Document Type: Briefs

On a mission to formalize private property and strengthen land tenure security in conflict-affected areas in Colombia, the National Land Agency and USAID partner to deliver integrated rural development and land governance solutions.

When Derly Jomar and her husband bought 1.5 hectares from her father-in-law in Calarma, they made the uncommon decision to travel to a notary two hours down the mountain in Chaparral, Tolima, to make the purchase official. Most people in this isolated corner of Colombia tend to make business deals with a firm handshake, a person’s word, and perhaps a scribbled contract on a spare piece of paper. Five out of every ten land parcels in Calarma are informally owned.

This decision to notarize their purchase agreement, although laudable, still represented just part of the formalization process. Completing the process requires additional steps before government land-entities. However, as Derly explains, “We couldn’t afford to completely formalize our property with the nation because it’s very expensive. But we needed proof of purchase in case my father-in-law dies. We don’t know if all of his children are going to respect our purchase.”

Once the papers were notarized, Derly and her husband embarked on their plan. They used the notarized papers to take out small loans from the bank, building equity and credit. In 2015, she took out a loan for US$2,400 (6 million pesos) to buy an oven and set up the first official bakery in her village.

Jomar’s story is now an example for her neighbors, small-scale coffee farmers, of what can be achieved when property moves along the spectrum from informal to formal ownership.

The Colombian Institute for Rural Development, USAID and now the National Land Agency have been working to secure land rights in this coffee-producing district since 2014. USAID, through its rural development programs, first went to Calarma to introduce the idea of formalization to campesinos who never had considered it a priority or had the opportunity to learn about it.

“It was difficult because very few people knew anything about formalization, and there was little interest,” says Juan Carlos Padilla, a land formalization expert from the National Land Agency. “But that is the advantage of doing it this way—the contact with the users. It’s more than land governance, it is social work.”

The government has had little presence in this mountainous area of the country ever since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, emerged in Southern Tolima in the mid-sixties. Some say these leftist rebels brought order to what was an otherwise chaotic time in Colombia’s rural areas, where families and neighbors were pitted against each other by virtue of political preference. But FARC control also meant that government services and investments were kept out of the region for decades.

LAND AND DEVELOPMENT: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

USAID and the National Land Agency have been helping campesinos fulfill the necessary steps to formalize their private property—including land formalization requests, technical studies, judicial or notary approvals, and title registration.

As a result of this initiative, the National Land Agency expects to deliver registered property titles to 300 families in Chaparral in April 2017. This joint effort between the Colombian government and USAID has brought two important observations to light: Colombia’s rural poor lack the resources to formalize their land without subsidies and support from government actors, and the absence of government services exacerbate Colombia’s weak land regulatory framework.

Formalizing property connects farmers with their land and provides incentives to make investments. To reinforce these investments, USAID is facilitating public-private partnerships in strategic value chains, increasing farmer productivity and incomes. As part of its integrated approach in Chaparral, USAID is connecting over 200 formalization beneficiaries to a coffee partnership that will link them to new technology and inputs and to sell more coffee (see side story).

“First and foremost, owning a formalized property creates an attachment to the land. A valid property title also allows individuals to access government programs and subsidies that serve their families and farms. Finally, the property serves as an asset for accessing financial services, like loans,” says Luis Ernest Váquiro, general manager of CAFISUR.

A CHANGE IN FOCUS

The Colombian government has made land formalization a priority, with a lofty goal of formalizing and registering 35,000 land parcels over the next two years. To do this, having strong regional-level land entities is critical.

In addition to small campaigns in places like Chaparral, USAID is working with the government on a methodology for formalizing land on a massive scale at a substantially reduced cost to rural landholders. USAID and the National Land Agency are launching a massive land formalization pilot in the municipality of Ovejas, located in the department of Sucre, and the pilot’s results will shape the strategy to roll out massive land formalization throughout the country, with leadership from local authorities.

“The only way for land formalization to be sustainable and lasting is for local authorities to become the principal actor in the process. The National Land Agency aims to provide more capacity building, structuring, and policies tailored to the realities of each department,” explains Catalina Ceballos, director of land security at the agency.

