Expert meeting

• Decision Makers Meeting on Good Administration of Land
  Location: Windhoek, Namibia
  Date: 7 - 8 December 2006
  Duration: 2 days
  Meeting papers ...

Conventional land registration and cadastre hardly seem to appeal to the solution of the land problems in Africa. The colonial heritage (in the form of individual property rights) is difficult to match with the traditional customary land rights, with chieftaincy and family authority. Uncertainty of land tenure and less means to secure one’s individual or common property is a result, widely spread over Africa. Unequal access to land constitutes another social time bomb under societal solidarity which is not easily solved by land redistribution processes. The United Nations University requested the School for Land Administration Studies (Enschede, the Netherlands) to organise a meeting of high officials from various African countries (a meeting of decision makers) who are responsible for the development of national policies regarding the land issue (land policy, land management, land administration). The aim was to identify the opinion within the governments on how land policy should proceed and how this would impact on land administration. This might shed new lights on how land administration systems should be developed to better meet the demands. This would effect on how capacity building may be arranged.

The meeting, on 7 and 8 December 2006 at the Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek, attracted about 25 high level officials from almost 20 African countries, ranging from director-generals of lands, commissioners of land, and members of supreme courts. After two days of presentations and discussions, the participants could make up their minds. First of all it was concluded that all countries had similar political objectives, as poverty eradication, social stability, economic growth, food security, environmental sustainability, and that the role of land in these objectives was paramount. All countries made attempts to define the role of land, and to formulate what the government's policy was in dealing with this issue. Differences -of course- were observed in the vision, objectives and principles that constituted such policies, but in all cases the institutional aspects of plurifom land tenure arrangements, rules for access to land by women, foreigners, youth, bonafide and lawful occupants, and ‘strategic road maps’ were addressed. Furthermore at different levels attention was paid to how to implement such land policy. The participants concluded that the set-up of the legal framework was a prerequisite, and that many countries were struggling in getting the right laws in place. Also an appropriate allocation of tasks and mandates over public, private and customary parties appeared to be not so easy. The creation of land administration processes which were efficient, low cost and transparent, was still a challenge. The application of subsidiarity principles (do a task at the government level where it is appropriate) was different per country.

The participants found, that the design of a land policy was best facilitated through fully consultative processes, with attention to donor coordination and risk assessments. An interesting matter appears to be the implementation of a land policy: what kind of instruments might allow the authorities to make the policy a reality? There were a few, such as measures to improve land tenure security, even in a plurifom legal environment, measures to regulate the land market, land use planning, development and control, land taxation, and measures for land reform. What came out, is that conflict resolution mechanims are part of the solution, as evidence showed that without such mechanims total judiciary might be clogged up, causing enormous delays and backlogs.

It became clear that the implementation of those instruments was dependent of the existence of tools, like systems for land registration, cadastre, valuation and land use, were the adagium 'as little as possible, as much as necessary' should be applied, taking into account specific local situations. To make everything work, said the audience, capacity building was an issue, as is the use of ICT, and cost efficiency. At the end of the meeting, the participants recommended that political objectives, policy, policy instruments and tools are to be soundly related, in order to gain efficiency and effectiveness. It might be recognised that land policy might be one single policy document, but also a set of documents through time. An effective policy might be enhanced through participatory processes, and that the implementation might profit from subsidiarity principles. Africa has an ability to create new forms of land tenure, such as flexible tenure, certificate of occupancy, village title etc. This should continue, but it was also recommended to pay attention to a better performance of land administration systems. About the use of ICT, the participants made clear that to achieve good performance at low costs, most probably the use of technology as 'high' as possible, was necessary. Finally, it appears that African high officials on land do suffer insufficient possibilities to meet regularly and to coordinate land policy and land management in their continent. May be the UN could play a role here, was the final wrap up.

Paul van der Molen,
Professor and director School for Land Administration Studies,
an initiative of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and
the Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, both in the Netherlands,
in association with the United Nations University (UNU).