IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v68y2017icp402-414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating decentralised land administration systems with traditional land governance institutions in Ghana: Policy and praxis

Author

Listed:
  • Biitir, Samuel B.
  • Nara, Baslyd B.
  • Ameyaw, Stephen

Abstract

The aim of the Land Administration Project (LAP) policy reform for supporting the establishment of the Customary Land Secretariats (CLSs) is to formalise and strengthen customary land administration and management within the context of decentralised land administration. With the prospects of the CLSs becoming the legal local land administrative units, the paper assessed how traditional land governance institutions may have contributed to the decentralisation of land administration in Ghana. The research used case study strategy within the qualitative research paradigm and un-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The analyses show that, simple land registries exist with traditional local governance institutions through the CLSs. The maintenance and effectiveness of this however depends on continuous improvement of records keeping, quality of office personnel and suitable office accommodation. This should be devoid of local power struggles among current and successive chiefs. Also, collaboration with public land sector agencies especially in areas of sharing information on rights, uses, disputes and preparation of planning layouts is paramount. These registries are mere extension of the state land administration apparatus as service units under the deconcentration of land administration powers. The paper concludes that the current policy focus on strengthening decentralised land administration through the CLSs may fail if attention is not given to the maintenance of the local registries. Revenue generation capacities of the CLSs need to be enhanced in order for them to recruit and maintain quality office staff, and acquire technical logistics. Decentralising land administration to the CLSs under the deconcentration of powers should be maintained in the interim because of the teething problems identified with this current system.