In January 2015, ten years after the initial launch of USAID’s Ethiopia Strengthening Land Tenure and Administration Program (ELTAP) and Ethiopia Land Administration Program (ELAP) which issued second level land use certification for more than 588,000 parcels, the endline data collection for a rigorous impact evaluation was launched. The evaluation is motivated by and will attempt to answer the question “Does second level land certification marginally increase tenure security and improve rural livelihoods as compared to first level land certification?” Beyond contributing to the evidence base, this impact evaluation serves as a conduit to strengthen Ethiopian local capacity in the data collection sector.

Data collection will take place in Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples, and Tigray regions and is being conducted by the Ethiopian Inclusive Finance Training and Research Institution. The firm, which is locally owned and operated, hired eight supervisors and 43 enumerators to carry out the household surveys. The team has a wealth of experience, and supervisors train less- experienced enumerators to strengthen skillsets. Further, supervisors and enumerators alike are sensitized to the subject matter of the evaluation. One supervisor, Line Kinfe shared, “I think I will gain a lot of experience from this survey [on land issues]. Land issues is a big issue in our country.”

Overview

This 8-page brief summarizes key findings from the report Where Land Meets The Sea: A Global Review of the Governance and Tenure Dimensions of Coastal Mangrove Forests. This review provides an overview of the status of mangrove governance and its tenure dimensions globally. In particular, it assesses how effectively the diversity of legal and policy frameworks as well as institutional structures—formal and informal—enable mangrove governance across different settings. The review also examines the institutions and patterns of local management and use, including tenure rights and gender differentiation and how these local institutions might influence mangrove management and rehabilitation efforts. It is part of a larger study funded by the USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change Program that includes national-level assessments in Indonesia and Tanzania.

Key points of the assessment

There is a dearth of research on how mangrove forests are governed and what the role of enabling conditions such as tenure arrangements is for supporting mangrove management to meet multiple goals in the context of climate change.

1. Authority over mangrove forest management is overwhelmingly vested in state institutions, and state-led mangrove protection is a central objective. Government-led mangrove protection efforts, permitting no or minimal substantive use of its natural resources by local communities, face major challenges; mainly that enforcement is constrained by inadequate personnel, capacities, and budgets.
2. Given the ambiguous position of mangroves situated between the land and sea, the configuration of state authority for mangrove management is quite complex. Most commonly, this authority falls on a single line agency, namely the forest sector. The forest sector applies the framework used for terrestrial forests, which is often not appropriate to the distinctive ecological characteristics of mangrove systems. In some countries, there is fragmentation of responsibilities across two or more agencies such as forests, fisheries, environment, and wildlife. This contributes to a high level of segmentation and jurisdictional ambiguity.
3. Mangroves are regulated under legal frameworks intended for forests, environment, water, land, marine, or fisheries sectors. Generally speaking, laws and policies have not been crafted for the specific management requirements of mangroves.
4. Frameworks and mechanisms for coordinating mangrove governance across agencies and governance levels are uncommon, and where they exist, are difficult to put into practice.
5. Local tenure rights to mangrove resources vary. Customary rights as well as patterns of use and management are often unrecognized by statutory systems, especially in Africa. Local indigenous rights are often recognized by the state in Latin America, where full ownership, including title, is issued to communities. In Asia, long duration leases are granted to households and communities; these leases often offer a broad range of rights in the bundle, sometimes including transfer rights. In these cases, multiple uses, including collection of firewood, charcoal production, and fishing, are allowed.
6. There is a mangrove tenure transition underway in a few countries toward increased community participation in mangrove management and governance through devolved tenure arrangements. Experimentation with community-based approaches is increasing, motivated primarily by continued mangrove degradation and loss under strict protection regimes.
7. Outcomes of community-based approaches for mangrove management should be researched. While national governments continue to be central actors in mangrove conservation, international organizations and NGOs are exerting influence and shaping agendas and approaches to mangrove management. In particular, they are increasingly experimenting with inclusive models of community-based management. Community concessions and extractive reserves that accord full ownership or longer-term rights appear to be more effective in mangrove conservation. Programs involving communities jointly with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), research organizations, and those that provide other incentives appear to generate better mangrove rehabilitation outcomes. Where customary rights are not respected or recognized and are actively undermined, or community institutions are subject to government interference, mangroves tend to deteriorate.
8. Gender equality has been a missing element in mangrove conservation and management, despite gender differentiation in the type of products harvested, the economic value of products harvested, and harvesting locations. As a result, their interests and potential contributions to better management outcomes are often diminished and disregarded. However, community-based rehabilitation programs are increasingly integrating gender and some are even focusing solely on empowering women.

