Land Tenure Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa

Interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe

Steven Lawry, Rebecca McLain, Margaret Rugadya, Gina Alvarado, Tasha Heidenrich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032430843
• eBook ISBN: 9781000907780
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

This book examines the impacts of land tenure reform interventions implemented in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.

Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held under customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interventions. It analyses the results of carefully selected, authoritative studies on interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and applies a realist synthesis methodology to explore the socio-political and economic contexts. Drawing on these results, the book argues that inadequate attention paid to the core characteristics of rural social systems obscures the benefits of customary tenure while overlooking the scope for reforms to reduce the gaps in social status among members of customary communities.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of land management and use, land and property law, tenure security, agrarian studies, political economy, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to development professionals and policymakers involved in land governance and land policy in Africa.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement Page
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• List of acronyms and abbreviations
• 1 Contemporary interventions to reform African customary tenure
• 2 Characteristics of African customary tenure and program theories underlying tenure reforms in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe
• 3 Realist synthesis methodology: understanding intervention outcomes in complex contexts
• 4 Benin’s Plan Foncier Rural program (rural land plan program)
• 5 Ethiopia’s Land Certification programs
• 6 Rwanda’s Land Tenure Regularization program
• 7 Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform program
• 8 Synthesis of findings
• 9 Conclusions
• Annexes
• Index