"Drivers of tenure insecurity and the customary tenure system in Africa: Empirical evidence from selected African countries" - Hosaena Ghebru SIG 2015 Workshop "Integrating Multi-level Governance into the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Opportunities, Trade-offs, and Implications", Nov 9-10, 2015

1. Drivers of tenure insecurity and the customary tenure
system in Africa: Empirical evidence from selected African
countries
Hosaena Ghebru (PhD)
International Food Policy Research Institute - IFPRI
Strengthening Institutions and Governance - SIG Workshop
November 9 - 10, 2015
Washington DC, USA
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2. INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The three (neo-classical) rationale for
land rights reform/formalization
• Tenure security
• Enhance investment
• Transferability
• Gains from trade
• Reallocate land to more efficient users
• Credit access
• Land as collateral
How important are each of these and are they always achievable?

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Introduction: Doing nothing no longer an option!
• New land reforms high on the development agenda:
• (High Level) Commission on Legal Empowerment of the
Poor - LPI
• USAID, The World Bank, DFID (scaled up financing of
land reform projects)
• Land governance – integral component of the G-8
alliance for food security
• MDGs/SDGs: Rights based approaches

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Mixed stories: some failed reforms
• Land titling in Kenya and Madagascar
• Have not enhanced tenure security, promoted investment,
land and credit markets (e.g. Place and Migot-Adholla
1998, Jacoby and Minten 2006,2008)
• Sucessful reforms:
• Ethiopia: Low-cost land registration and certification
• Rwanda: Systematic Land Titling
• Recent innovative initiatives of protecting land rights:
• Community land delimitation initiative – Mozambique
• Customary land secretariat – Ghana

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Tanzania
Burkina-
Faso
Ethiopia

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Case study countries
• Nigeria (2013 LSMS data – 5000 hhs)
• Ethiopia (2013 AGP data – 7500 hhs)
• Mozambique (2014/15 TIA data – 6000 hhs)
• Ghana (just starting)

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Data characterization: Factors associated with tenure
insecurity

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Data characterization: Gender-differentiated aspect

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MOZAMBIQUE…

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Regression results: Determinants of demand for DUAT
Unconditional
DD
Conditional
DD (only if
affordable)

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Regression results: Determinants of demand for DUAT

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Nigeria…

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ETHIOPIA …

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Regression Result: Demand for SLLC- Logistic model (ME)
Explanatory Variables Model - 1 Model - 2 Model - 3
Perceived risk of Gov't expropriation (1=yes) -0.011 -0.014 0.002
Perceived risk of private dispute (1=yes) 0.047* 0.052* 0.062**
Village level – % of hhs with iron roof housing 0.067*** 0.078*** 0.067***
Village level - av. # of years since parcel acquisition
via PA allocation -0.002** -0.002**
Interaction term (Rented out * Gender) -0.131** -0.119 -0.064
Boarder dispute experience (1=yes) 0.069*** 0.066***
Protect against encroachment (1=yes) 0.153*** 0.150***
Land predominantly acquired via inheritance -0.043* -0.041*
Tigray region 0.113*
Amahara region 0.041
SNNP region -0.124***

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THM!
• Generally, “doing nothing no longer an option” as perceived tenure security risk are
fairly high
• Recent wave of emphasis on land titling as a reform agenda should avoid a one-size-
fits-all approach and, hence, should be considered as viable option only in areas
with high economic potential and dispute prone areas
• Under certain circumstances where titling is considered as appropriate and viable
option, diagnostic processes should still be given proper prioritization as to
determine the level at which titling reforms be implemented (such as at community,
household, individual and/or parcel based titling). Such diagnostic processes could
be crucial steps in the process of getting “the recent wave land reforms” right.
• Preliminary results also show the need for gender, age and parcel disaggregated
analyses as tenure risk and demand for formalization are hugely associated with
individual as well as parcel-specific properties

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Thank You!
LinksbetweenTenureSecurityandFoodSecurity:
EvidencefromEthiopia
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