Document Type: Briefs

Surveying and mapping plays a very important role in an effective land administration system. As Liberia strives for an improved land administration system that meets global standards, efforts are being made to establish a professional land surveyors association to collect and provide spatial information. Their services form a significant part of the land information infrastructure and management component of the land administration system.

A key transition in this process of institutionalizing surveyors is the legal transformation from the Cadastral Surveyors Association of Liberia (CASUAL) to the Association of Professional Land Surveyors of Liberia (APLSUL). Since USAID’s Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA) began actively engaging and supporting APLSUL, the association has started taking key, progressive steps in ensuring that it transforms the association as reforms take place within the land governance system.

Motivated by LGSA’s support, APLSUL members have started pledging their support in the forms of tangible commitments to the association, by paying four months of their dues in advance, some making additional financial contributions for the operations of the association, while one donated 5KVA generator for use at the new office. Office space has been procured and an ad-hoc elections commission has been established by the association to supervise APLSUL’s upcoming special general elections slated for April 25, 2016. Furthermore, the association is in the process of developing a code of conduct and grievance procedure, which will be adopted during the Electoral Workshop on April 9, 2016. This, and the associated publicity campaign, will assist in increasing public confidence in the profession as it provides a necessary mechanism for reprimanding its members and other surveyors for professional malpractice, thereby becoming a self-regulating professional organization.

APLSUL has also begun a massive public relations and visibility campaign through radio talk-shows, newspaper articles, and banners placed in public locations. This campaign publicly conveys the Association’s transformation, which will help to increase the public’s confidence in the profession.

Finally, APLSUL is also in the process of paying arreears and renewing its membership to the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), to lift the expulsion of Liberia from the membership of that international body. Maintaining its membership will allow members to stay current on new developments and innovation in geometrics that could enhance their profession and possibly open opportunities for assistance with the training needs of surveying and mapping in Liberia.

Land conflicts arise when individuals and communities compete for land use and ownership. This has been the case in many parts of Liberia, with some disputes resulting in loss of lives, destruction of propoerties, and other grave impacts on the socio-economic well-being of Liberians. Boundary harmonization and effective negotiation is a sustainable tool in helping to resolve existing and potential conflicts.

The USAID-funded Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA) conducted a five day intensive training for community workers on boundary harmonization in Liberia organized by LGSA partners Parley and facilitated by Dr. Christopher Moore of Collaborative Decision Resources Associates (CDR). The training focused on effective negotiation procedures to delimit, demarcate, and resolve disputes over boundaries in local communities. Participants were drawn from local NGOs and the Land Coordination Centers of the Interim Land Taskforce. They were trained in harmonization procedures and participated in a Training of Trainers session in order to provide for effective dissemination of the information and skills.

The training utilized a case study of two hypothetical communities and their perceptions of the location of their community’s boundary relative to various potential boundary issues (community forests, enclave settlements, mineral deposits, concessions, urbanization). Each community drew their boundaries (independent of the other community) and then the maps were overlaid to identify areas of potential competing claims. The communities were then given strategies to use in negotiating their respective claims.

Critical to the negotiation of boundaries is the establishment of a negotiation team within the community, which clearly understands the community’s objectives. The team must be representative of the community and have established relationships with the community members. Negotiators are obliged to maintain neutrality and allow the parties involved to come to their own decisions during the process.

The boundary harmonization training is a first step in preparing community workers to help communities in the process of identifying their boundaries. As customary land rights is a major theme in the proposed Land Rights Law, the law will give communities the right to own, manage, and transfer their land through their land management committees. The ability to identify and negotiate boundaries will be central to communities effectively managing their lands and asserting their rights.

Land rights in Liberia have been surrounded by an unstable environment due to a lack of clearly defined policies and laws. Liberia’s land administration and management system involves formal institutions and customary traditions that provide a complex landscape that is difficult to navigate and provides little guidance to citizens. As a result, in mid-2010, the Liberia Land Commission established a land policy working group comprising key government ministries and agencies to review the policy, legal, and regulatory framework in Liberia. In February 2012, the Land Commission constituted a Land Administration Task Force to focus on the institutional arrangement for land administration and recommend options for reforming and improving the land administration system in Liberia.

