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Land degradation, food and tenure insecurity are significant problems in the northern highlands of Ethiopia, particularly in the region known as the country’s famine corridor. Addressing these twine issues in the region has become a focal point for both local and international organizations, underscoring the significance of preventive measures. Since 2000, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has been implementing sustainable land management and certification programs. This study aims on households involved in these programs, specifically in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas, South Wello Zone (SWZ). The primary objectives of the research were to assess households’ current food security status, identify factors influencing their food security, and classify coping and survival strategies employed by households during food shortages. Primary and secondary sources have been used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data were collected from surveyed households and analyzed USING SPSS software version 26, whereas qualitative data were transcribed, grouped, and interpreted in line with the aim of the research. Three food security models, namely the Household Food Balance Model, Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning, and Household Dietary Diversity Score, were employed to evaluate food security. Consequently, a significant percentage of the surveyed households, amounting to 88.3%, 35.6%, and 93.8%, were found to experience food insecurity according to the respective models. Rainfall shortages and variability, crop pests and diseases, shrinking farm plots, and land degradation are among the identified food security determinants. During dearth periods, households deploy a variety of coping and survival strategies. To mitigate food insecurity stemming from both natural and socio-economic factors, the research suggests several recommendations. These include advocating for tenure policy reforms by the GoE, and the local governments should promote the adoption of efficient land management practices, instituting a land certification system based on cadasters, encouraging family planning, boosting investments in education and literacy, raising awareness and providing training in climate-smart agriculture techniques, educating communities on optimal grain utilization, saving, trade, and storage methods, facilitating opportunities for income generation through off-farm and non-farm activities, and offering support for crop and livestock diversification.

Land is a precious resource in the Ethiopian highlands, where the entire agricultural system depends on rain-fed system. The resource faces multiple interconnected environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Among these, the absence of tenure security has significantly affected farmers’ willingness to adopt soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs), leading to a decline in land productivity, hindering household food security, and contributing to an increase in land-related disputes. Bearing this in mind, the government of Ethiopia (GoE) has undertaken two rounds of land certification programs in selected regions, one of which was Amhara National Regional State (ANRS). This study examined how land certification strengthens tenure security, lowers land-related disputes, motivates farmers to employ SWCPs, and raises the productivity of farm plots in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas. The research followed an exploratory survey method which utilized both qualitative and quantitative data. The survey involved purposefully selected 401 household heads. Additionally, cross sectional data were collected from various sources, including Woreda and zonal agriculture, court, land, and Natural Resource Management (NRM) offices. Quantitative data were analyzed using frequency tables, percentages, graphs, figures, cross-tabulation, and descriptive statistical methods. Meanwhile, qualitative data were transcribed, grouped, and interpreted in line with the research’s objectives. SPSS software version 26 was used for data analysis. The findings denoted a positive relationship between land certification and tenure security. Furthermore, enhanced tenure security has played a positive role in reducing land-related disputes, initiating farmers to invest in SWC practices and improving the productivity of farm plots. The research suggests the adoption of a cadastral land registration system, the encouragement of community involvement, and the enforcement of laws and bylaws. The research recommend implementation of cadastral land registration system, promote community participation, and enforcement of laws and bylaws. The work has implications for development practitioners, academia and policymakers working on land tenure, SWC practices, and food security.

Agricultural land is an indispensable resource for agrarian communities worldwide. There is a growing awareness that the world’s arable land supplies are limited and finite. For the last five decades, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and other development organisations have carried out land preservation uptakes intended to curb the effects of land degradation and improve agricultural productivity through various soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs). The study assessed the sustainability, drivers, and constraints of SWCPs in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas of South Wollo. We used the exploratory case study approach, involving qualitative and quantitative methods. Catastrophic weather conditions, the presence of the soil and water conservation program, and declining soil fertility were the top drivers influencing the program’s implementation. Based on the identified farm-level indicators and views of the respondents, physical measures were more sustainable than biological and mixed methods. The prominent factors hurdling the intervention were lack of tenure security, risk of rodent infestation, and losing a sense of ownership. Training community members on the importance of land preservation, amending the existing rigid land tenure policy, incorporating indigenous SWCPs, broadening the scale and extent of community participation, and enforcing laws and bylaws are recommended for the upcoming interventions. The finding has implications for land preservation and food security actors working to scale up evidence-based sustainable land management practices to the broader area.

