Agenda 2030 makes it possible for countries to monitor the proportion of the total adult population with secure tenure rights to land. This indicator focuses on two components of tenure security that work to advance the concept of the continuum of tenure rights:
- The proportion of the adult population with documented tenure rights that are legally recognized by governments.
- The proportion of the adult population who perceive their tenure rights as legally secure, regardless of whether these rights are documented.
Legal documentation goes beyond land ownership by title deed and includes other legally enforceable documentation of user rights. For this component, National Statistical Offices (NSOs) will use administrative data from government registries and cadaster systems.
Security of tenure is the certainty that a person’s rights to land will be recognized by others and protected in cases of specific challenges. People with insecure tenure face the risk that their rights to land will be threatened by competing claims, and even lost as a result of eviction.
Measuring perception of tenure security entails capturing the extent to which individuals, households and communities perceive their tenure as secure and measuring their fears of threats to their land rights. Data on perception of tenure security will be collected through national population surveys (survey data). In addition to informal tenure rights holders, landholders with legally documented land rights may still feel that their land rights are vulnerable to infringement by outsiders.
Indicator 1.4.2 covers both rural and urban tenure. Indicator 1.4.2 is classified by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (IAEG-SDGs) as Tier III. This means the indicator’s conceptual clarity and the methodology for monitoring the indicator is currently being developed, and the indicator’s baseline data is being compiled.
GLII and the Global Donor Working Group on Land are supporting the efforts of the custodian agencies to elevate indicator 1.4.2 to Tier II status at the IAEG-SDGs meeting in November 2017. UNSD has announced that the 6th Meeting of the IAEG-SDGs will take place in Manama, Bahrain from 11-14 November 2017. Custodian agencies are expected to submit their request for reclassification including key documents in support of their request by October 2, 2017.
The ultimate goal of the custodian agencies and the land community at large is to achieve a Tier I status by end of 2018, when most countries will be able to report on this indicator on a regular basis.
| Indicator | Min-Max Number of years |
Countries / Obs | Min / Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insecure | |||
| Somewhat insecure | |||
| Secure | |||
| Percent of Indigenous and Community Lands - Formally recognised | |||
| Percent of Indigenous and Community Lands - Not formally recognised | |||
| Population living in slums (% of urban population) | |||
| Informal documentation | |||
| Formal documentation |
News and Blogs
Nearly five years into the implementation of the ground breaking global commitments of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the time is upon us to consider what has been accomplished so far and to set the tone for action that will enable the world to meet its ambitious goals.
Pouring several colors of paint into a single bucket produces a gray pool of muck, not a shiny rainbow. So too with discussions of financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Jumbling too many issues into the same debate leads to policy muddiness rather than practical breakthroughs. Financing the SDGs requires a much more disaggregated mindset: unpacking the specific issues, requiring specific resources, in specific places.
The inclusion of Sustainable Development Goal 1.4.2 and other land related indicators in the 2030 agenda remain a key achievement for global monitoring of land rights. However, such an achievement will only remain fruitful if we, as a global community, invest appropriately in the capacities and systems that are needed to activate the global reporting on these indicators at scale and in all countries.
Millions of peasant farmers in the rural areas of Sierra Leone do not own land of their own but have to rent from land owning families. Added to their poverty is the fact that they depend on Shylock money lenders to secure seeds and capital for their farming activities.
- 1 of 8
- next ›
Library Resources
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a conceptual framework of 17 goals and 169 targets. An abundance of interlinkages exists between them. Land targets are core to achieving most of the SDGs including poverty eradication, food security, gender equality and empowerment of women, adequate housing and urban development, mitigating and adapting to climate change, reducing and preventing land degradation, and fostering peace and stability for prosperity.
This study provides a case study of the mango value chain in Kenya and seeks to better understand key linkages between land rights and project outcomes. It explores (1) whether and how land rights for Kenya’s mango farmers affect project uptake and success; and (2) what (if any) are this project’s unintended consequences on land tenure in implementation areas.
This report presents the results of the multi-country assessment carried out in 17 countries across the world. The findings of this assessment is expected to directly inform the work of the co-custodian agencies for land Indicator 1.4.2 (UN-Habitat and World Bank) in formulating a coherent capacity development strategy for NSOs at country level, and strengthen their collaboration with land agencies for enhanced data infrastructure needed to regularly report on this indicator.
The document details the agreements of the Expert Group meeting on a set of defined questions that need to be asked in order to properly measure 1.4.2.
Legally recognized and secure land and resource rights are fundamental to the advancement of global peace, prosperity, and sustainability. From the development of human cultures to the realization of democracy itself, tenure security underpins the very fabric of human society and our relationship to the natural environment. Today, insecure tenure rights threaten the livelihoods and wellbeing of a third of the world’s population, and with it, the very future of our planet.
Indicator details
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
Global Donor Working Group on Land (GDWGL) confronts IAEG-SDG recommendation to delete Target 1.4.
3rd Expert Group Meeting: Using Administrative Data to Monitor SDG land
Particularly, the objectives of this EGM were to agree on the methodology to monitor indicator 1.4.2 pertaining to legally documented rights using administrative data and to assess availability of existing data and explore ways of institutionalizing reporting at country and regional level.
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.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future.
World Bank Group (WB)
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. The Conference was organized in response to the food crises of the early 1970s that primarily affected the Sahelian countries of Africa.
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
UNEP work encompasses: