"Land is important for a critical mass of the poor in rural and urban settings around the world. Consequently, land policies
affect the ability of countries to meet several MDG goals and targets, most directly MDG1.
This series of briefs and discussion papers explores the linkages between land policies and democratic governance.
The briefs summarize debates on key issues of democratic governance of land, recognizing land not only as an economic asset
for poverty reduction but also as part of intricate social relations and power structures.
The discussion papers provide fresh understandings of state-society interactions for pro-poor land policy. They also raise
issues of gender and conflict in multiple property systems and customary traditions.
With these briefs and papers, the Oslo Governance Centre invites other views on and country experiences with successful (and
not so successful) interventions to enhance democratic governance of land for poverty reduction.”
Retrieved from Oslo Governance Centres website
You can download the papers and briefs here.
- Discussion Paper 1: Democratic Land Governance and Some Policy Recommendation
In this paper, the authors - Saturnino M. Borras Jr. and Jennifer C. Franco, define ‘democratic land governance’ as a political process that is contested by multiple state and societal actors to control the nature, pace, extent and direction of access to, control over, and use of land resources. They also see democratic land governance as categorically biased in favour of the previously marginalized landless and near-landless working poor people and inherently part of the broader and strategic challenge of democratizing the state and society. It includes administrative and technical processes such as efficient land records and titles, but goes beyond these, to include the fundamental question of land-based wealth and power (re)distribution. It requires the reformist contributions from both state and societal actors, and so necessarily combines perspectives on formal and informal, official and nonofficial, and state and non-state institutions and processes. It is necessarily carried out at multiple levels of the polity: national and local, and even international. Finally, the authors present 9 tentative recommendations of how to foster democratic land governance policies.
- Discussion Paper 2: Gender, Land Rights and Democratic Governance
This paper by Ambreena Manji discusses the relationship between law and development, exploring the implications for gender relations of the proposed formalization of property rights. It provides a theoretical and evidence-based critique. women and the gender asset gap in order to study governance as a gender issue. It also draws attention to the gender and labour implications of using land as collateral. The paper recommends that policy-makers need to be alert to the risks involved in promoting family farms as business units and in encouraging commercial lending when women and children are dependents or when men and women are co-users of land. Finally, it reminds us of the importance of employing international conventions and regional networks of progressive groups to resist the privatisations and financialisation of land relations.
- Discussion paper 3: Pro-Poor Land Tenure Reform and Democratic Governance
This discussion paper by Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Monica Di Gregorio and Stephan Dohrn provides a review of how different forms of land tenure reform relate to decentralization and local governance, in theory and practice. It will guide readers who are familiar with decentralization and local governance approaches to understand the main issues and challenges posed by land tenure reforms to achieve pro-poor impact. Because land tenure reform assigns control over resources that are critical for both identity and livelihood, it will be contentious. It is, therefore, important to distinguish among four different types of land tenure reform and critically assess the political economy context and the type of decentralization as well as national-local governance relationships in which land tenure reform will be implemented. It is equally important to understand the implications of various land tenure reform types for democratic governance and social inclusion / cohesion.
- OGC Brief 1: Land Policy and Governance: Gaps and Challenges in Policy Studies
- OGC Brief 2: Land Based Social Relations: Key Features of a Pro-Poor Land Policy
- OGC Brief 3: How Land Policies Impact Land-Based Wealth and Power Transfer
- OGC Brief 4: Pro-Poor Land Tenure Reform, Decentralisation and Democratic Governance