Analysis of land tenure governance
The issue of the governance of natural resources and land has been the subject of national and international debate in recent years at national and international levels. This tool, without being an evaluation framework for governance, has therefore taken into account conceptual frameworks developed in this respect and offers in the various modules components that could, if desired, be used to carry out an analysis of LAP impacts on land governance. The various principles taken into account for the analysis of land governance are presented below, along with the modules containing information on this subject.
Tax impacts
On an international level, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT)1 represent a uniquely legitimate evaluation framework in the context of national food security, as these guidelines were agreed by all the member countries of the Committee on Food Security (CFS), by private world players and players in civil society organizations, such as farmers’ groups, peasants and indigenous groups.
It should therefore be noted that this framework allows information to be generated on the impacts of LAPs in relation to good land governance regarding the creation of policies, standards and the development of services provided by land administration institutions.
As regards this tool, the VVGT were taken into account both when designing the theoretical frameworks and expected outcomes of LAPs in the various areas of national life and when developing tools focused on more specific components of the evaluation of the results and impacts of these programmes. Table 1 shows the aspects of the VVGT which were considered in this tool.
The principles of implementing VVGT and the modules in this guide
The principles of implementing VVGT and the modules in this guide
SECTIONS | LAP IMPACT EVALUATION | EVALUATION SECTOR |
|---|---|---|
1 . Preliminary Postulates | ||
2 . General Issues | ||
• 3B Implementation principles | X | Module 2 LAI, |
• Rights and duties over land tenure | ||
3 . Juridical Recognition, Rights and Dutie Assignation | ||
• Safeguards | ||
• Land, fisheries and public forests | X | Module 3 Sub-national entities, |
• Indigenous people and other communities with traditional systems of tenure | X | Module 3 Sub-national entities, |
• Informal tenure | X | |
4 . Transfers and other changes on the rights and duties of tenure | ||
• Markets | X | Module 2 LAI, |
• Investments | ||
• Parcel consolidation and other approaches of readjustment | ||
• Restitution | ||
• Redistributive reforms | ||
• Compulsory land purchase and compensation | ||
4.1 Tenure Administration | ||
• Register of tenure rights | X | |
• Valuation | X | Module 2 LAI, |
• Taxation | X | Module 3 Sub-national Entities, |
• Land use planning | X | Module 3 Sub-national entities, |
• Dispute resolution over land tenure | X | Module 2 LAI, |
• Issues related to international borders | ||
4.2 Climate change and emergency situations response | ||
• Climate change | ||
• Natural disasters | ||
• Disputes over land tenure, fishery and forest | X | |
4.3 Promotion, implementation, monitoring and evaluation | ||
• Promotion, implementation, monitoring and evaluation | X | Module 2 LAI, |
Source: FAO-CSA 2013 and authors
Principles of implementing VVGT
Principles of implementing VVGT
Human dignity, non-discrimination, fairness, justice and gender equity
The evaluation framework proposed here seeks to analyse whether the principles of human dignity, non-discrimination, fairness, justice and gender equity have been taken into account when developing the new land administration services provided by LAIs and subnational entities. The tool contains recommendations and instruments for measuring the increase in service cover and the reduction in costs, as well as fairness of access. One of the aims is to evaluate improvements in human capabilities within the LAIs and subnational entities and in gender equity among staff within these institutions. A further aim is to evaluate the legal and effective recognition of women’s rights to land access and control (household level) and of territories under customary law or under a special arrangement (territorial level).
Holistic and sustainable approach
The holistic and sustainable approach is analysed from the perspective of territorial planning as regards subnational entities, which should include the recognition of macro-areas for the more organized management of urban and rural spaces and also of natural resources. A further aim is to evaluate how the recognition of indigenous territorial rights and the promotion of natural resource management plans help to strengthen local governance practices. The tool also provides a means of measuring how the improvement in land administration services contributes to the financial sustainability of the institutions which provide it. Finally, the sustainability approach is also included at the level of households that are direct beneficiaries of regularization or titling of tenure, through the sustainable livelihoods analysis framework.
Consultation and participation
The importance of consultation and participation is taken into account at the various evaluation levels. The strengthening of participatory forms of decision-making is analysed in matters relating to land administration, territorial planning and the political framework (institutional and municipal levels, and indigenous territories). The aim is to evaluate the impacts of tenure recognition on increasing rights and civic duties within the municipal district analysed as factors that improve political participation and forms of citizen consultation.
Rule of law
In relation to extending the rule of law, communication programmes are analysed as instruments for promoting the understanding of the rights and obligations of individuals and of the procedures for recognizing these. These communication programmes accompanied by improvements in services are also analysed in terms of transparency. The transparency of the information on land ownership and tax contributions is also analysed by evaluation of the collection of information/cadastral updating and of cadastre-register linking systems.
