Commendable Land Reforms in Africa. But Implementation should be Improved

Governments across Sub-Saharan Africa seek to address the increasing pressure on land by introducing land reforms. Overall, most of the legal changes are commendable because they improve tenure security for the rural poor, whose rights are rarely formally registered, and increase local control over land. However, reforms are only slowly being implemented and often in a piecemeal manner. This policy brief sheds light on how to improve implementation.

By introducing the concept of institutionalization into the land reform debateit highlights that institutions are not only made up of laws, administrative rules and structures. More attention should be directed towards the role of culture, that is, people’s perceptions and practices. The main problem with current interventions to implement reform is that they tend to be short-sighted and focus on the issuance of land title deeds. However, at the local level people often have other priorities. Improved access to land administration and land dispute settlement institutions in the longer run is important.