Access to land as a key prerequisite for poverty and hunger reduction in rural areas has improved for certain population groups, especially women and marginalised groups, in central, northern and eastern Uganda.
General introduction to the programme
Context
The livelihoods of large parts of the world’s population depend directly on access to land. If access is denied, the results are often hunger and underdevelopment. According to UN World Food Programme estimates, half of the 815 million people suffering from hunger in 2017 were members of smallholder families. Many landowners and land users possess only informal or traditional land rights, which are often not sufficiently recognised.
Secure land tenure is a key factor for the transformation of agricultural and food systems and a prerequisite for the eradication of hunger. For a large part of the world’s population, livelihoods depend directly on access to land and its secure long-term use. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that between 713 and 757 million people have faced hunger in 2023. Furthermore, food insecurity affects women disproportionately (FAO, 2024). In addition to more frequent extreme weather events, social conflicts and economic insecurities, growing inequality is an exacerbating factor of global hunger (BMZ, 2024). Globally, food insecurity is most prevalent in rural areas. Insecure tenure puts people at the risk of being evicted, displaced or losing access to the land or resources they depend on. Insecure tenure can be a cause for national and international migration flows and threatens the social cohesion of nations as well as entire regions.
Alongside its economic value, land is accorded high traditional, religious and social value in almost all cultures. However, large-scale investments are placing growing pressure on land as a resource. In the absence of protective measures and transparency, as well as inadequate conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms, such investments often lead to conflict, forced expropriation and displacement. Thus, the pressure on land continues to intensify as it becomes increasingly scarce.
Many countries have committed themselves to good land governance and have signed up to the United Nations’ Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). Yet, they still face considerable challenges in upholding these commitments. The rural population, especially women and socially marginalised groups, often lack reliable access to land.
What are the VGGTs?The VGGT are the internationally negotiated framework to improve land governance. Drafted by over 1000 stakeholders with different cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the VGGT were negotiated by Member States of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and endorsed on 11 May 2012. These guidelines aim to improve governance of tenure to achieve food security and sustainable development, ensuring that tenure rights are respected and protected. (VGGT, 2012) You can read more about the VGGTs here on Landportal. For more information you can also read our updated Global Programme brochure. This is the official VGGT document by the FAO. |
Challenges
The vast majority of the global population lacks formalized land rights. Just 30% of the global population has access to a land administration system that guarantees documented and officially recognized land rights (Worldbank, 2017). A striking number of landowners and land users only hold informal or traditionally granted rights – in Sub-Saharan Africa only 10% of land is formally documented (GIZ, 2016: 10). Land rights span from informal or customary rights as lose agreements to formal rights recognized and documented by the state, a situation characterized as a “Continuum of Land Rights” by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) (GLTN, 2014). Worldwide, only 30 states have legislation that adequately recognizes those traditional land rights (GIZ, 2016: 44). Without adequate consideration, structures often overlap and cause insecurity over land and resources.
What is the Continuum of Land Rights?The concept of the continuum of land rights originates from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), which is supported by UN-Habitat. The continuum of land rights is a framework that recognises a range of land tenure types, from informal to formal, and emphasises that different forms of tenure can co-exist and be recognised as legitimate. This approach aims to provide secure land rights for all people, especially the poor and marginalised, by recognising and supporting diverse tenure systems rather than focusing exclusively on formal land title. “Land tenure rights are now widely understood to be made up of a bundle of rights and to be on a continuum of land rights with formal rights (e.g. registered freehold ownership) at one end of the continuum and informal rights (e.g. undocumented rights of occupation) at the other. In between these is a range of rights that are not necessarily on a straight line but in fact overlap with one another. This is not intended to suggest that one or other end of the continuum is the better option, but to recognise that there exist a range of tenure options that can be more or less appropriate and effective within particular contexts (GLTN, 2015; GLTN, 2012). The theory of a bundle of rights goes beyond a narrow conceptualisation of ownership to take into consideration the fact that, like a bundle of sticks, tenure rights involve many parts – such as the right to use land in particular ways, to sell, to bequeath, to encumber with debt, to lease, to defend from use by others, etc. These combinations (bundles) of rights vary in different contexts, including in the way that some parts of the bundle may be held by different people (GLTN, 2015).” (ILC, 2019: 22)
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The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) by UN-Habitat is an alliance of international partners focused on improving access to land and securing land tenure for all, particularly the poor and women. Its partners include international civil society organizations, research and training institutions, bilateral and multilateral organizations, and professional bodies. GLTN develops, disseminates, and implements land tools that are pro-poor and gender-responsive, contributing to land reform, good governance, inclusive administration, sustainable management, and sector coordination. Conventional land administration often fails to provide necessary systemic and inclusive changes, covering only about 30% of land in many developing countries and excluding the poorer majority. GLTN advocates for recognizing a broader range of land rights, including individual, informal, customary, and group rights, emphasizing the importance of tenure security. (GLTN, 2024)
Approaches of the Global Programme
In cooperation with policymakers in the partner countries, the programme teams are working to improve the framework conditions for good land governance. Together with its partners, the programme aims to introduce transparent procedures and mechanisms in land administration, thereby improving the population’s situation with respect to land rights.
