Dear Friends and Colleagues:

As we get to the end of the year, I want to sincerely thank you for your support and trust in 2023. Whether it is something you read or a webinar you attended, it is my hope that the Land Portal has been a positive resource for you, your work, and your community.

From all of us at the Land Portal, we wish you and your loved ones a healthy and happy holiday season.We look forward to connecting with you in 2024.  

Laura Meggiolaro
Managing Director

Ensuring secure land tenure is crucial for improving land development, as both local and foreign investors often hesitate to engage in land transactions when there is uncertainty about ownership rights. The term "Land Tenure Insecurity" refers to the apprehension that someone else might claim ownership of the purchased land in the future, creating a significant risk for investment. This phenomenon is particularly common in the Sub-Saharan African Region of which Ghana is no exception. The positive impact of land tenure security is far-reaching.

A selection and review of readings that shed light on the role that open land data can play in equitable and sustainable development, and social justice.

On the opening day of #COP28, we hosted a webinar, “Building Climate Resilience through Inclusive Land Governance,” that delved into the crucial role which inclusive land governance plays in building climate resilience. 

Two years after international donors pledged $1.7 billion to Indigenous Peoples at COP26, a recognition of their crucial role in protecting biodiversity and carbon capture, there has been good progress in preparing the systems needed for the money to be disbursed.

Nature-based emission-reduction projects are considered as key for development of a carbon market, which will be worth an estimated $50 billion USD by 2030. Yet, these carbon offsetting projects continue to be the target of criticism for their lack of certainty, transparency, accessibility, equitability, and quality.

Since engaging in WOLTS training, gender and land champion Sindooi is actively supporting women and widows' inheritance rights in her community.

By Rosa Olokweni, Gender and Land Champion, WOLTS Project Tanzania

Before HakiMadini and WOLTS came to Mundarara, it was as though women in our village were sleeping. None of us was aware of our rights to land, many of us were mistreated by our husbands and we never spoke in meetings.

The second LAND-at-scale (LAS) exchange took place from June 26^th to June 28^th, 2023. Sixty partners came together in Utrecht, the Netherlands to exchange lessons learned and explore common challenges. As of 2023, ten country projects are currently being implemented under the LAS program, namely Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Mali, Mozambique, the Palestinian Territories, Somalia, Rwanda and Uganda. All countries were represented and almost all implementing partners were present at the Exchange.

Challenges with regards to scaling is not unique to the land sector. Working in the context of agriculture for development, CGIAR and Wageningen University developed the Scaling Readiness approach.  This approach response to the fact that the pressure to demonstrate fast and visible results and impact at scale, has sometimes resulted in unreasonable and unrealistic expectations, and in fact stimulated simplistic and non-sustainable scaling approaches.

Chad is at the verge of an emerging land tenure crisis. As observed in many countries in Africa, formal and customary tenure systems overlap. Customary tenure systems, that generally prevail in rural areas, differ from region to region, with each its own needs and practices. Land conflicts are abundant, caused by degradation and transformation of land surfaces caused by climate change, as well as land investments by domestic investors with disputed legitimacy.

Burundi has the world’s highest hunger score and around 45 percent of the population is affected by food insecurity. The country copes with increasing scarcity of land as a result of increasing population size, returnees and IDPs and climate change. With the majority of Burundians depending on agriculture for their food and livelihoods, land scarcity makes this reliance on agriculture precarious. This pressure on land causes elevated levels of land disputes with over 55% of all court cases being related to conflicts over land.