Forum for Social Studies (FSS)        A New Initiative in Ethiopia  

Researcher calls for new search for tenure security 

"Despite the new initiatives underway, in particular user right documentation, tenure insecurity still remains the overriding problem of the land system in Ethiopia and if the country is to address the complex problems of rural development and natural resource management a sustained and informed debate on the land issue, based on research and the views of the stakeholders, is necessary," says a leading researcher in the field. 

The new discussion paper, Searching for Tenure Security, by Dessalegn Rahmato, manager of Forum for Social Studies (FSS), says user right documentation has currently helped minimize some problems and these developments are to be welcomed since they are an improvement on existing conditions and a step in the right direction. But existing initiative of user rights documentation should be continued using modern techniques of mapping, surveying, and land registration, unless otherwise new problems could arise in the future, Dessalegn advises.    

The current land policy promotes insecurity of tenure because it allows, among others, periodic distribution which is inefficient given that it constrains land transactions and inhibits the emergence of a dynamic land market, while promoting fragmentation of land and mounting pressure on land resources, he says adding that it also discourages rural people from leaving their farms for other employment opportunities.

 According to the researcher, tenure insecurity has been aggravated not just because of the threat of periodic redistribution, but also due to increasing rural poverty, growing population pressure and increasing land scarcity; government officials interferences; lack of knowledge on the part of rights holders of their rights and inability to defend their rights; lack of a proper and accessible juridical body responsible for land disputes. 

The study which examines the Federal land policy framework as well as legislations of the recent four killils; Amhara, Tigrai, Oromia and Southern, argues that land legislation should not promise each adult citizen in the rural areas. 

While the three Killils promise land to all rural adults in their respective jurisdictions, the Southern Killil makes rights to land a right of all the country’s citizens. With the country's rural population growing from an estimated 15 million in the early 1950s, to 34 million in 1980 and 54 million in 2000, in addition to shrinking land resources, such promise is dangerous, underlines Dessalegn.

 In addition, he says, the available evidence suggests that average per capita holdings have been diminishing over the last four decades due to population pressure and the increasing inability of the non-farm sector to provide employment to the excess rural population.

 In his opinion, the conditionalities described in the Tigrai but more importantly the Amhara legislation which has a wide range of conditionalities, among others, soil and water conservation, but care for the vegetation on farm plots, "proper" farming practices, weeding, flood control, etc. are unfair and counter-productive that could lead to conflict in the long run.  

Moreover, the encouragement given to individual citizens to report to the authorities about cases of abuse of land in the Amhara draft policy document will, in the long run, inflame anger and set neighbor against neighbor, and peasant against peasant, he cautions. The restrictions placed on residence by the Tigrai legislation put women at a disadvantage because on marriage they may move from the kebelle of their parents, he says. 

Dessalegn argues the first step in promoting tenure security must begin with a formal decision by the government at the Federal and Killil level to remove the threat of future redistribution of land. Such a categorical decision has been made by Oromia Killil's legislation only, he adds. 

Besides, the researcher says, tenure security can be promoted by extending the scope of the land market and giving it legal support by restricting the intervention of government agencies to extension work, adding, no decision on land should be binding on rights holders unless it is made through the legal process and is the decision of legitimate courts.  

A sound and practical judicial framework for land disputes as well as for rights holders to protect their rights in the event that government authorities violate them or threaten to violate them is absent from current policy or poorly provided, Dessalegn underlines.

 Any informed debate on tenure security will have to take into account the country's agrarian history of the last half century on the one hand, and on the other the relevant experiences of other countries in Africa and elsewhere, he suggests.

 However, he says, the quality of the current debate on land issue is quite uneven and leaves a lot to be desired. Some of the debate reflects a singular concern over the subject of ownership, leading to a polarized argument around the issue of state versus private ownership, he says. Since this has not served a useful purpose, Dessalegn argues, it is important to move away from such sterile discussion, and the search for tenure security should be the central objective that should inform the debate.

 On the other hand, the recent stand of the Prime Minister, announcing that as far the governing party and his government are concerned, the land issue is a dead issue and a debate on it is not welcome, is ill advised, he comments. Despite government's objections, the study concludes by stressing the need for a fresh public debate on the land question, because, the subject is too important to be ignored.   

In his final remark, Dessalegn emphasizes that a government which has the welfare of the rural population at heart and which is keen to promote a dynamic land system will enable rights holders to have access to all relevant legal and policy documents so that they are able to defend their rights in court or in other appropriate forums; this will empower farming people and peasant communities.