Incidence and Impact of Land Conflict in Uganda

While there is a large, though
inconclusive, literature on the impact of land titles in
Africa, little attention has been devoted to the study of
land conflict, despite evidence on increasing incidence of
such conflicts. The authors use data from Uganda to explore
who is affected by land conflicts, whether recent legal
changes have helped to reduce their incidence, and to assess
their impact on productivity. Results indicate that
female-headed households and widows are particularly
affected and that the passage of the 1998 Land Act has
failed to reduce the number of pending land conflicts. The
authors also find evidence of a significant and
quantitatively large productivity-reducing impact of land
conflicts. This suggests that, especially in Africa,
attention to land-related conflicts and exploration of ways
to prevent and speedily resolve them would be an important
area for policy as well as research.