A Land Rights Policy was formally accepted by the government in May 2013. The Commission presented to the President of Liberia, H.E. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a draft Land Authority Bill, which would create a dedicated government body for land governance, and which has subsequently been submitted to the National Legislature for their consideration and passage into law. In addition, a draft Land Rights Bill is currently under consideration by the government.

In short order, the USAID Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA) has begun a series of public outreach campaigns to inform the public of the provisions of these proposed laws, thereby assisting the Liberian government in the establishment of more effective land governance systems. In December 2015, staff from the Land Commission and LGSA together visited 7 of Liberia’s 15 counties, engaging national and community leaders, including chiefs, mayors, magistrates, lawmakers, as well as the media, community-based organizations, and local residents, circulating information about the proposed Land Rights Law and the benefits to Liberians. The team also listened to feedback from the communities.

Local residents, including small vendors, or petty traders as they are known in rural Liberia, who are mostly women, are excited about having new land laws that will protect their land rights. Fatu Leah, a trader in Bomi County, shared, “land business here makes me seriously scared, especially when I see the people holding cutlasses and other weapons fighting for land. People are really desperate for land business. That is why I am happy about this law. When it come, I really be happy. Maybe that’s the time I will start thinking about buying my own land.”

A 2013 survey in Kosovo showed that 95% of women were engaged daily in agricultural activities and 78% of women reported having input in household investment decisions. However, a woman’s ability to fully participate in and gain from economic growth is limited. The legal recognition of women’s property rights is a key component to their role as economic actors. The lack of formalization of property rights for women can prevent women from reaping the benefit of their own labor.

The USAID Property Rights Program, along with Crimson Capital Fund has undertaken to raise awareness of the crucial role that property rights play in access to credit to help women start or grow their business. Around 200 owners of women’s businesses have actively participated in three workshops organized in Gjakova, Gjilan, and Peja municipalities to increase women’s awareness of access to finance and the importance of property rights in the process.

The coordination with local government authorities is important. The support and political commitment expressed by the mayors of Gjakova, Gjilan, and Peja at these workshops lends encouragement to women business owners to consider property rights as an important factor for a brighter economic future. Access to financing and the importance of property rights can create new opportunities in the advancement of women’s economic development in Kosovo.

The USAID Property Rights Program will continue with targeted information campaigns and community support measures that can make a critical impact for the economic improvement of women and their families. Eliminating the existing barriers to control over property will foster greater opportunities for women to engage in economic activity and contribute to the welfare of society as a whole.

In 2005 Ato Sileshi Getahun began his relationship with USAID while attending a capacity building training conducted by the USAID Land Tenure and Property Rights Division. Eight years later Ato Getahun is serving as the Minister of Agriculture of Ethiopia, where he continues to work with USAID to successfully lead Ethiopia’s land tenure and property rights reforms through the Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) Project. The LAND project is the third consecutive project aimed at improving land governance in rural Ethiopia, demonstrating the continuity and sustainability of USAID’s programming. The project leverages capacity built under previous interventions in Ethiopia’s highlands that helped strengthen land tenure security for men and women, improve service delivery, and certify rural land rights and encourage efficient land transactions to develop procedures to certify community rights to communal land in pastoral areas.

Minister Getahun expressed the government’s appreciation for USAID’s support and acknowledged the role USAID continues to play in bringing positive reforms to the country’s land tenure and property rights sector, allowing the country to reach a range of development objectives that will elevate Ethiopia from a low to a middle-income country by 2025. LAND will serve as the next iteration to assist Ethiopia in meeting its development goals. Certification of community land rights is on the cutting edge of LTPRinterventions globally and will support Ethiopia to achieve greater food security, improved livelihoods for the rural poor, and development objectives outlined in the country’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).

The Minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to LAND’s objectives and expressed his confidence that the project will be able to successfully continue strengthening property rights and improving rural land governance across Ethiopia. He further instructed regional officials to work with the project to address the challenges that lie ahead, including securing communal boundaries, developing strong land use plans that will lead to more productive and sustainable landscapes, increasing agricultural production, linking communities to markets, improving livelihoods, and fueling economic growth.

For the last two decades, the Government of Ethiopia has developed and implemented policies and legislation to achieve rural land reform. To date, however, there has been limited research conducted to assess the effectiveness of this reform process. The Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project is implementing a competitive research grant scheme to enhance analytical and research capacity of Ethiopian research institutions to develop empirical evidence to support realignment of rural land policy and the legal framework and to inform the design and implementation of rural land administration and land use programs.

