Sander van Hooft

The decentralized approach on land registration is regarded as the key to Ethiopia’s successful swift and cost-effective land registration. Ethiopia’s success seems to be a rare case though:

“In fact, hardly any of the [sub-Saharan] countries that introduced legal reforms with much fanfare have succeeded in developing, let alone rolling out, a low-cost system for land administration at a scale that is sufficiently large to provide an option for the majority of the poor. This made it difficult for many of the expected benefits from such legislation to materialize, implying that the poor often continue to be excluded from formal systems and vulnerable to land loss. More generally, failure to implement land legislation has raised doubts regarding the technical, institutional, and political feasibility of such reforms.” (Deininger, Ali, Holden, & Zevenbergen, 2008)

In my previous post I mentioned the Land use and Administration Committees (LACs). The LACs are playing a major role in the registration process, so I’ll explain a bit more about that. » Read the rest of this entry «

After the defeat of the socialist Derg regime in 1991, the Peasant Associations were dissolving rapidly. However, the government announced the continuation of the land policy of the Derg regime. When Ethiopia in 1995 became the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the new constitution approved and confirmed the state ownership of land. Even today, “[l]and policy, the real source of power in imperial and contemporary Ethiopia, remains at the center of a controversial political debate.” (Crewett, Bogale, & Korf, 2008) » Read the rest of this entry «

In my previous post I discussed Ethiopia’s land registration during the Solomonic Dynasty (until 1975).

Emperor’s Selassie’s imperial rule was overthrown by the Derg regime in 1975. This socialist regime nationalized all rural land and redistributed the land to its farmers. In order to abolish the exploitative landlord-tenant relations, the farmers were organized in Peasant Associations (Abebe, 2006; Crewett, Bogale, & Korf, 2008). » Read the rest of this entry «

Crewett et al. summarize that “Ethiopia has a long legacy of intervention in land tenure relations. The Ethiopian state has exerted considerable influence on local land tenure regimes throughout different political regimes.” But what does this long legacy look like? In this post I discuss the period of the Solomonic Dynasty, until 1975. » Read the rest of this entry «

During a study project in Gondar, Ethiopia, it came to my understanding that the registration of land is a national issue receiving many attention in politics. » Read the rest of this entry «