Although land rights are spatial in nature, the effects of securing land rights are seldom analyzed spatially. E3/Land is working to change that by leveraging the power of geospatial data and analysis to gain new insights into the most effective land tenure programs and policies. Central to this effort is using geospatial data and analysis to expand opportunities to learn from and inform USAID’s portfolio of land tenure impact evaluations. This offers important opportunities for evaluators to augment the more traditional household survey methods that most impact evaluations employ with geospatial data and analysis. While useful in many contexts, geospatial data and methodologies have important limitations that evaluators should to keep in mind. This document shows some of the ways that E3/Land is integrating geospatial data and analysis into impact evaluations and what we are learning from these efforts.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that stronger land tenure security has a positive impact on important development outcomes, such as improved farming practices, agricultural productivity, and, importantly, women’s empowerment. While the initial evidence is encouraging, notable knowledge gaps remain. Compared with the positive economic and food security gains seen from land tenure formalization programs in Asia and Latin America, results from similar programs in Africa have been mixed. There is also little evidence on the impact of strengthening customary tenure, and very little evidence that is gender-disaggregated, let alone gender-sensitive.

In this context, USAID is conducting eight rigorous impact evaluations of programs, primarily in customary land tenure settings, in Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, and Zambia to test development questions relevant to empowering women, enhancing food security, and eliminating extreme poverty. These evaluations are using gender-sensitive methods to better understand how these programs may affect women and men differently.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests stronger land tenure security has a positive impact on important development outcomes, such as increased agricultural investment, women’s empowerment, agricultural productivity, enhanced functioning of rental markets, and access to credit. While the initial empirical evidence is encouraging, important knowledge gaps remain. Compared with the positive economic and food security gains seen from land tenure formalization programs in Asia and Latin America, results from similar programs in Africa have been mixed. There is also little evidence on the impact of alternative approaches to strengthening tenure, such as supporting customary land governance institutions or communal land certification, as opposed to more common efforts focused on land titling and the formalization of individual property rights.

In this context, USAID is currently supporting or has recently concluded six rigorous impact evaluations in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, and a rigorous performance evaluation in Liberia, to test development questions relevant to eliminating extreme poverty, enhancing food security, improving natural resource management, empowering women, improving climate change resilience, mitigating conflict, and promoting democratic governance and resilience.

Click on the sections of the image below to enlarge.

In Rwanda, it is widely believed that land fragmentation poses a challenge to agricultural productivity; however, land fragmentation also serves as a climate change adaptation and risk management strategy for farmers. Research has also found that the inverse farm size relationship holds true in Rwanda, meaning that smaller farms may be more productive than larger ones. Despite the potential benefits of land fragmentation, the Government of Rwanda has identified land fragmentation through extensive subdivision as a barrier to the realization of its development vision. As such, the Government of Rwanda has adopted and implemented policies restricting fragmentation, including land subdivision. This policy brief focuses on Article 30 of the 2013 Land Law, which provides that: “It is prohibited to subdivide plots of land reserved for agriculture and animal resources if the result of such subdivision leads to parcels of land of less than a hectare in size for each of them. Owners of lands prohibited to be subdivided shall co-own and use the land in accordance with the laws.”