With this in mind, LAND awarded five research grants in 2015 in the areas of:

• Linkages of rural land tenure with sustainable development and livelihood security, poverty reduction, and natural resources management;
• Dynamics of land transaction in agricultural and agro-pastoral communities;
• Rural land scarcity, fragmentation, and landlessness;
• Sustainability of watershed development through community mobilization in the highlands and the role land tenure plays; and
• Impacts of urbanization on natural resources and livelihoods of Rural-Urban fringes of cities in Ethiopia.

The grantees are the Water and Land Resources Institute; College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University; Institute of Development and Policy Research Addis Ababa University; Faculty of Social Science, Bahir Dar University;  and Forum for Social Studies.

All grantees are currently conducting field research. Findings and recommendations generated by their research are expected to be finalized and presented at a national conference in the second half of 2016. Grantees described the scheme as providing opportunities to generate evidence on multifaceted issues of rural land in the country that will impact development of the government’s future reform efforts.

Dr. Degefa Tolossa, Dean of College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University that has been awarded the grant to carry out research on land scarcity, fragmentation, and landlessness, and implications for rural household food security in Ethiopia, says, “Although there are interests and demand to carry out in-depth studies on land, interrelations between land and society, land and state, it has become very difficult to secure financial resources to execute sound studies. Therefore, I found the grant scheme by LAND to be timely and encouraging.” 

Forum for Social Studies (FFS) is one of the grantees that is conducting research on land and sustainable development. Dr. Meheret Ayenew, Executive Director of FFS, describes the research grant as “a useful initiative for promoting broad public debate on land matters in Ethiopia – a subject that is very important for the country’s development program but one that has not attracted sufficient public discussion.”  He further says, “The research grant will enable FSS, to organize informed public debate on the interface between economic development, on the one hand, and land tenure and administration on the other, supported by fresh evidence and focusing on key issues and challenges requiring the attention of policy planners and concerned government bodies”

Professor Tegegne Gebre-Egziabher, Director of the Institute of Development and Policy Research, Addis Ababa University, says “the LAND project has opened the way to undertake comparative research into the pastoral areas to understand pastoral land use and land dynamics. This will widen the available knowledge on land which used to be highly concentrated in the highland parts of the country.”

Dr. Gete Zeleke, Director of the Water and Land Resources Institute, says, “In Ethiopia, most of the support by development partners is linked to development related interventions. There is very little resource allocated to support generation of empirical evidences on specific topics, particularly on rural land policy aspects, to guide policy and decision making. This is what makes the LAND grant unique and perhaps an icebreaker for the future. Any development intervention without proper knowledge is often not successful or is unsustainable. The empirical evidence and knowledge we will generate will definitely contribute in shaping the way soil and water conservation efforts through community mobilization is being executed. It will also highlight the role of land tenure in ensuring sustainability of natural resource management efforts in the country.”

In 2007, USAID/Ethiopia and the United States Geodetic Survey assisted the Ethiopian Mapping Agency (EMA) to establish Continuously Reference Stations (CORS) in four strategic locations in Ethiopia to provide Geographic Positioning System (GPS) users with a modern 3-dimensional geo-centric spatial reference system. The Institute of Geophysics, Space Sciences and Astronomy of the Addis Ababa University also invested in CORS technology to monitor seismologic activity. A lack of institutional coordination and technical capacity to maintain the system effectively has hindered the delivery of high accuracy positioning data to public and private sector GPS users and slowed development of low-cost mapping and survey methodologies to be utilized by rural land cadastres to certify property rights and support land use planning.

On December 10, 2013, LAND organized a national conference with key stakeholders (including government-, private-, and donor-funded land administration projects) to facilitate discussion and obtain consensus on sustainable solutions for building EMA capacity to operationalize and maintain CORS and deliver online positioning user service (OPUS) in real time. The conference ended with recommendations for short-, medium-, and long-term plans to be prepared to expand the CORS network, build capacity, and promote better coordination and collaboration between stakeholder institutions.

