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Innovating Along the Continuum of Land Rights Recognition: Meridia’s “Documentation Packages” for Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Fuseini Waah Salifu

    (Ghana Lands Commission, P.O. Box CT 5008, Cantonment, Accra CT5008, Ghana)

  • Zaid Abubakari

    (Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands)

  • Christine Richter

    (Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Documentation of land rights can ensure tenure security and facilitate smooth land transactions, but in most countries of the global south this has been difficult to achieve. These difficulties are related to the high transaction cost, long transaction times, and procedural rigidity of land registration processes. In response to these problems, innovative approaches of tenure documentation have been conceived at a global level and are being promoted in many countries of the global south. Little is known yet about how such innovative land tenure documentation approaches unfold in various contexts and to what effect. The implementation of innovative approaches is challenging, due to the legal pluralistic nature of land governance and administrative hybridity in many countries of the global south, including the West African region. This qualitative study explores how Meridia, a small for-profit company, develops innovative approaches to register land rights in the form of “documentation packages” within the existing institutional setting of Ghana. In the paper, we describe both the processes of preparing the documentation packages and respective actors involved, as well as the nature of encounters between innovative interventions and existing institutions. Meridia develops specific products in response to both the regional diversity of land tenure, uses, and market demands, as well as in response to the challenges that the institutional context poses to the process of land tenure registration. As such, the case illustrates how innovation evolves in step-by-step fashion through negotiations with existing land institutions. The various documentation packages developed in this manner differ in terms of cost and complexity of preparation, in terms of recognition by customary and statutory institutions, as well as in the usability of the issued certificates and the extent of exchangeability of associated land parcels. Therefore, Meridia’s product innovation reflects the continuum of land rights, but it also poses questions for future research regarding the political economy of land tenure certification and regarding the actual uses and benefits of issued certificates.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:12:p:189-:d:295826
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Breckenridge, Keith & Szreter, Simon (ed.), 2012. "Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780197265314, Decembrie.
    2. Czarniawska, Barbara, 2004. "On Time, Space, and Action Nets," GRI-rapport 2004:5, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Research Institute GRI.
    3. 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.
    4. Zaid Abubakari & Christine Richter & Jaap Zevenbergen, 2019. "Plural Inheritance Laws, Practices and Emergent Types of Property—Implications for Updating the Land Register," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Frank F. K. Byamugisha, 2013. "Securing Africa's Land for Shared Prosperity : A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13837, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kwabena Obeng Asiama & Rohan Bennett & Christiaan Lemmen & Winrich Voss, 2021. "Land, Innovation, and Social Good," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-6, May.

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