This report evaluates the legal
framework for rural land rights, the regulations of rural
housing sites, the effects of land requisition on farmers
who lose land, and some selected issues affecting urban land
rights. The focus of this report is how to enhance property
rights in a number of different contexts. The report makes a
series of specific policy recommendations for rural
agricultural land, rural housing land, to protect rights in

The report, Land Tenure for Social and
Economic Inclusion in Yemen: Issues and Opportunities was
completed in December 2009. The report addresses the
problems of land ownership in Yemen and the various social
and economic problems associated with the system of land
ownership. Property rights under Yemeni Law are expressed
both in custom and statute, but both are informed by shari a
(Islamic law), which provides the basic property categories

This case study draws on research that investigated the extensive informal land market in Maputo, Mozambique; specifically, how urban land is transacted and the mechanisms by which it is secured. The case study is based on a research study managed by Caroline Wanjiku Kihato and Lauren Royston, and undertaken by José Alberto Raimundo (Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo) and Inês Macamo Raimundo (Universidade Eduardo Modlane, Maputo). The work received technical and financial support from Urban LandMark.

On Boxing Day morning, 2004, a 9.3
magnitude earthquake struck the Indian Ocean. The quake
unleashed a blast of energy and created a tsunami three
stories high. The disaster claimed more than 228,000 lives,
affected 2.5 million others and caused close to US $11.4
billion of damage in 14 countries. By far the highest price
was paid by Aceh, where more people died than in all the
other countries combined. In Banda Aceh, the capital of the

Land markets that allow access to
land-and to buildings-through secure property rights, at
transparent prices, and with efficient permitting processes
and land tax systems are essential to a good business
environment. Creating such markets, however, can be a long,
complex, politically charged process, especially where most
land is untitled and where there are conflicting claims. But
experience points to practical interim or step solutions

When it comes to strategy, the Chinese
have a saying: 'think big, start small, but move
fast.' This has been our guiding philosophy for the
pilot land reforms of the World Bank-Department of
International Development (DFID) sub national Investment
Climate Program (ICP) in Nigeria. The challenge was to find
a 'small' reform entry point from which to
'move fast' on this sensitive and difficult topic,

The Cambodian Land Law (2001) provides
indigenous ethnic minority groups with a right to register
their traditional residential and agricultural lands under
communal title. To date, however, this right has remained
unrealized. While the government has been working on a pilot
registration process in three villages and drafting
implementing regulations under the land law, Cambodia's
once remote highlands have become increasingly exposed to

Rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire
account for 55 percent of the total population. Rural people
rely heavily on export- and food-crop production as their
primary source of livelihood. However, 71 percent of the
rural population live below the poverty line. The government
and the Bank agree that access to land and natural resource
management are critical factors in coping with the rural
crisis. The government invited the Bank to help meet the

The note looks at poverty in Ecuador,
assessing macroeconomic developments through its policies to
maintain stability with fiscal discipline, and increase
economic productivity and competitiveness, in particular,
the 1998/99 crisis, the 2000 dollarization and their effect
on poverty. From 1990 to 2001, national consumption-based
poverty rose from 40 to 45 percent, and the number of poor
people increased from 3.5 to 5.2 million. Poverty increased

This article addresses the problems of
governance in municipalities in Africa. The concern has been
to adapt traditional systems of governance to the needs of
modern urban management. This article investigates the need
for a new analysis of the twin problems of urban land and
urban management in sub-Saharan Africa. This need is based
on the apparent paradox between the dynamic, city-creating
activities of civil societies in all of these countries, and

The acquisition of land by foreigners in developing countries has emerged as a key mechanism for foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the category of international investment that reflects the objective of a resident entity in one economy to obtain a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economy.

Examines the impact of rural land policy on rural transformation and food self-sufficiency in Ethiopia and the relation this has with recent trends in large-scale rural land transactions. Concludes that there is very little institutional and technical capacity at regional level to conduct monitoring and oversight and enforce project obligations effectively.