The programme tackles conflicts and displacement due to insecure land rights, the specific disadvantages of Indigenous People and local communities (IPLC), the rights of women and marginalized groups and the need to set incentives for sustainable environmental, social and economic development. The strategy of the Global programme is to involve international actors to engage in the topic and in action plans and to bring together multiple actors from different backgrounds in the partner countries.
The activities in the GPRLP fall into three interrelated areas of action:
- Securing land rights for the rural population through improved institutional capacities and procedures. Capacities regarding the formalization of land rights are enhanced through institutional learning and the introduction of technological innovations. In Peru [link to country page], the main emphasis was on land titles for the areas of indigenous communities, while in Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Laos and Uganda it is on strengthening individual and collective land and usage rights. Here, the legal security is improved through property titles and long-term leases. The project closely collaborates with related projects who use secure land rights as basis for further activity such as soil conservation and forest rehabilitation.
- Promoting the participation of civil society in responsible land policy. Support to Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in the participation of responsible land governance. Civil society groups like farmer organisations and indigenous people’s organisations are strengthened and supported in active participation in policy dialogues. The project team supports civil society groups that participate in the implementation of new procedures for securing land rights. Civil society actors take on an important role in monitoring conflicts and shaping dialogue processes, and act as service providers.
- Improving the framework conditions for responsible private agricultural investment. Sensitization of agricultural investors for international and national guidelines and legislation. Responsible investments in line with established legislation and international guidelines like the VGGT and PRAI are supported by measures of capacity building, awareness raising and dialogue facilitation of state actors, private sector, CSO and local land users in order to consider the rights and needs of the local population. In Ethiopia, Uganda and Laos, this field of action is supported and deepened through European Union co-financing (Responsible Governance of Investment in Land, RGIL).
The VGGTs and the ‘Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment’ (RAI) of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) guide the project’s actions. The activities in the target regions in Madagascar are being implemented by the ECO-GOPA-Land Resources working group.
Our approach consists of 7 seven pillars based on the VGGTs, which are:
- Awareness raising of partner institutions and local people in the context of changing legal frameworks.
- Establishment of mechanisms to monitor and solve land conflicts.
- Participatory land registration and titling
- Digitalisation of land registration and information systems.
- Support do enhance management of communal land.
- Sustainable management and rehabilitation of landscapes based on tenure security.
- Incorporation pf the private sector.
For more detailed information about this approach, you can read the Global Programme’s project brochure.
Results
The global programme has already been able to strengthen the land rights of over 584.000 small farming households. Of these, more than 371.000 households (63%) have registered their land rights in the name of the woman or together as a couple. Over 60.400 households of marginalized groups have received land ownership rights (e.g. property titles, long-term leases, certificates) that are recognised by the state and traditional authorities). 47 indigenous communities have received documented land use or land ownership rights.
The programme has helped to resolve more than 10.200 land conflicts which amounts to 82% of the registered conflicts.
More than 335 agricultural investors follow international guidelines and thus contribute to sustainable development.
