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The paper presents a global model for understanding land administration systems in support of sustainable development. The evolution of these systems is presented as a response to the dynamic relation between humankind and land. The Nordic evolution is described with a focus that any land administration system is embedded in the cultural and judicial setting of the individual country/jurisdiction. The issue of spatial information infrastructures is recognised as an increasingly important component for achieving sustainable development in developed as well as developing countries. The paper discusses the conceptual, political and economic mechanisms, and examples are given with regard to the Danish conceptual approach in this area. Finally, the paper deals with the issue of decentralisation and the impact of central vs local government in land management in support of sustainable development. It is argued that competencies should rest with the lowest possible level of jurisdiction so as to combine responsibility for decision making with accountability for financial and environmental consequences.

The administration of a country's land system has a major impact on its economy and society. Digital land management has the potential to improve the land administration of developing countries and make it more efficient. The governments of Bangladesh and Indonesia have implemented a digital land management framework in the land system to ensure optimal land development, in particular, to deliver land services efficiently. The land offices of both countries have a variety of obstacles when it comes to delivering digital services. Because of this, it is important to recognize the current use of digitalization and identify the variables influencing digitalization in land service delivery by land offices in order to make informed decisions about their future. Content analysis was applied to gather data for the study, which used a qualitative approach. The correct deployment of digitization in land administration in both nations is being slowed down by a lack of institutional and operational capability and personnel misconduct in service delivery.

Spatially enabled taxation systems provide public policy makers in Australia with a conundrum. For the Valuers General who provide the fiscal cadastre for the taxation system, spatial enablement could lead to a central role in State Government taxation or to a sidelined role. This paper aims to address this issue.

The paper uses a survey of Valuers General.

The paper establishes the current extent of adoption of spatially enabled taxation systems, identifies current provision and uses of valuation data and explores possible future provision and uses of such data.

The sample size for survey may limit its use elsewhere.

The paper concludes that further integration and a unified national policy approach would be preferable.

The first published paper to establish the current extent of adoption of spatially enabled taxation systems and to identify current provision and uses of valuation data in Australasia.

The land sector in Ghana, particularly skin lands acquisition and title registration are fraught with several issues including unreliable record-keeping systems and land encroachments. The paper explores the potential of blockchain application in skin lands acquisition and title registration in Ghana with the aim of developing a blockchain-enabled framework for land acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to use the framework as a tool towards solving some of the loopholes in the process that leads to numerous issues bedeviling the current system.

The paper adopts a systematic literature review approach fused with informal discussions with key informants and leverages on the researchers’ own experiences to conceptualize blockchain application in skin lands acquisition in Ghana.

Problems bedeviling skin lands acquisition and title registration emanated from the issuance of allocation notes, payment of kola money and use of a physical ledger to document land transactions. As a result, the developed framework was designed to respond to these issues and deal with the problems. As the proposed blockchain framework would be a public register, it was argued that information on all transactions on a specific parcel of land could be available to the public in real-time. This enhances transparency and possibly resolves the issue of encroachments and indeterminate land boundaries because stakeholders can determine rightful owners of land parcels before initiating transactions.

Practically, blockchain technology has the potential to deal with the numerous issues affecting the smooth operation of skin lands acquisition and title registration in Ghana. Once the enumerated issues are resolved, there will be certainty of title to and ownership of land and property to drive investments because lenders could more easily ascertain owners of land parcels that could be used as collateral for securing loans. Similarly, property developers and land purchasers could easily identify rightful owners for land transactions. The government would be able to identify owners for land and property taxation.

This paper contributes to the literature on blockchain and application to land acquisition and title registration with a focus on a specific customary land ownership system.

This paper aims to examine current land administration practices (LA) in Tanzania to pinpoint divergences and convergences from past experiences that necessitated the 1990s reforms.

Literature review was carried out to understand historical practices which were then matched with current regulatory framework and observable LA practices captured through in-depth individual and group interviews of LA professionals in the public and private sectors, as well as LA customers in Dodoma Region Tanzania.

The current practices and government’s responses through land law reforms is largely a replica of what happened in the pre- and post-independence eras until just before the 1990s reform and is still characterised by corruption, inefficiency in service delivery and poor coordination among LA actors. It introduces superficial land governance structure over customary land as it was during colonialism; induces a temporary hikes in title delivery without any sustainability prospects just as it was immediately after independence; and induces more uncertainties for local land holders/investors than it addresses as it was during the implementation of the 1982 agricultural policy. Furthermore, the current awareness education during rural land titling programmes is inadequate to address the perceived risk of land alienation and dispossession among the poor.

