Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure.
Last updated on 1 February 2022
This indicator is currently classified as Tier II aiming to achieve Tier 1 status in 2022. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the World Bank are the main Custodian agencies with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as partners.
Unit of measure: Proportion of people with legally recognized documentation of their rights to land out of total adult population, disaggregated by sex (%); Proportion of people who perceive their rights to land as secure, out of total adult population disaggregated by sex (%)
Why is this indicator important?
Access to land is central to ending poverty and gender inequality as well as contributing to food security. Securing tenure rights for all will ensure sustainable social and economic opportunities needed to eradicate poverty (SDG1), as well as contribute to the achievement of SDG2 on eradicating hunger, SDG5 on gender equality and empowerment of women, SDG11 on building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban areas, SDG15 on reducing land degradation and SDG16 on fostering peace and security.
Access to regular, quality and sex disaggregated data on land tenure rights is key for policy decisions in transforming the land sector with regard to responsible land governance and gender equality. The indicator contributes to tracking of progress on other global and regional commitments on land governance and development frameworks such as the Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure (VGGT), the New Urban Agenda and the Africa Union Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa and Agenda 2063. The indicator facilitates comparability of data between countries, which will also support regional and global advocacy and help identify good practice which can influence the development of land governance policy by various stakeholders at the national, regional, and international level.
How is the indicator measured and monitored?
According to the metadata document, the two sub-indicators provide complementary datasets drawing on censuses, national multi-topic household surveys, demographic and health surveys, urban inequity surveys, and, depending on availability, administrative data on land tenure as reported by land registries, cadasters, or relevant ministries. The indicator covers all tenure types, e.g., freehold, leasehold, public land, and customary land. Legal documentation goes beyond evidence of land ownership and includes also other legally enforceable documentation of rights to land. The perception of tenure security refers to an individual’s perception of the likelihood of involuntary loss of land regardless of the formal status.
According to the SDG Indicators Database managed by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), a total of 34 countries had reported data on SDG indicator 1.4.2 as of June 2021. FAO, UN-Habitat and World Bank developed a joint module covering data requirements for both 1.4.2 and 5.a.1 that is freely accessible and includes the essential questions required for these two indicators, and detailed guidance on how to integrated these in national survey instruments already in place.
By Anne Hennings, peer-reviewed by Everlyne Nairesiae, GLII Coordinator at the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) at GLTN, Un-Habitat and Clinton Omusula, Land Data and Knowledge Management Specialist at the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) at GLTN, UN-Habitat, and the World Bank.
Official indicator data
The number of men and women with documented evidence of secure tenure rights to individually or communally held land, property and natural resources divided by the total number of adult population surveyed x 100.
* Select "year" below to see the most recent data for more countries.
| Indicator | Min-Max Number of years |
Countries / Obs | Min / Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of adult population (both sexes) with legally recognized documentation on land | |||
| Proportion of people (both sexes) who perceive their rights as secured | |||
| Proportion of women with legally recognized documentation on land |
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These Prindex indicators provide further data relevant to SDG indicator 1.4.2.
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Indicator details
The indicator is conceptually clear, has an internationally established methodology and standards are available, but data is not regularly produced by countries.
Key dates:
Experts reach consensus on measuring Indicator 1.4.2.
Experts agree on a set of household survey questions that will be included in the global and national-level surveys and censuses to measure how secure peoples’ land and property rights are.
IAEG-SDG recommends deleting Target 1.4
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Sixth meeting of the IAEG-SDGs
Particularly the objectives of this meeting have been to review tier classification. The work of those in the land sector came to fruition when indicator 1.4.2 was finally bumped from Tier III to Tier II status.
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