Daniel Ayalew Ali, Klaus Deininger, and Markus Goldstein (2011). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5765, August.

This study finds that a pilot program to regularize land tenure in Rwanda was very successful in increasing land-related investment and female ownership.

Land management in Africa has recently drawn policy interest.  In this paper, Ali, Deininger, and Goldstein examine why and report some new evidence on the impact of land tenure regularization in Rwanda.  In terms of motivation, they explain that “While Africa has been historically rather land abundant, three factors have recently focused attention on land rights and the way in which land is managed. 

First, a combination of population growth, soil degradation, urban expansion, exacerbated more recently with a 'rush' for land to benefit from rising global demand for agricultural commodities and environmental services, increased pressures on land.  Second, even lands currently cultivated are characterized by an enormous productivity gap; recent studies show that no African country except South Africa achieves even 25% of potential (Deininger et al. 2011).  The investments needed to bridge this gap are unlikely to be forthcoming without secure rights.  Third, structural transformation from an agrarian to a manufacturing- and service-based economy will require shifts of population and associated transfers of land to other producers.  Given their potential to contribute to all of these objectives, land registration programs should be high up on the policy agenda.  Yet, limited success and sustainability of many past programs, together with a lack of mechanisms to document impact over time, led many observers to believe that such interventions will have limited benefits or be too complex and risky to undertake” (2).

For all these reasons, land management is an issue of growing importance on African policy agendas.  Rwanda is an interesting example.  The government recently launched a nationwide land tenure regularization program designed to decrease land-related conflict, tribal divisions, and gender discrimination in land access.  The program aims to lay the groundwork for the formalization and full legal recognition of land rights through title certificates.  The authors report that this is “probably the most thoroughly designed and quantitatively ambitious program of its nature in Africa” (2). 

This study evaluates the impact of the rural pilots that preceded the nationwide program.  The pilots were conducted in 2007-2008 and demarcated 14,908 land parcels totalling 3,448 hectares owned by 3,513 households.  Para-surveyors created graphical land ownership maps and issued claim receipts signed by all neighbors to th parcel.  Claims were entered in a public register, and barring complaints during a 2 week period of public display, were formally registered.  Formal registration allowed claimants to get a formal certificate of land ownership upon payment of a nominal fee. 

Methodologically, the study administered a survey to 3,500 households along the boundaries of the pilot programs.  They then employed a spatial discontinuity design, assuming that households close to the geographical program boundary were similar before the program. 

The study examines the impact of the program on three outcomes: land-related investment, female land ownership and inheritance, and the frequency of land transactions.  It finds that the pilot programs doubled investment in soil conservation on average, and more than doubled investment for females.  The program also helped formalize women's land rights and inheritance intentions, leading to heightened female land access and tenure security.  The pilot programs did not increase land sales, which the authors interpret as meaning that “it is unlikely to have contributed to distress sales or increased landlessness” (2).

While the pilot programs were clearly successful along the metrics of investment, female ownership, and stable land transactions, the authors suggest three areas in which the national scale-up could be improved.  First, rights for women who are not legally married remain tenuous under the pilot programs.  Second, fee structures and subdivision restrictions remain a barrier for the majority of rural residents.  Third, transaction registration costs should be reduced to ensure sustainability.  The authors conclude that “Beyond Rwanda, our evidence suggests that well-designed land regularization can yield large benefits even in the short term but that realization of these will require a conducive policy context, careful design based on local conditions, and continued monitoring during implementation” (3).