Suggested Citation

  • Biitir, Samuel B. & Nara, Baslyd B. & Ameyaw, Stephen, 2017. "Integrating decentralised land administration systems with traditional land governance institutions in Ghana: Policy and praxis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 402-414.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:68:y:2017:i:c:p:402-414
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837716308420
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alain Durand-Lasserve & Maÿlis Durand-Lasserve & Harris Selod, 2015. "Land Delivery Systems in West African Cities : The Example of Bamako, Mali [Le système d'approvisionnement en terres dans les villes d'Afrique de l'Ouest]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21613.
    2. Bruce, John W. & Knox, Anna, 2009. "Structures and Stratagems: Making Decentralization of Authority over Land in Africa Cost-Effective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1360-1369, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sasu, Alexander & Javed, Arshad & Imran, Muhammad & Squires, Graham, 2024. "Land banking, land price and Ghana’s informal land markets: A relational complexity approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Lai, Yani & Wang, Jiayuan & Lok, Waiming, 2017. "Redefining property rights over collective land in the urban redevelopment of Shenzhen, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 485-493.
    3. João Carrilho & Jorge Trindade, 2022. "Sustainability in Peri-Urban Informal Settlements: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-35, June.
    4. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Ahmed, Abubakari & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Oteng-Ababio, Martin & Luginaah, Isaac, 2020. "Of waste facility siting and relational geographies of place: Peri-urban landfills, community resistance and the politics of land control in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Gelas Rubakula & Zhanqi Wang & Chao Wei, 2019. "Land Conflict Management through the Implementation of the National Land Policy in Tanzania: Evidence from Kigoma Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-12, November.
    6. Ibrahim, Abdul-Salam & Akanbang, Bernard A.A. & Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Ahmed, Abubakari, 2020. "Collaborative customary land governance: Motivations and challenges of forming land management committees (LMCs) in the upper west region of Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Fuseini Waah Salifu & Zaid Abubakari & Christine Richter, 2019. "Innovating Along the Continuum of Land Rights Recognition: Meridia’s “Documentation Packages” for Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Worku Nega & Mulugeta Tenaw & Yeneneh Hunie & Sayeh Kassaw Agegnehu & Reinfried Mansberger, 2021. "Evaluating Institutional Dichotomy between Urban and Rural Land Administration in Amhara Region, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Brahima Coulibaly & Shixiang Li, 2020. "Impact of Agricultural Land Loss on Rural Livelihoods in Peri-Urban Areas: Empirical Evidence from Sebougou, Mali," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-20, November.
    10. Liyin Shen & Lingyu Zhang & Haijun Bao & Siuwai Wong & Xiaoyun Du & Xiaoxuan Wei, 2023. "An Empirical Study on the Mismatch Phenomenon in Utilizing Urban Land Resources in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-29, June.
    11. Ehwi, Richmond Juvenile & Mawuli, Divine Asafo, 2021. "‘Landguardism’ in Ghana: Examining public perceptions about the driving factors," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    12. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Arku, Godwin & Luginaah, Isaac, 2019. "Powers of exclusion and counter-exclusion: The political ecology of ethno-territorial customary land boundary conflicts in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 12-22.
    13. Adekola, Oluwafemi & Krigsholm, Pauliina & Riekkinen, Kirsikka, 2021. "Towards a holistic land law evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa: A novel framework with an application to Rwanda’s organic land law 2005," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    14. Kansanga, Moses & Andersen, Peter & Atuoye, Kilian & Mason-Renton, Sarah, 2018. "Contested commons: Agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 215-224.
    15. Ameyaw, Prince Donkor & de Vries, Walter Timo, 2023. "Blockchain technology adaptation for land administration services: The importance of socio-cultural elements," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    16. James Natia Adam & Timothy Adams & Jean-David Gerber, 2021. "The Politics of Decentralization: Competition in Land Administration and Management in Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, September.
    17. Hossein Azadi & Guy Robinson & Ali Akbar Barati & Imaneh Goli & Saghi Movahhed Moghaddam & Narges Siamian & Rando Värnik & Rong Tan & Kristina Janečková, 2023. "Smart Land Governance: Towards a Conceptual Framework," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, March.
    18. Adekola, Oluwafemi & Krigsholm, Pauliina & Riekkinen, Kirsikka, 2023. "Adapted institutional analysis and development framework for understanding customary land institutions in sub-Saharan Africa – A case study from Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    19. Lankono, Charity Bazaabadire & Forkuor, David & Asaaga, Festus Atribawuni, 2023. "Examining the impact of customary land secretariats on decentralised land governance in Ghana: Evidence from stakeholders in Northern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    20. Chimhowu, Admos, 2019. "The ‘new’ African customary land tenure. Characteristic, features and policy implications of a new paradigm," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 897-903.
    21. Nara, Baslyd B. & Lengoiboni, Monica & Zevenbergen, Jaap, 2021. "Assessing customary land rights and tenure security variations of smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Venables, Anthony & Duranton, Gilles, 2018. "Place-Based Policies for Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 12889, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Deininger, Klaus & Goldstein, Markus, 2014. "Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 262-275.
    3. Biddulph, Robin, 2018. "The 1999 Tanzania land acts as a community lands approach: A review of research into their implementation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 48-56.
    4. Bo Huang & Haitong Li & Jinghua Lei & Yiqian Wang, 2024. "Free land, heavy burden: Industrial land administrative allocation and local fiscal imbalance in China," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 312-333, March.
    5. M. Picard,Pierre & Selod,Harris, 2020. "Customary Land Conversion and the Formation of the African City," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9192, The World Bank.
    6. Sikor, Thomas & Müller, Daniel & Stahl, Johannes, 2009. "Land Fragmentation and Cropland Abandonment in Albania: Implications for the Roles of State and Community in Post-Socialist Land Consolidation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1411-1423, August.
    7. George Atisa & Aziza Zemrani & Matthew Weiss, 2018. "Indigenous People’s Environmental Concerns: The Missing Piece in Ongoing Administrative and Political Decentralization in Africa," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(5), pages 288-288, September.
    8. Jason Barr & Remi Jedwab, 2023. "Exciting, boring, and nonexistent skylines: Vertical building gaps in global perspective," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(6), pages 1512-1546, November.
    9. James Natia Adam & Timothy Adams & Jean-David Gerber, 2021. "The Politics of Decentralization: Competition in Land Administration and Management in Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Naughton-Treves, Lisa & Wendland, Kelly, 2014. "Land Tenure and Tropical Forest Carbon Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-6.
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Hilhorst, Thea & Songwe, Vera, 2014. "Identifying and addressing land governance constraints to support intensification and land market operation: Evidence from 10 African countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 76-87.
    12. Cai, Yongyang & Selod, Harris & Steinbuks, Jevgenijs, 2018. "Urbanization and land property rights," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 246-257.
    13. David Brown, 2017. "Social dimensions of land rights reform in Liberia: Some unresolved issues and policy dilemmas," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 270-286, October.
    14. Adekola, Oluwafemi & Krigsholm, Pauliina & Riekkinen, Kirsikka, 2021. "Towards a holistic land law evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa: A novel framework with an application to Rwanda’s organic land law 2005," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Brooks, Karen & Zorya, Sergiy & Gautam, Amy & Goyal, Aparajita, 2013. "Agriculture as a sector of opportunity for young people in Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6473, The World Bank.
    16. Adekola, Oluwafemi & Krigsholm, Pauliina & Riekkinen, Kirsikka, 2023. "Adapted institutional analysis and development framework for understanding customary land institutions in sub-Saharan Africa – A case study from Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    17. Daniel Ayalew Ali & Klaus Deininger & Markus Goldstein, 2011. "Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa," World Bank Other Operational Studies 25527, The World Bank.
    18. Lucie Letrouit & Harris Selod, 2024. "Informal land markets and ethnic kinship in West African cities [Marchés fonciers informels et cousinage ethnique dans les villes d'Afrique de l'Ouest]," Post-Print hal-04525074, HAL.
    19. George Atisa & Aziza Zemrani & Mathew Weiss, 2021. "Decentralized governments: local empowerment and sustainable development challenges in Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 3349-3367, March.
    20. Cai,Yongyang & Selod,Harris & Steinbuks,Jevgenijs, 2015. "Urbanization and property rights," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7486, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:68:y:2017:i:c:p:402-414. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.