Furthermore, the global programme saves and shares “Good Practices” from the county projects. So far 32 Good practices and lessons learnt are implemented outside the project regions.
The impacts and effects of the implementation of the global programme intersect with improved food security, sustainable land use, sustainable investment, conflict resolution and social cohesion, climate and forest protection, as well as gender empowerment and inclusion of marginalised groups (pastoralists, IPLC, ethnic minorities, IDPs, refugees and migrants, and youth). The programme also has an impact by facilitating cooperation with the private sector and strengthening digitisation.
What are "Good practices"?Successful approaches that are replicable and can be scaled have been summarised into Good Practices for sharing with a wider audience. Viable solutions to wider regional problems, lessons learnt, the benefits of different approaches, their usability as well as their processes are elaborated. They include a summary of the background and context of what the approach is about and what the project aims to address. The positive changes that resulted from the good practice and the approach of the practice are the core of the presentation. In the final section, we present how the practice can be replicated and what key requirements are needed to scale up or implement the practice elsewhere. Good practices are a chance to leave a lasting impact by sharing sustainable approaches and lessons learned with the land community. |
Resources
Among the resources we share in the Land Library you can find:
- Good practices
- Factsheets
- Impact assessments
- Guides about diverse topics such as responsible land-based investment for communities and investors and gender transformative land acquisition
- Manuals and training handbooks
- Methodological guides on how to implement land tenue security.
- Studies on women’s rights regarding land tenure, on the impact of the GP in different countries, on the implementation of policies for indigenous tenure security etc.
- Explanation sheets and our approaches and methods.
You can either go on our specific country pages and find the resources from the specific region or you can look us up in the Library Search tab as well as in the Library Sources tab.
The topics of our resources on Land Portal:
- The intersecting themes and topics of our knowledge resources here on the Land Library are:
- Deforestation, Climate Change, Forest and Landscape Restoration, Agroforestry
- Private Sector Engagement and Investment, Responsible Governance of Investments in Land, Agriculture Investment, Business Management, Responsible Investment, Investor and Stakeholder Fora
- Women’s access to Land, Gender Transformative Approaches (GTA)
- Digitalisation, Land Administration Systems, Digital Innovations
- Land Conflicts and Dispute Resolution
- Agropastoralism
- Customary Land Management, Customary use and ownership rights, Land titling for Natives and IPLC, Indigenous Tenure Security
- Participatory Land Use Planning, Community Engagement, Community Land Management, Land Capacity Building
- Land Rights, Codes of Practice, Environmental and Social Safeguards
- Policy Recommendations/Briefs
Institutional Context
The GIZ
As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, GIZ is dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of its federal enterprise is in demand around the globe – from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector, and governments of other countries. GIZ works with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. The main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The commissioning parties and cooperation partners all place their trust in GIZ, and its teams work with them to generate ideas for political, social and economic change, to develop these into concrete plans and to implement them. Since GIZ is a public-benefit federal enterprise, German and European values are central to its work. Together with its partners in national governments worldwide and cooperation partners from the worlds of business, research and civil society, we work flexibly to deliver effective solutions that offer people better prospects and sustainably improve their living conditions.
To the GIZ Global Programme Page.
To the GIZ Website.
The SI-AGER and the BMZ
The global programme is part of the Special Initiative (SI) “Transformation of Agricultural and Food Systems” (formerly “One World – No hunger”, 2014-2022) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The SI aims to contribute to fighting hunger and malnutrition around the world by strengthening rural development as the basis of food security, contributing to global structural policy at the multilateral and international level, promoting gender equality, developing and piloting innovative approaches and promoting applied research as well as integrating the special initiative into existing cooperation with partner countries – to foster the development of sustainable agricultural and food systems even more. (BMZ, 2023)
RGIL and the EU
The “Promoting Responsible Governance of Investments in Land” (RGIL) project was implemented in Ethiopia, Laos and Uganda. RGIL aimed to ensure that investments in land are productive, contribute to sustainable land management and respect the rights and needs of local populations, in particular vulnerable groups and women. The project was co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with a total volume of 16.000.000 EUR.
On Landportal you can find the RGIL Information sheet.
RGIL