Land Investment for Transformation

While still one of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia has made many advances in reducing the level of poverty and increasing agricultural production. The pace of these advances however, is constrained by inefficiencies in the rural land sector and weak documentation and management of land rights.

The objective of the Land Investment for Transformation programme (LIFT) is to improve the incomes of the rural poor and vulnerable groups in Ethiopia and enhance economic growth, through second-level land certification, and improved rural land administration. The programme team will work with the Government of Ethiopia to improve the effectiveness of the rural land sector through increased security of land rights and to enhance the productivity and incomes of the farmers, especially women and vulnerable groups.

Sample Activities

• Implement a second-level land certification process by which 14 million parcels of rural land will be certified, 70 percent of the holders of which will be, jointly or individually, women.

• Set up a rural land administration system that will sustain the certification process and ensure farmers’ security of land holding.

• Increase access to credit, improve policies and institutions to enhance opportunities for rental lands and service providers.

• Increase investment by farmers in planting trees, use of better seeds and agricultural practices, as well as increasing aggregations of cultivated lands through rental transactions, and facilitating a reduction in the cost of production.

Select Results

• Established a formal system for regularising land ownership and identified and registered more than 3 million land parcels as of January 2017, providing greater security of tenure, encouraging investment, and underpinning long-term social stability.

• Ensured that early 90 percent of land certificates now include the name of a woman.

• Enabled farmers to take advantage of individual loans as a result of holding their Second Level Land Certificate—a first for Ethiopia.

• Introduced a network of commercially sustainable land rental service providers, facilitating land rental transactions in rural areas.

• Started implementation of a new Rural Land Administration System to record subsequent land registration transactions.

• Completed a number of research and evidence-based land policy reports, including gender and social inclusion research, to allow government to make informed decisions on land governance.