Legal recognition and assigning ownership rights and duties
One of the key objectives of LAPs is the legal and effective recognition of the various forms of land tenure. For this purpose, this guide analyses through various indicators and instruments the improvements in delimitation and their ability to ensure that limits are recognized in households and in subnational entities. A further aim is to evaluate recognition of the territories of indigenous peoples and other communities with traditional ownership systems, and their forms of government and resource management. See the corresponding fact sheet in the Subnational entities module.
Transfers and other changes in ownership rights and duties
The guide analyses factors that allow the development of more active, transparent markets and proposes indicators for the approximate measurement of the results and effects of LAPs in this field:
- Correct working of information systems, improved and linked between the various sectors (see fact sheet on Evaluation of the impact of adopting new technologies in module 2).
- The quantity and quality of information on the parcel and its owners.
- A better perception of the security and legal certainty of tenure among households (see fact sheet on indicators for evaluating impacts on households in module 4).
- The increase in the number of transactions carried out in the Registry (see fact sheet on the Registry Mobility Index in module 2).
Administration of ownership
One of the main effects of LAPs is an improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of LAS (see introduction) in which registers of individual and collective ownership rights are strengthened and/or created. Information collection and cadastral updating (Module 2 LAI, Module 3 Subnational entities), land register modernization and updating systems and strengthening of titling institutions (Module 2 LAI) have been analysed for this purpose. The coverage of land administration services (Module 2 LAI, Module 3 Subnational entities) is also analysed to encourage indiscriminate access to these services.
The guide thus proposes indicators and evaluation methods mainly located in different modules of the tool:
- The increase in the efficiency of LAI and user satisfaction, in particular for services provided by the land register (see fact sheet on Reducing time and cost to register a property in Module 2 LAI).
- The quality of cadastral mapping and its costs (see fact sheet on Quality control of cadastral mapping and fact sheet on Costs of cadastral mapping in Module 2).
- The financial sustainability of land administration institutions (see fact sheet on Analysis of financial sustainability Module 2).
- Valuing properties through municipal land administration systems, through the increase in the capabilities of municipal cadastral units (see fact sheet on Measuring the increase in property value in Module 5).
- The increase in raising taxes, mainly at a municipal level (see fact sheet on Evaluation of tax impact Module 5).
- The contribution to settling land ownership disputes (see fact sheet on Monitoring disputes Module 2).
Promotion, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
The aim of this tool is to provide public institutions, civil society organizations and international cooperation agencies with a conceptual and methodological framework for monitoring and evaluating the results and effects of reforms related to Land Policy and Governance at various levels of society. This tool seeks, as proposed by the VGGT, “a process of integration and participation, sensitive to issues of gender, that is achievable and effective in terms of costs, and sustainable”.
The Land Governance Assessment Framework: legal and institutional analysis
The Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) is a diagnostic tool for evaluating legal frameworks, public policies and practices relating to land and its use, designed by the World Bank. It has also been considered in the contents of this guide as shown in Table 3.
The LGAF groups evaluation subjects into five areas regarded as areas of political intervention in land matters: i) Legal and Institutional Framework; ii) Land Use, Administration and Taxation Planning; iii) Administration of State Land; iv) Provision to the Public of Land Information; v) Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management.
LGAF implementation principles and the modules in this guide
LGAF implementation principles and the modules in this guide
Table 3: Aspects considered in the different modules of the tool
EVALUATION AREAS OF LGAF | AREA OF EVALUATION | IMPACT EVALUATION OF LAP |
|---|---|---|
1. Legal and institutional framework | x | Module 2 LAI, |
2. Land use planning, land administration and taxation | x | Module 3 Sub-national entities, |
3. State land administration | ||
4. Providing land information to the users | x | Module 2 LAI, |
5. Conflict management and dispute resolutions | x |
Source: World Bank 2012 and Authors
LGAF implementation principles
LGAF implementation principles
Legal and institutional framework
The legal and institutional framework is evaluated by the LGAF according to the clarity of the mandates that govern land administration institutions, transparency and fairness in political processes. The degree of recognition of existing rights to land, its level and cost, and the investment necessary to make improvements in security and legal certainty of tenure are also considered.
The legal and institutional framework is analysed in this guide on two levels. First, it is evaluated as part of the factors external to LAPs capable of influencing the scope of the results they can achieve (see external factors in each chapter). Second, the actions of LAPs that help to implement political, legal and regulatory frameworks are analysed. Within the institutional framework, the guide analyses the role, effectiveness and sustainability of the institutions responsible for identifying, recognizing and registering the various forms of ownership (LAI and Subnational entities). Parcel information systems are analysed by means of cadastre-register linking systems and by interinstitutional linking.
