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The Government of the Gambia has acknowledged that a prudent and sustainable management of the country‟s limited land resources is an essential precondition to poverty reduction and national food security. A critical step towards the realization of current national strategic objectives
would be an evaluation of the land governance environment to determine where the country stands. In order to evaluate and prioritize these issues more systematically, country experts utilized the Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) developed by the World Bank and its
partners. In general, the recognition of rights to land and forests is strong in the Gambia in both rural and urban areas, as is the accessibility of forums for dispute resolution. However, the country has no unified land policy, very little incorporation of equity considerations, overlaps in
the legal framework and a lack of adequate regulation and procedures required for implementation. Most urban land is registered, but procedures for the registration of customary land are weak, while the process for transferring customary land to leaseholds lacks transparency. Urban plans and other spatial information are more than two decades out-of-date,and cannot guide the fast expansion of urban development or the availability of t housing. The
LGAF panels identified a number of recommendations to address the most pressing issues of land governance in the Gambia in the short-term. A comprehensive reform would require the establishment of a National Land Commission as proposed in the Constitution.