Land governance matters

Land governance is the framework of rules, processes and institutions that determines who can access land, how it is used, and how decisions are made, enforced and contested.

It covers the full spectrum of land-related issues, from recognising rights and resolving disputes to records management, planning, taxation and valuation. It also brings together a diverse ecosystem of institutions and actors across statutory, customary, religious and informal systems.

Land governance helps to build and strengthen resilience and durable solutions that respond to FCDO and partner government priorities.

Through our projects, LF responds to those priorities, enabling:

Weak land governance means insecure land tenure, legal and spatial data gaps, misaligned incentives and disputes which undermine climate action.

Upstream land governance reforms will amplify success and enable scaling of community action to secure their tenure and the many other climate actions needed to meet climate objectives.

  • Investment: weak land governance heightens social, operational, legal and financial risk; affecting levels and benefit from investment in climate and nature solutions.
  • Security: Insecurity of tenure e.g., for Indigenous Peoples and local communities stewarding natural resources, is a reality accelerating conflict risk around climate change.
  • Urgency: Pressures on land are increasing interacting with climate and conflict dynamics; accelerating risk related to weak land governance and increasing urgency of solutions
  • Opportunity: Achieving climate-positive land governance is within reach: government commitment and finance are rising, community action is strong and know-how exists.

Land governance is a critical and complex factor in fragile and conflict-affected settings and central to FCDO cross-cutting priorities.

Weak land governance fuels conflict. Secure land governance builds resilience and sustains peace.

  • Scarcity: Pressure on land is increasing. Population growth, resource degradation, water scarcity, and climate change intensify competition, migration and disputes.
  • Ownership: Who owns land, who can use it, and who controls it is often at the heart of fragility, crisis and recovery.
  • Conflict: Poor land governance affects and is affected by conflict leading to grievances and displacement, reconstruction challenges and delays in recovery.
  • Stability: Good land governance reduces risks and supports stability with food security and resilient livelihoods.

Strong property rights are linked with improved macroeconomic growth; increases in GDP growth, per capita income levels, and higher rates of private investment.

Land is an income-generating asset and a means of shelter, subsistence and identity. Secure, formal rights protect this asset, motivate investment in it, and can improve access to credit.

  • Land markets and investment: secure rights and accessible, reliable land registry systems lower transactions costs, improve land allocation and increase the propensity to invest.
  • Revenue generation: reduced informality and modern land administration can generate significant domestic revenues, supporting increased investment in public goods and services.
  • Supply chain security: land tenure security and reliable land information help businesses avoid costly disputes with communities and meet emerging trade requirements, e.g., EUDR.
  • Inclusion: land governance reform can expand access to land and the ability to leverage land for improved livelihoods; increasing resilience to shocks and helping reduce poverty. 

Good land governance contributes to sustainable agricultural growth and rural livelihood opportunities; these feed the future through food supply, food access and child nutrition.

Land governance reforms complement improvements in agricultural market access, service provision, and finance amplifying the impact of these and promoting inclusion.

  • Supply: secure tenure increases the propensity for productivity enhancing investment in agriculture and in job-creating enterprise, increasing food supply and access.
  • Access: secure access to land supports access to food directly, through producing for home consumption and also by improving income generating opportunities.
  • Nutrition: women’s land rights security improves nutritional outcomes for children.
  • Sustainability: inclusive economic growth, climate and nature protection, peace and security and gender equality are enabled by improved land governance and support food security.

Nearly half of all countries lack strong legal protections for women’s land rights. Even where laws exist, customary and family laws often override gender equality.

Yet, secure access to land for women underpins gender equality and economic empowerment; improving food security, conservation, resilience, and inclusive growth outcomes.

  • Empowerment: with secure land rights, women participate more in household and community decision-making; their access to and control over income increases.
  • Sustainable livelihoods: women invest in soil conservation and sustainable land uses when their rights are secure; access to land opens pathways to resilience.
  • Child well-being: secure women’s land rights link to improved child health, education, nutrition outcomes due to their increased control over land and household resource allocation.
  • Reduced violence: intimate partner violence is often lower when women have land rights; women’s land rights support community stability and recovery post-conflict.

How LF can contribute

LF activities can contribute to reform processes related to one or more elements of land governance, including:

  • Recognition, documentation and enforcement of rights;
  • Land administration systems to record rights, uses and transfers;
  • Land use and territorial planning;
  • Land markets and land-based investment practices;
  • Taxation and valuation;
  • Public taking and land allocation;
  • Restitution and conflict resolution.
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