The Eastern Africa Land Administration Network has since 2006 been collaborating in the development of education, short courses for land professionals and research in the eastern Africa region. This study presents the establishment and activities of a project on Strengthening the network and draws on results from the projects’ four work packages: i) the Network and Secretariat; ii) Short courses for land professionals; iii) Education and iv) Research. Processes, achievements, innovations, challenges and opportunities along each work package is reported. This study suggests that inter-university networks can play a major role in collaboratively developing, revising and updating curricula whilst promoting innovations in education, teaching and learning through staff and student exchange, research, and community outreach. Administrators of educational institutions and partners will find this study useful. For example, the network’s success has caught the attention of international partners who are replicating similar networks across the African continent.

Zoning regulation is considered as a tool used by government to control developments to ensure sustainability. In Ghana where about 80% of lands are held under customary land tenure systems, implementation of residential standards, which is a government function may conflict with customary norms of holding land. This paper uses case study to examine the implementation of residential policies and enforcement of residential standards in areas under customary land tenure in Ghana and if these policies and standards affect the enjoyment of land rights in the context of customary land tenure. Results showed that non-compliance to residential standards and non-conformity to the local plan has minimal interference on enjoyment of land rights. Residents are ignorant of the details of the residential standards and have never seen a zoning regulations document. There is also low level of monitoring and enforcement. Spatial analysis reveals four main types of non-conformity between orthophoto and local plans i) discrepancies in the orientation of the parcel boundaries, ii) discrepancies in the shapes of plot boundaries, iii) houses constructed on the plot boundary or straddle parcel boundaries, and iii) differences in plot sizes. Results suggest the need for planning authority to use efficient approaches such as GIS and UAV’s to communicate, monitor and enforce the residential standards. It is concluded that collaboration between customary land authorities and the Municipality during the allocation and development of plots may improve spatial conformity between orthophoto and the local plans.

Northern Ethiopia is characterised by fragile mountain eco-systems that are highly susceptible to land degradation, impacting food security and livelihoods. This study appraises Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) and their determinants from 2000 to 2020 in Dessie Zuria and Kutaber Woredas. It explores the LULCC and the key anthropogenic drivers of the change over the past 20 years through a mix of satellite imagery and a survey of local understandings. Six land use types (agriculture, forest, area closure, grazing, settlement and bare land) were mapped from satellite imagery that was acquired from Landsat 7 for the years 2000, 2005, and 2010, and Landsat 8 and OLI multispectral imageries for the years 2015 and 2020 with a spectral resolution of 30-m obtained from USGS. The results showed that agricultural land increased from 29.68% in 2000 to 35.77% in 2020.Furthermore, settlement and grazing lands enlarged from 5.95% and 6.04%, respectively, to 8.31% and 6.35% during the same period, while bare land increased from 9.89% to 10.92% in 2020. On the contrary, forest and area closure decreased from 18.45% and 29.99% to 17.8% and 17.38%, respectively. Meanwhile, population growth, unrestricted grazing, losing a sense of ownership of protected area closures and forests, lack of cooperation, using the free labour mobilisation schemes for government-induced agendas, weak enforcement of laws and bylaws, and engaging farmers for extended days on the campaign were prominent determinants of the changes. This research has implications for development actors across land management and food security towards implementing sustainable land management in the area and beyond.

