“Land registration and cadastral surveying in much of the developing world has reached a crossroads. It is not possible to continue with business as usual in the face of massive informality within the world's cities, and new more relevant approaches have to be developed”. (Fourie, 2000).

De Soto’s influential book The mystery of capital offers a simple yet beguiling message: capitalism can be made to work for the poor, through formalising their property rights in houses, land and small businesses. This approach resonates strongly in the South African context, where private property works well for those who inhabit the so-called ‘first economy’. Evidence from South Africa, however, suggests that many of de Soto’s policy prescriptions may be inappropriate for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, and have negative impacts on their security and well-being.

Uganda discovered commercial quantities of oil in the country in 2006 and ever since, there has been increased activity in the exploration of oil and gas. The exploration activities are being undertaken in the Albertine Graben in mostly the districts of Hoima, Buliisa, and Nwoya by international oil companies contracted by the government. Currently, there are three licensed companies namely, Tullow Uganda operations Ltd , Total E&P and CNOOC Uganda Ltd operating in the districts of Hoima, Buliisa and Nwoya within the Albertine Graben.

This report is in relation to a study on the Land Tenure and Livelihood Issues in the Albertine Graben Region. The study was carried out in three districts of Amuru Buliisa and Hoima. The study specifically focused on tenurial arrangements and land transactions in the region. The ultimate outcome of this study will be drawing of policy issues for policy engagement and dialogue towards a comprehensive policy direction to land governance in the Albertine Graben.

Mozambique has a land governance system that allows for strong protection of community-based land rights, community consultation with respect to partnerships with investors, and also secure rights to land for investors. However, the implementation of legislation has been slow and the capacity among state actors is weak. Tensions exist between a government keen on promoting foreign investment and agro-industry and a rural population that is insufficiently aware of and not always able to exercise their legal rights.

In countries where a large proportion of the total land area is held customarily, reform questions around land and development often tend to focus on the customary estate. Evidence from Solomon Islands suggests that a focus on public land holdings, even when they are relatively small in land area, can yield outsized benefits. Publicly owned land regularly includes economically valuable land and urban land on which development pressure is high. In Solomon Islands, as much as 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may be affected by how effectively urban public land is governed.

Land policies are of fundamental importance to sustainable growth, good governance, and the well-being of, and the economic opportunities open to, both rural and urban dwellers - particularly the poor. To this end, research on land policy, and analysis of interventions related to the subject, have long been of interest to the Bank's Research Department, and other academic, and civil society institutions.

Recognizing that the impressive gains from comprehensive land tenure regularization may be short-lived if subsequent transactions are not registered, Rwanda has deployed close to 400 Sector Land Managers (SLMs) throughout the country. Regressions using LAIS data highlight that posting of SLMs increased levels of registered sales but not inheritance transactions and that, for agricultural land, having an SLM taken refresher training almost doubled this effect. A survey of all SLMs in April 2016 suggests that they are fully functional and in close contact with DLOs.

Although recent developments have increased interest in African land tenure, Rwanda's nation-wide Land Tenure Regularization (LTR) program is one of a few models to address these issues at the required scale.

This report summarizes the results of the analytical work on housing market finance carried out by the World Bank Group at the request of the Ministry of Finance. The purpose of the work was to inform the policy dialogue about how best to develop a sustainable housing finance market in Nigeria, and improve the effectiveness of interventions aimed at stimulating the housing market and providing quality housing to the population. The work was funded by DFID and carried out over 2013 and 2014.

The countries of East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) are among the most vulnerable in the world to the physical, social, and economic effects of natural disasters. Disaster impacts are not distributed uniformly within a population. Due to existing socio-economic conditions, cultural beliefs and traditional practices, women and men are affected differently. In many cases, the mortality rates for women in the aftermath of a disaster are much higher than those of men.

It is acknowledged that conflict over land is a major source of violence in various parts of Mindanao, particularly the prosed Bangsamoro region. Historical accounts trace the root cause of land issues and identity-based conflict to the introduction of the Regalian doctrine of land ownership by Spanish colonizers. During the American colonial regime at the turn of the 20th century, dispossession of land held by the original inhabitants of Mindanao accelerated, with an emphasis of titling lands for private ownership that clashed with the tradition of ancestral domain.