Land registration and titling in Africa are often advocated as a pro-poor legal empowerment strategy. Advocates have put forth different visions of the substantive goals this is to achieve. Some see registration and titling as a way to protect smallholdersrights of access to land. Others frame land registration as part of community-protection or ethno-justice agendas. Still others see legal empowerment in the market-enhancing commodification of property rights. This paper contrasts these different visions;showing that each entails tensions and trade-offs.

In Kasangulu;a city of about 28,000 people on the outskirts of Kinshasa;the Drones for Land Clarification and the Empowerment of Women project is demonstrating how digital tools and participatory processes can help vulnerable communities formalise and protect their land and property rights;while reducing potential conflicts and modernising land governance systems. The pilot project helped the DRC land administration modernise its land management tools and establish a digital;automated cadastral database for Kasangulu.

The Key Messages on Sustaining Peace through Women’s Empowerment and Increased Access to Land and Property Rights in Fragile and Conflict-affected Contexts were intended to provide a reference on how to empower women and protect their housing;land and property rights in fragile and crisis affected contexts;and to set out why this is an essential element to sustain peace and stability. The publication includes a list of resources to further inform the development of related programmes and projects.