Through literature review, legal analysis, and primary research, this policy brief attempts to elucidate how Article 30 is implemented and the outcomes of the provision on land use practices and tenure security in Rwanda. In summary, the research finds that implementation of Article 30 has not prevented land subdivisions, but rather encouraged informal subdivisions and transfers. While well-meaning, the provision is incongruent with the needs and realities of most rural Rwandan citizens and negatively impacts land tenure security

Tanzania’s New Directions in Land Policy

When President Nyerere left power in 1985, the government of President Mwinyi began to chart new directions for Tanzania’s economy and society away from African socialism. The government prepared Tanzania’s first National Land Policy in 1995, which led to the enactment of the Village Land Act and the Land Act in 1999. The Policy argues that procedures for obtaining title to land should be simplified, that land administration should be transparent and further, it recognizes that secure land tenure plays a large role in promoting peace and national unity. In 2005 the Strategic Plan for the Implementation of the Land Laws (SPILL) was prepared and revised in 2013. The Plan seeks to ensure that land law and governance better supports the current and future social, economic, and environmental development of the country, which will be crucial to the success of Tanzania’s ambitious Five Year Development Plan 2011-2016 focusing on priority areas, such as urban development, infrastructure, Information and Communication Technology, agriculture investments, mining, livestock and fishing, forestry and wildlife, and land and housing at the regional level. Despite the progressive provisions of customary land rights and decentralization under the Village Land Act of 1999, land law has not yet been effectively integrated into the land governance framework: village authorities often lack the financial and human resources to effectively perform their duties. Overlapping decision making and weak governance in land administration pose major concerns in terms of delivering land rights in an efficient and equitable manner. Land insecurity in rural areas is still high among small landholder farmers, pastoralists, and women. In urban areas, nearly 60 percent of urban dwellers live in informal settlements and lack tenure security. With demands for resource exploitation expanding, the government needs to address how to handle competing demands for land to help mitigate or avoid conflicts over increasingly scarce land.

VGGT

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (FAO, 2012) are an internationally negotiated instrument that governs rights to land, fisheries, and forests. The Guidelines constitute an unprecedented international consensus on tenure; they are voluntary and do not replace laws and treaties, however, they outline principles and practices to which governments can refer when making laws and administering land, fisheries and forest rights. The Guidelines are primarily directed at governments, but also address the private sector and other groups, such as civil society and academics. They can be used to assess laws and systems, to find guidance or direction when the laws and practices of a country are not clear, and to advocate and educate on tenure rights and good land governance.

Donors in Tanzania

Donors with active land programs in Tanzania include the European Union, Denmark, Germany, IFAD, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the World Bank.

Webinar

Join us to learn more about land governance in Tanzania, the VGGT, and how you can program successful land interventions – Wednesday, 24 May 2017, at 8:00 AM EDT / 15:00h Tanzania

Download the Success Story

Rural communities in Zambia’s Chipata District rely on farming for their livelihoods, and face many challenges related to climate variability, low soil moisture, and land degradation. Since June 2014, USAID has been building the capacity of farmers in four chiefdoms to plant and maintain nitrogen-fixing trees on their land through improved agroforestry extension services administered by local partners.

One such farmer is Sosten Daka, of the Maguya Chiefdom. Sosten was initially hesitant and skeptical about the benefits that such trees provide to the environment. Nevertheless, he agreed to work with the agroforestry extension agents as a lead farmer in his area to see if the nitrogen-fixing trees would bring the promised benefits. After a series of meetings and trainings, Sosten went forward with planting 55 Musangu (Faidherbia albida) seedlings, 556 Gliricidia seedlings, and a hedge of pigeon pea.

During a June 2015 visit to Sosten’s field, he proudly showed off his seedlings and the fire breaks he had made to protect them. He plans to increase the number of fields he has under agroforestry in the year ahead as he has become convinced that planting trees will benefit both the environment and his family. “The poor rain pattern affected my harvest last season, and I know trees can be the answer to keep the ground moist,” he said.

As a lead farmer, Sosten has encouraged other farmers in his villages to attend agroforestry meetings and trainings. Sosten was able to use his mobile phone to play radio programs about tree-planting to farmers in his group to help further urge them to plant seedlings of their own. He has also been busy reminding farmers that have planted seedlings to protect them from fire and livestock.

In addition to increasing his own use of agroforestry, Sosten’s goal is now to recruit more farmers to participate in each village. He says there is no turning back on the program now that he has had such a successful start.

For more information on USAID’s work on land tenure and global climate change, visit our Land Matters for Climate Change page or email us at landmatters@usaid.gov.