the FFPLA methodology in Colombia has allowed processes to be developed for data capture in the field using real-time technology and efficient methods for information management. These processes are under quality control by applying technical specifications in alignment with the FFPLA principles. This article presents the results of creating a FFPLA quality assurance model, which includes the application of the ISO 19100 family of technical standards based on the product’s life cycle and quality model concepts. Furthermore, the article documents essential aspects for controlling the quality of the parcel boundary data collected in the field, using direct and indirect methods to measure the applicable spatial data quality elements (logical consistency and positional accuracy) preserving FFPLA principles.

Download Full-text

THE DYNAMICS OF LAND TENURE SYSTEMS IN THE NIGER BASIN, MALI

Africa ◽

10.1017/s0001972012000721 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 83 (1) ◽

pp. 78-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bakary Camara

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Institutional Pluralism ◽

Economic Liberalism ◽

Land Administration ◽

Contractual Relationships ◽

Office Du Niger ◽

Land Relations ◽

Gain Access

ABSTRACTThis article examines, through different processes of changing land use and land tenure, the various types of formal and informal contractual relations existing in two areas of the Niger Basin in southern Mali that are dominated economically by two parastatal companies: Compagnie Malienne pour le Développement du Textile (CMDT) and Office du Niger (ON). The article shows how the production interventions of these two companies shape the framework of land administration in the Niger Basin and the context in which customary relations operate, and lead to the commodification of land relations. It traces the various routes, contracts and arrangements through which people gain access to agricultural land. Besides describing the various transactions in land and contractual relationships, the article also analyses land leasing, sharecropping and various other ways of gaining secondary rights through prestations and loans. Finally, it describes the various land conflicts, the actors involved in making various claims on land and claims to land administration, and the institutions and institutional pluralism that emerge in conflict resolution. The article links these to the increasing commodification of land and agriculture, and the domination of policy by economic liberalism.

Download Full-text

LAND TENURE INSECURITY AND LAND CONFLICTS IN THE BAMENDAGRASSFIELDS OF CAMEROON: PUZZLING EVIDENCE FROM BALINYONGA/BAWOCK LAND CONFLICT

International Journal of Advanced Research ◽

10.21474/ijar01/12363 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (01) ◽

pp. 867-876

Author(s):

Emmanuel Yenkong Sobseh ◽

◽

Willibroaddze- Ngwa ◽

Keyword(s):

Land Tenure ◽

Common Property ◽

Social Inequalities ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Secondary Sources ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Rich ◽

Customary Land ◽

Ownership Of Land ◽

Land Policies

This paper examines the challenges of land tenure insecurity and land conflicts in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon. Colonial and later, postcolonial governments of Cameroon introduced different and most often, conflicting land policies. These divergent land policies, later on, replaced collective ownership of land with private ownership. This paper, focuses on the different causes of land tenure insecurity such as inequality, outside encroachment, and common property challenges. It also tackles the measure causes of land conflicts such as multiple land sales, land scarcity, population growth, poor boundary demarcation, land laws and contested records of land conflicts. Despite these challenges, land tenure security was achieved through customary land, state land and individual titling. However, the case study between Bali Nyonga and Bawock demonstrates efforts by different parties to confront, manage and resolve land dispute. Based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this paper argues that, land tenure insecurity and land disputes have benefitted the rich, and fostered social inequalities. The study concludes that, despite the lessons and opportunities for intervention advanced, land tenure insecurity and land conflicts in Cameroon could only be overcome, if the present structures and institutions of land management are modernized and restructured by stakeholders to benefit the majority.

Download Full-text