Remotely sensed data is increasingly applied across many domains, including fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA), where the focus is on fast, affordable, and accurate property information collection. Property valuation, as one of the main functions of land administration systems, is influenced by locational, physical, legal, and economic factors. Despite the importance of property valuation to economic development, there are often no standardized rules or strict data requirements for property valuation for taxation in developing contexts, such as Rwanda. This study aims at assessing different remote sensing data in support of developing a new approach for property valuation for taxation in Rwanda; one that aligns with the FFPLA philosophy. Three different remote sensing technologies, (i) aerial images acquired with a digital camera, (ii) WorldView2 satellite images, and (iii) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images obtained with a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus quadcopter, are compared and analyzed in terms of their fitness to fulfil the requirements for valuation for taxation purposes. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied for the comparative analysis. Prior to the field visit, the fundamental concepts of property valuation for taxation and remote sensing were reviewed. In the field, reference data using high precision GNSS (Leica) was collected and used for quantitative assessment. Primary data was further collected via semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The results show that UAVs have the highest potential for collecting data to support property valuation for taxation. The main reasons are the prime need for accurate-enough and up-to-date information. The comparison of the different remote sensing techniques and the provided new approach can support land valuers and professionals in the field in bottom-up activities following the FFPLA principles and maintaining the temporal quality of data needed for fair taxation.

Land adjudication constitute a series of sequential steps that if followed carefully and correctly, can lead to a sufficient determination of the varied interests in land including whether, and where they overlap, complement, conflict or compete with each other. This is a preliminary study aiming to find out how the adjudication process as it is conducted in the context of a fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA). A framework of components for adjudication in the FFPLA context is first developed. Further, the steps involved in accomplishing the adjudication components are compiled, assessed, and discussed from the perspective of the theory of collaborative governance. The study poses questions for consideration by implementers of land tenure documentation activities on how to identify the interests in land as they exist in their undocumented form. An understanding of the interaction between different types of interests in land in undocumented form as defined from the perspective of the communities themselves rather than from the law, could help assess which tenures and their attributes—can overlap or complement each other, or inform how they equate to specific rights in the legal perspective with minimal conflicts.

Inequalities in land rights exist globally, both in formal and customary settings. This is because land rights are either strong or weak, and held by various categories of people. The weaker variants of the inequalities tend to stifle tenure security, reduce land use, and threaten the food security of those dependent on the land for survival. This paper investigated the implications of customary land rights inequalities and varying tenure insecurity for food security among smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana. It identified the nature of rights inequalities, the number of rights and in whose possession. The research also assessed the kinds and nature of land rights as well as how such rights affect people’s farm sizes and subsequently farming output for ultimate food security. The data collection techniques were focus group discussions and interviews of key informants and key players in key organisations. Results revealed the existence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers (settlers/migrants) who have both fewer and weaker land rights as compared to landowners who possess numerous and stronger rights in the study area. Results also showed that weak and unequally skewed land rights lead to uncertain tenure durations and reduced farm sizes, which affects farmed area, farm output, food availability, accessibility and food security. Furthermore, farmers expressed the need to apply coping strategies to overcome the impact of unequal land rights. This research recommends further studies to design intervention strategies to better understand land rights inequalities and their implications. The outcome is expected to contribute to informing interventions to narrow these inequalities and reduce the implications that can later enhance food security.

Resettlement resulting from dam construction has raised several concerns due to the negative aftermath impacts. In Ghana, the construction of three hydroelectric dams resulted in large-scale resettlements. Given the little experience that Ghana has in resettlements, it is necessary for a robust monitoring structure for resettlements. However, this was not available in the last resettlement undertaken for the Bui Dam Project. This paper aims at developing an assessment framework for monitoring resettlement activities on customary lands from a good governance perspective. Based on four good governance principles, transparency, public participation and inclusiveness, equity and rule of law and accountability, a good governance assessment framework is built and applied to the Bui Dam Project using a case study approach. Data were collected through interviews and focus group discussion with the key actors of the resettlement project. It was first found that the planning stage of the resettlement came out with a robust plan that was to prevent the impoverishment of the affected persons. However, in the implementation of the resettlement, not all good governance principles were adhered to. In conclusion, it was found that by deconstructing the resettlement process with a good governance framework, the problematic areas of the resettlement can be effectively differentiated between the planning and implementation phases.