Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process and Evidence on Impact: Some Preliminary Findings

1. Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process and Evidence on Impact: Some Preliminary Findings Presentation by Stein Holden Norwegian University of Life Sciences Email: stein.holden@umb.no

2. Background • This ongoing research is based on collaboration between Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Mekelle University, Tigray, Ethiopia, and The World Bank. • Panel Data Collection: Funding from Research Council of Norway, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NORAD, and the Norwegian Trust Fund (project with Klaus Deininger). • I am here only able to present preliminary findings as all data from the last survey round have not been entered and cleaned yet. It is this last round that focuses explicitely on land certification, land disputes, and impacts. • Better analyses will come in the near future.

3. Ethiopia • All land is state owned • Land used as a safety net in the past; all residents in a community had the right to get land for free, this was ensured through local land redistributions • Individual households are given user rights • Includes rights to bequeth, inherit, rent out, invest • No right to sell • Responsibility for land conservation • Land certification started first in Tigray in 1998 (80% completed before war with Eritrea started) • Land certification started in 2003-2005 in other regions of Ethiopia • Each region has its own Land Proclamation in addition to the Federal Land Proclamation

4. Conceptual model for land rights project

5. Location of fieldwork 2006 • Tigray, Ethiopia • Cooperation with Mekelle University • Build on earlier fieldswork: Panel data survey • 400 + 260 households in 16 communities • Surveyed in 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2006 • Household and farm plot level data • New in 2006: • Survey of woreda (district) court files related to land disputes: • Pattern of disputes over time: number and composition • Added two villages with more households without certificates • Physical measurement of farm plots

6. Map of Ethiopia

8. Land certificates in Tigray • Simple one-page certificates • Name of head of hh (husband not wife usually) • Name, size and location of plots and names of neighbours

9. Implementation of land registration and certification in Tigray • Implemented in 1998: • Focused on cultivated land only • Low-cost approach: used unexperienced students, caused many errors due to lack of experience, these resulted in conflicts in some cases • Revealed unclear borders: Conflict cases that had to be solved • High speed • Implemented as a one-time exercise. Very limited updating of registries afterwards. • New effort started in 2005 with establishment of EPLAUA offices at woreda (district) level and Land Administration Committees at tabia (community) level

10. Key Research Questions and Hypotheses1 • What are the impacts on tenure security among farm households in Tigray? Our hypotheses • Land certificates have improved the feeling of tenure security. • Land certificates are considered to reduce the probability of losing land through land redistribution or land takings. • There is a positive willingness to pay for a new land certificate in case it is lost or if they do not have one. • There is a positive willingness to pay for a new land certificate with maps of the plots of land.

11. Key Research Questions and Hypotheses 2 2. How good is the knowledge of the law? • Specific knowledge of the law is limited, vs. • The level of knowledge and participation is high in Tigray. • Knowledge of women is poorer than that of men, vs. • Knowledge of women in Tigray is good as they are used to actively participate in meetings and committees. • Knowledge is particularly poor related to recent changes in the law. • Knowledge of the law is poorer when it comes to regulations that deviate from local customary rules.

12. Key Research Questions and Hypotheses 3 3. What are the effects on women’s land rights and participation in the process? • The land certification has weakened women’s land rights because their names are not included on the land certificates, vs. • Women traditionally have a strong position in Tigray and their land rights are not affected negatively by their names not appearing on the certificates. • Women did not participate in meetings related to the land registration and certification process and women do not have positions in the local land administration committees, vs. • Women in Tigray are active in meetings and also participate in the local land administrative committees.

13. Key Research Questions and Hypotheses 4 4. What are effects on the extent and composition of land disputes in Tigray? • Land registration and certification has reduced the total number of land-related disputes. • The land registration process has particularly reduced the amount of border disputes through better demarcation of plot borders during the process. • The registration process has had a larger positive effect in terms or reduced border disputes in areas where such borders were poorly demarcated from before. • The number of disputes will increase again as time goes from the land registration and certification took place.

14. Key Research Questions and Hypotheses 5 5. How has land certification affected the land rental market? • Land certification has reduced the transaction costs in the land rental market. • Land certification has made potential landlords more willing to rent out their land because they feel more tenure secure. • There is a demand for more long-term land rental contracts. • There is a demand for registration of land rental contracts (formal written contracts). • There is lack of knowledge about the law regarding registration of rental contracts.

16. Local perceptions in 2006 related to land certificates and tenure security • 82% of the households stated that they would have wanted to have a land certificate if they were not having one • Only 3% stated that they would not have wanted a certificate if they did not have one. • 84% of the households stated that they perceived the risk of being evicted from their land to have been reduced because of the certification. • 78% of the households stated that they thought that land certificates increased the probability of getting compensation in case of land takings.

