Evaluation Of Innovative Land Tools In Sub Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing rapidly, but most countries lack appropriate tools to manage their urban growth. This creates both risks and opportunities for prospective land holders, resulting in a tangle of insecure land rights and claims under multiple tenure systems. Recently, innovative land tools have been proposed and implemented to formalize land tenure. It is envisaged that tenure security for land holders will increase and in turn contribute to poverty reduction. This study evaluates such tools in three peri-urban areas in Lusaka (Zambia), Oshakati (Namibia) and Gaborone (Botswana), with a focus on the perspective of the land holders. The author concludes that the tools are to some extent pro-poor, and makes recommendations for further improvements. These innovative land tools are also considered a necessary addition to conventional and administration tools. This study makes valuable reading for academics, policy makers and practitioners within the land administration domain and related disciplines.

The impact of land tenure systems in developing countries on agricultural investment and productivity continues to be the subject of intense scrutiny. This paper looks at land policy reforms with emphasis on lessons from Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). Food security crises in developing countries in the past decades have revived the debate about whether land tenure systems constrain farmer innovation and investment in agriculture. Changes in tenure systems can potentially have major implications for agricultural transformation. This chapter summarizes the arguments about how best to provide land tenure security in SSA and reviews recent experience and evidence arising from innovative interventions, with implications for other developing regions as well. It is hoped that the experiences and topics analyzed here may also help Venezuela in the process of normalizing land tenure systems in that country.

This is the first book on land administration and reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is highly relevant to all developing countries around the world. It provides simple practical steps to turn the hugely controversial subject of "land grabs� into a development opportunity by improving land governance to reduce the risks of dispossessing poor landholders while ensuring mutually beneficial investors’ deals. The book shows how Sub Saharan Africa can leverage its abundant and highly valuable natural resources to eradicate poverty by improving land governance through a ten point program to scale up policy reforms and investments at a cost of USD 4.5 billion. The book points out formidable challenges to implementation including high vulnerability to land grabbing and expropriation with poor compensation as about 90 percent of rural lands in Sub Saharan Africa are undocumented, but also timely opportunities since high commodity prices and investor interest in large scale agriculture have increased land values and returns to investing in land administration. It argues that success in implementation will require participation of many players including Pan-African organizations, Sub Saharan Africa governments, the private sector, civil society and development partners; but that ultimate success will depend on the political will of Sub Saharan Africa governments to move forward with comprehensive policy reforms and on concerted support by the international development community. Its rigorous analysis of land governance issues, yet down-to-earth solutions, are a reflection of Byamugisha's more than 20 years of global experience in land reform and administration especially in Asia and Africa. This volume will be of great interest to and relevant for a wide audience interested in African development, global studies in land, and natural resource management.

The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns addresses the theoretical, methodical, and practical issues related to the development of small towns and neighbouring countryside. Small towns play a very important role in spatial structure by performing numerous significant developmental functions for rural areas. At the local scale, they act as engines for economic growth of rural regions and as a link in the system of connections between large urban centres and the countryside. The book addresses the role of small towns in the local development of regions in countries with different levels of development and economic systems, including those in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia. Chapters address the functional structure of small towns, relations between small towns and rural areas, and the challenges of spatial planning in the context of shaping the development of small towns. Students and scholars of urban planning, urban geography, rural geography, political geography, historical geography, and population geography will learn about the role of small towns in the local development of countries representing different economic systems and developmental conditions.

Originating from the work of the late Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine, ECOSUD 2017 was the 11th International Conference on Ecosystems and Sustainable Development in this long-standing series. This volume contains papers presented at the meeting and covers new research on ecological problems, as well as new ideas and concepts from scientists, engineers, socio-economic specialists and other professionals working in this area. Emphasis is placed on subject areas that would benefit from the application of scientific methods for sustainable development, including the conservation of natural systems around the world whilst also integrating thermodynamics, ecology and economics. Furthermore, the study of distributed systems is addressed in order to avoid transport recovery and waste reduction. Individual topics covered include: Energy systems and the environment; Sustainable development and planning; Ecosystem modelling; Environmental innovative approaches; Natural resources management; Protection and mitigation; Knowledge dissemination; Social responsibility; Sustainability indicators, monitoring and assessment; Urban agriculture; Environmental risk management; Ecosystems recovery; Complex systems in ecology; Ecosystems networks; Biomass issues; Integrated assessment tools.

This book showcases new empirical findings on the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of land management interventions and addresses two crucial aspects: how and under which conditions such interventions are responsible, and how such interventions can be supported by smart technologies. Responsible and Smart Land Management Interventions is for all types of actors in land management. Although primarily based on cases from Africa, it addresses land management issues from practical and theoretical perspectives relevant for land managers worldwide. It brings the discourse up to date and helps all practitioners designing new policies and those looking for new instruments to do so. Aimed at land academics, including students, teachers, and researchers, as well as practitioners, including those working within international organizations, donor organizations, NGOs, and land independent consultants, this book Delivers innovative methodologies for land management for professionals involved in land administration projects Explores land management from a geodetic and spatial planning perspective Includes real cases, empirical data, and analysis in contemporary and alternative land management developments in Africa Addresses important land issues which contribute to national development and achieving United Nations' SDGs Discusses contemporary research findings related to societal needs in land administration which are equally valid for non-African contexts Acts as a new teaching resource for land management and land administration courses, and land-related disciplines in geodesy, human geography, development studies, and environmental planning

Land resources are one of nature’s most precious gifts. They feed us and help our societies and economies to thrive. Some 2.5 billion agricultural smallholders worldwide manage around 500 million small farms, providing more than 80 per cent of food consumed in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These resources are being degraded at an alarming pace. An estimated 33 per cent of soil is moderately to highly-degraded due to erosion, nutrient depletion, acidi?cation, salinization, compaction and chemical pollution. Each year we lose 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil and 15 billion trees, costing the economy around $40 billion. This report focuses on land potential evaluation systems as a critical foundation for land use planning and management. More specifically, land potential evaluation systems are needed to sustain and increase the provision of ecosystem services in the context of climate change, persistent land degradation and increasing global population and per-capita consumption levels.