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Customary land institutions (CLIs) are social institutions that define local land governance in communities. Strengthening community rights continues to be an essential land policy goal, and several studies have focused on ways to improve local land governance through CLIs. Relatively limited attention, however, has been paid to understanding these institutions in themselves. The present study addresses this gap and develops an analytical framework built on the well-known institutional analysis and development framework to support the understanding of CLIs in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The framework was developed through a hermeneutic review of literature on CLIs in SSA. Accordingly, we mapped and classified the literature based on the concepts in the institutional analysis and development framework. The developed framework facilitates a detailed analysis of the contextual factors and customary land practices of CLIs, enabling a determination of their adequate and inadequate aspects. The framework was applied to understand the CLI in Ile-Ife through content analysis of primary and secondary data on the CLI. The case study application suggests that the framework can enable the understanding of CLI and the identification of the potentials and weaknesses within the institution. Notwithstanding, further exploration of the proposed framework should be carried out in other SSA contexts to validate its functionality. • The study designs a new framework for analysing Customary land institutions (CLIs). • The study draws attention to the importance of understanding CLIs in themselves. • The framework can be used to identify critical intervention points for improving CLIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]