Secure and equitable land tenure underpins pro-poor economic growth, especially in agriculture, by allowing the poor to achieve productive livelihoods and gain access to markets and services. Equitable land distribution widens agricultural opportunities for the poor, makes better use of their labour and thus increases production and economic growth. However, there is often competition for diminishing land supplies between the demands of large-scale commercial agriculture and the needs of small-scale farming and other extensive land uses. Land policy needs to enable commercial investment and job creation without overriding established rights, or damaging common property resources, or generating conflict and insecurity (especially where there is a divide between customary and formalized tenure). The reform processes for strengthening security of tenure and improving access to land are – both politically and technically – complex and long-term ones, requiring well co-ordinated international finance, technical assistance and policy guidance. NRI’s partnership with IIED and Oxfam in The Land Policy Group has been at the forefront of new thinking about land policy issues and the delivery of appropriate assistance to developing countries.

NRI has been assisting land tenure and management programmes in Malawi, Ghana and Guyana, and has contributed to a SADC regional land reform facility. In the Upper East Region of Ghana, NRI has undertaken research on the integration of customary and statutory systems of land and water resources management within a programme of sustainable agricultural development. Current land tenure systems have been characterized, and their effects on agricultural development have been determined. This allows analysis of the extent to which customary tenure systems either conflict with or complement modern land management systems.