LAND’s workshop served to promote better coordination between stakeholders and identify local technical capacity that can be supported and further developed to ensure CORS and OPUS hardware and software will be properly maintained and made available beyond the life of LAND. Ato Tigistu Gebremeskal, Director of the Ethiopia’s Land Administration and Use Directorate, Ministry of Agriculture, expressed pleasure that the workshop brought a “high level of scientific expertise and competent technical capability” from Ethiopian experts to develop the CORS system. USAID/Ethiopia Senior Agricultural Policy Adviser and Land, Water and Climate Team Leader, Ato Zemen Haddis, noted that outside expertise will not be required to assist: “I am pleased to know that we have domestic capability in this high tech area.”

LAND will provide the EMA technical assistance to implement its capacity development plans to ensure CORS is available to support low cost and sustainable survey methodologies. LAND will further promote sustainability by mobilizing local technical expertise in the spirit of USAID Forward.

Pastoral lands in Ethiopia are being put under increasing pressure due to the ever-growing number of people and limited feed resource for the livestock as well as allocation of land to non-pastoral uses. Encroachment and illegal alienation of pastoral communal lands along with the weakening of customary governance are cited as major causes leading to misuse of rangelands and their degradation.

The Ethiopian government took an important step in recognizing pastoralists’ right to free land for grazing and cultivation and not to be displaced from their own lands in the 1995 Constitution. While this is essential to secure pastoralists’ land rights, the realization of the broad legal framework on the ground requires additional legal and institutional arrangements that are participatory and inclusive.

As part of its effort to strengthen community land rights in pastoral areas, LAND commissioned a study entitled “Assessment of Customary Land Administration and Natural Resource Management in the Pastoral Areas of the Oromia Regional State” which was conducted by the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Haramaya University (IPAS/HU).

The decision to conduct the study was made in recognition of the role of customary land administration and natural resource management in the pastoral areas as an important input for developing a system for securing pastoral land use rights and ensuring inclusive and sustainable use of pastoral land.

The field study, conducted among three pastoral groups located in East Shewa, West Hararghe, and Bale zones of Oromia National Regional State complemented with the desk study conducted regarding the Borana and Guji pastoralists, provides useful information on the organization and operation of the customary institutions that are used to manage the rangelands and their natural resources and the practices and rules and regulations they administer.

Findings of the study reveal that there is variation in the existing organizational structure and operational status of the institutions across the pastoral groups studied. While the customary institutions of the Borana, Guji and Karrayu pastoralists are still strong, those of the Bale and Itu pastoralists have been weakened as a result of decentralization of the formal local government administration. It also shows that the definition and enforcement of rights to resources by customary authorities among the Bale and Itu pastoralists have become very general through time and the authorities are not in a position to regularly monitor whether or not they are effectively enforced to prove efficiency in resource use and management.

Aman  Muda, Deputy Head of Oromia Rural Lands and Environmental Protection, said, “The study was very useful to look at the customary practices of managing land and other natural resources in pastoral areas. This helps us to understand the interests of communities in managing rangelands and other resources and better implement the land certification process. The study is also timely, as pastoral communities are demanding official certification for their land use rights.”

“The findings will help us strengthen the customary practices for efficient and effective management of land and natural resources in these areas. Based on the recommendations of the study, we started engaging communities in discussing better ways of handling the certification process. I believe this study also benefits us to look at better ways of identifying land for different purposes carefully in consideration of the interests of the communities as well as its potential and preventing encroachment of land,” Aman added.

According to the study, as the formal governance structure extends into the pastoral system, the long-lived customary territorial organization and management of the rangeland resources and traditional administrative units have been overlaid by the formal administrative structures. The overlap of these boundaries increases the risk of conflict and undermines the chance of an internal cooperative relationship.

“Pastoralists have secured and sustained their natural resources through their strong tradition by assigning responsible persons for their management,” said Abba Gada Guyo Goba, Chief Aba Gada (customary leader) of the Boran Community. “The formal and informal structures very much support each other. The tradition that has existed long before the formal institution has nothing to contradict it, but complement each other on a number of issues. But a wider level discussion and awareness-raising is important since everyone here does not have an equal understanding of pastoral land use right certification and its approaches.”

Regarding gender, the findings show that women’s contribution to land administration and natural resource management in the customary systems remain almost invisible due to socio-cultural barriers. Based on the findings, the study proffered recommendations towards recognizing and strengthening communal land use rights and giving formal recognition to the customary institutions to manage pastoralists land use rights.