Planning and management of soil use and taxation
For the analysis of planning and management of soil use, territorial planning within municipal districts and indigenous territory delimitation are analysed. The results frameworks presented in each module also allow analysis of ways of linking information and systems involved in decision-making about territorial planning and soil management and the creation of management plans (See Module 3 Effects of LAPs at subnational entity level). For tax collection and management the aim is to evaluate coverage and improvements made to the cadastre (see fact sheet on Quality control of cadastral mapping and fact sheet on Costs of cadastral mapping in Module 2), the tax collection capacity of municipal districts and the increase in tax collection, mainly at municipal level (see fact sheet on Evaluation of tax impact Module 5).
Ownership information systems
In the module on land administration services, the guide provides methods for evaluating the functionality, reliability and ongoing updating of ownership information systems and in particular cadastre-register linking systems (see fact sheet on Evaluation of the impact of adopting new technologies in Module 2). In municipal districts, the aim is also to measure whether the updating of cadastral information generated by LAPs is appropriate and how it is used in municipal districts (fact sheet on Quality control of cadastral mapping and fact sheet on Costs of cadastral mapping in Module 2).
Dispute resolution and conflict management
Resolving disputes and conflicts is analysed at different levels in the LAI module, which analyses whether institutional mechanisms exist and are working, and in the households module, to find out how households have been exposed to these mechanisms and what have been the results of these efforts (see fact sheet on Conflict monitoring Module 2).
Governance at territorial level: analysis at subnational entity level
Considering the trends towards the decentralization of land administration systems in Latin America, this tool proposes evaluation methods for measuring how LAPs are helping to strengthen local governance practices in relation to land ownership systems. The term governance covers various concepts and, as we have seen, there are various ways of evaluating how societies improve these practices.
Analysis at municipal level. To evaluate governance at municipal level, the tool is thus based on the criteria established by UN-Habitat in the Global Urban Governance Campaign2.
This framework for governance analysis is based on the following:
- Sustainability: the balance between socioeconomic and environmental needs, taking into account the needs of present and future generations;
- Subsidiarity: adequate state presence to ensure that subsidiarity is constant and can provide efficient, viable services;
- Fair access: men and women must share equally in decision-making processes, and in assigning and distribution processes;
- Efficiency: public services and the development of local economies must be financially profitable and viable;
- Transparency and accountability: making and applying decisions must be done in line with legal statutes and regulations;
- Civic commitment and exercise of citizenship: citizens must be empowered to take part effectively in decision-making processes;
- Security: prevention of crimes and natural disasters, protection against persecution and forced eviction, and better provision of land security.
Criteria for local governance and impacts of LAPs
Criteria for local governance and impacts of LAPs
According to UN-Habitat in the Global Urban Governance Campaign, the effects of LAPs can be analysed at subnational entity level as follows (see fact sheet on Local Governance Analysis in Module 3).
Sustainability
By increasing local tax collection so that the costs of cadastral units can be covered, territorial development plans produced for better management of natural resources and productive areas, and social infrastructure developed.
Subsidiarity
Municipal authorities can represent the most immediate link for the population to Land Administration Services on a national level. Owing to the connected nature of national and municipal ownership information systems, individuals can carry out more secure, efficient property transactions.
Fair access
Decentralized land administration systems improve access to information and to more secure property transactions for populations that are more remote from capitals or cities where services are usually concentrated. The recognition of women’s rights and ownership rights in indigenous territories also facilitates access to land and to new support programmes by the government, international cooperation or private initiative.
Efficiency
As mentioned above, one of the main aims of LAPs is to reduce the costs and time of services provided by LAIs, also considered to include municipal cadastral units.
Transparency and accountability
Efforts made by LAPs to improve land administration in municipal districts and indigenous territories involve greater transparency in collection and use of local taxes, and in tenure information systems.
Civic commitment and exercise of citizenship
By strengthening individual or collective ownership rights, citizens are empowered to take part in local and national development policies. Cadastral mapping processes and municipal public exhibitions, where land ownership information is validated, also help to strengthen citizen involvement.
Security
By regularizing and titling municipal land and indigenous territories, LAPs seek to strengthen security and legal certainty of tenure, both individually and collectively. Territorial planning and the delimitation of risk areas also help to provide greater security for citizens against natural disasters.
Analysis at indigenous territory level
As regards indigenous territories where LAPs act in different ways to recognize ownership rights and/or the delimitation of communal land (see fact sheet on monitoring titling in indigenous communities and territories in Module 3), an evaluation of the effects of interventions on local governance is based on five thematic areas:
- Security and legal certainty of land tenure
- Management of ownership disputes
- Local administration system
- Territorial and natural resource management
- Linking and coordination with other players