17. Willingness to pay for certificate • If you lose your certificate, how much would you be willing to pay for a replacement? • In Eth.Birr • 1US$= 8.5 Eth.Birr • Mean WTP= 10 Birr • Median WTP=3 Birr

18. Willingness to pay for improved certificate • Would you prefer to receive a new land certificate with a map of each of your plots, with clear identification of the location and size and shape of the plot? If yes (64%), what is your maximum WTP for such a certificate? • Mean WTP=13 Birr • Median WTP= 5 Birr

19. Land registration, certification and land disputes • Border demarcation and disputes • Plot demarcations before the land registration, • 54% of the households stated that the plot borders were clearly demarcated before the land registration, • 18% stated that the plot borders were fairly well demarcated before the registration, and • 21% stated that plot borders were poorly demarcated before the registration. • 23% of the households stated that they had experienced land disputes before the land registration

20. Change in disputes During registration and certification, % After registration and certification, % Less disputes 61 66 No change in disputes 24 23 More disputes 8 4 Perceptions of extent of border disputes during and after land certification

21. Inheritance disputes • 56% of the households perceived that the land registration and certification process has contributed to reduce the number of inheritance disputes, • 36% perceived there to have been no effect on inheritance disputes, • 8% perceived that the number of inheritance disputes has increased due to land registration and certification. • 78% of the households stated that ownership of land certificates reduced inheritance disputes. • 25% of the households stated that they had experienced inheritance disputes themselves.

22. Knowledge of the law 1

23. Knowledge of the law 2

24. Land certification and women • 90% of the households stated that they perceived land certification to have had a positive effect on women. • Women were less likely to participate in land administration committees and were less likely to participate in meetings in relation to the land registration and certification process

25. Dispute resolution mechanisms • Local variation in mechanisms • Juristiction over land disputes determined by law when traditional mediation fails: • Border disputes to be handled by tabia (community) social courts • Ownership disputes to be handled by woreda (district) courts • From 2006: EPLAUA and LACs should deal with land disputes

26. What can we learn from woreda court files? • We have collected data from woreda court files in 11 woredas over a period of 13 years, including years • Before, during and after the land registration and certification • A subsample of land dispute cases has been selected for more detailed data collection • A number of ongoing cases are studied by interviewing plaintiffs and defendants while waiting at the court • These data are in the process of being entered • A summary of dispute information by year and type of disputes from 7 woredas follows

27. Tigray woreda courts: Number of land-related disputes per year

28. Tigray woreda (district) courts: Total number of cases per year

29. Tigray woreda courts: Number of land border disputes per year

30. Tigray woreda courts: Number of ownership disputes per year

31. Tigray woreda courts: Number of inheritance disputes per year

32. Tigray woreda courts: Number of divorce-related land disputes per year

33. Tigray woreda courts: Number of land redistribution-related cases by year

34. Tigray woreda courts: Number of land renting-related cases by year

35. How has land certification affected the land rental market?Questions to tenants and landlords

36. Land rental market participation in 2003:Distribution of net land leased in by own firm size

37. Land rental market participation in 2003:Distribution of net land leased in and desired net land leased in

38. Land rental market participation in 2006:Distribution of net land leased in

39. Hypothesis: Land certification has made potential landlords more willing to rent out their land because they feel more tenure secure.Responses from landlords:

40. Hypothesis: There is a demand for more long-term land rental contracts.Responses from tenants:

41. Hypothesis: There is a demand for registration of land rental contracts (formal written contracts). Responses from tenants and landlords

42. Hypothesis: There is lack of knowledge about the law regarding registration of rental contracts.Responses from landlords and tenants:

43. Tentative conclusions • Based on a quick descriptive analysis: • Land registration and certification has contributed positively to tenure security in Tigray • There is a positive but limited WTP for improved land certificates • There is limited knowledge of the land law • The number of land disputes handled by woreda courts have increased in recent years • Land registration and certification may have contributed to improve the efficiency of the land rental market • The demand for formalisation of the land rental market is small in this high-trust society

44. Further Analyses • Econometric analyses of impacts • Household level data • Plot level data • Woreda court files • Interviews of dispute parties • Challenges • Identification problem at household and plot levels • Few households without certificates • Reasons for no certificate have to be identified • Some communities with a large share of households without certificates identified • Reasons for no certificate appear at least partly to be exogenous (lack of certificates, lack of receipt books to issue certificates)