The recommendations include providing contextual definition of communal land rights of the pastoralists with the details on access and use rights and how the rights are exercised and protected and recognizing the customary institutions and authorities/organs that would operate in collaboration with the formal state functionaries. Communal land certification should follow the boundaries of the customary communal grazing areas used by the pastoralists, which contain both dry and wet season grazing resources, as the units of certification. Day to day management of the grazing resources should be left to elders’ council and that they should be formally recognized and strengthened to discharge their duties in a more inclusive, accountable and effectively manner.

Finally, the study recommends that providing training for the customary authorities on state land policy and to the state functionaries about operation of the customary systems will foster collaboration in securing pastoral land use rights and instituting rangelands land use planning and implementation for improve the resource base and increase livestock production that will improve the livelihoods of the pastoralists.

LAND organized a workshop aimed to discuss and validate the findings of the assessment with a view to providing a forum for key stakeholders, especially the Oromia region officials and community representatives to discuss issues of securing the land use rights of pastoralists to provide directions on legal and administrative solutions that are needed to address them.

Building on the evidence generated through this study, LAND will continue to engage with officials of the federal and local governments, members of the community and other stakeholders while providing support to strengthen community land rights in pastoral areas.

The purpose of the study is to compile information on the customary organizational structure and the rules and regulations employed by the four Oromia pastoral systems in managing the natural resources on their rangelands, including the roles and responsibilities of the customary authorities in exercising the rules and regulations of resource use and management and the sanctions applied on violators. It also aims at assessing their current status and effectiveness in exercising their institutions.

LAND organized several courses to train Trainers in land administration and land use (LALU) at federal and regional levels. Training was given in geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing, local level land use planning and conventional methods of land use planning.Thirty-five experts were trained in GIS, remote sensing, and Land use planning. These trainers, in turn, trained 206 LALU professionals in six regional states.

Yigremew Alemu is one of the recipients of the training on land use planning. He is the Land Use Expert of the Amhara Region Bureau of Environmental Protection and Land Administration. Yigremew has been working for the bureau for more than 10 years.

He said the major land issues of his region are land degradation, land use conflict, and over-population that can be addressed with a strong commitment from government officials and training of experts.

He added that educating the community on these issues is crucial.Speaking of the training he received, he said “It is useful because it gives broad coverage of conventional land use planning and we were enabled to develop a good manual for woreda and kebele level implementation. I will train our Zone and woreda staff who do not have detailed knowledge about land use planning. Our communities will benefit because we can now show them how land use plans are prepared and implemented.”

The training of trainers was organized in such a way that it includes practical exercises and field visit to model watershed research sites such as Malkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC). Yigremew said, “while visiting Malkassa research center, I observed that land use planning and their implementation at the watershed level should be tied with research to make it evidence-based.”

Although the 1994 Ethiopian Federal Constitution ensures that Ethiopian women have equal rights as those of their male counterparts, women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to secure their land rights due to limited awareness of women’s land rights and inadequate participation of women in land-related processes in many parts of the country. And yet, there is no women’s group working on policy issues related to women’s land rights. LAND supported the establishment of a task force on women’s Land Right to bridge this gap.

The objective of the Taskforce is to deliberate on women’s land rights issues in order to inform formulation and implementation of land policy and legislation in Ethiopia. It will identify customary, legal and regulatory constraints affecting women’s rights to access and use land and make recommendations to policy makers and legislators on how they could be addressed.

As a voice for women’s inheritance and land rights, the Taskforce will review and comment on forthcoming laws and regulations and make recommendations to ensure that the laws are in place and implemented to promote the realization of women’s land rights. The Taskforce has 20 members representing various sectors including the Ministries of Agriculture, Justice, Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Federal Supreme Court.

The Taskforce took its first step with an inception workshop that was held on 5 -6 February 2015 in Bishoftu town in which 19 people (7 of whom were men) participated. Women’s Affairs Directorate of Ministry of Agriculture was selected as the Chair of the taskforce and Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs as Vice Chair.

In addition, the Taskforce established a “Women Land Desk” within the Ministry of Agriculture, Women’s Affairs Directorate to serve as a technical resource for both the ministry and the Taskforce.