A uniform LA system and tenure type throughout Tanzania that cater for the need of the time rather than a fragmented system of LA, which fuels maladministration and inefficiency in LA, is dearly needed.

Convergence of current LA practices with some of the worst past experiences explains some failures in land policy reform in Tanzania and the developing world in general.

The rapid urban population growth in Ethiopia is causing an increasing demand for urban land, which primarily tends to be supplied by expropriation of peri-urban land. The process of urban development in Ethiopia is largely criticized for forced displacement and disruption of the peri-urban local community. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce how Ethiopia’s urban development system could be built on the participatory and inclusive approaches of land acquisition.

The study has employed questionnaire survey results, focus group discussion with panel of experts and previous research reports to examine the peri-urban situations and then to show why an alternative land development approach is needed to be introduced in the urban land development system of Ethiopia. Desk review on land readjustment was also made to explore best lessons from other countries applicable to the peri-urban contexts of Ethiopia.

This study has explored that land readjustment is potentially an appropriate land development tool to alleviate peri-urban land development limitations in Ethiopia.

Researchers, policy makers and government bodies that are interested in peri-urban land would appreciate and consider implementing the adapted land readjustment model as an alternative land development tool. Consequently, the local peri-urban landholders’ rights would be protected and maintained in the process of urbanization.

Although land readjustment has the potential to achieve participatory peri-urban land development, awareness of the method in the Ethiopian urban land development system is inadequate. This study contributes to fill this gap and create an insight into the basic conditions for the adaption of the tool.

The purpose of this paper is to examine expropriation, valuation, compensation and rehabilitation practices and their impacts on expropriated households.

This study employed a mixed research approach. The target populations of the study were expropriated households in Debre Markos City from 2019 to 2022. The study uses purposive and systematic random sampling techniques. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, narration and thematic clustering.

The findings of this study revealed that the expropriation process was not participatory and the right holders were not treated as what is expected. It is further found that economic losses, moral damage and social disturbance payments were not considered in the compensation package. The displacement compensation given was also inadequate and sometimes delayed and the time value of money was not taken into account for delayed payments. This creates social and economic problems. The rehabilitation and resettlement program was inadequate and ineffective. The expropriation, valuation, compensation and rehabilitation practice in general lack transparency and accountability.

To ensure efficient and effective expropriation, valuation and compensation, there should be a well-organized government system that provides an accurate valuation on the one hand and restores the livelihood of the displaced on the other.

This paper is the first on expropriation, valuation, compensation and rehabilitation within the framework of transparency, accountability, effective rehabilitation and resettlement and institutional arrangements to ensure the sustainable livelihoods of affected households.

This paper was written after the drafting of the National Land Policy was completed. The purpose of the paper is to give suggestions on the implementation of the policy. The National Land Policy reform process began in 2002 and is made up of several thematic areas. Under each category, identification of the major constraints is outlined in the paper together with possible gaps in the existing framework and a way forward is suggested to overcome them. One of the underlying gaps in all the thematic areas is the lack of adequate and competent capacity to undertake the necessary reforms to achieve the envisaged tangible changes in the land reform process in the country.

This paper describes a comprehensive outline of the training needs and capacity building in land management required at both tertiary and university levels. It includes continuing professional development and practice of various cadres of personnel in both the public and private sector. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to undertake measures to align the various basic training, specialisations and skill‐enhancement curricula and syllabi in land management and administration disciplines at both the tertiary and university level.

The paper is developed from review of literature as part of research methodology and there are no empirical findings presented in the contents. The paper identifies that there is lack of adequate and competent capacity to undertake the necessary reforms is suggested by the National Land Policy. The paper highlights the measures that can be undertaken to align the various basic training applications to be able to implement the policy.

The paper is a source of information for the working group charged with creating institutions and preparing a training syllabi for those who are employed by the new institutions.

This chapter uses a feminist political ecology perspective to demonstrate how gender interacts with access to land as a re/productive resource in Tamale, a rapidly urbanizing city in West Africa. The study gives insight into the strategies that vulnerable groups employ to gain access to resources.

An ethnographic field study was carried out over 16 months, taking a case study approach involving interviews, participant observation and focus groups.

Women’s access to land is restricted in order to guarantee their labor for household reproductive tasks and inheritance. Yet they are using various traditional and contemporary strategies to reconcile their landless status with their food provisioning responsibilities. These involve forging networks with individuals and development institutions as well as harvesting and marketing. As land markets accelerate, these strategies become more important, even though they offer no guarantee that a woman can provide what she needs to her household. Formalized institutions aiming to give women access to land do not necessarily fulfill those functions if they are naive of the historical and cultural context.

Marginalization of groups of people, such as women, with regards to resource access is a result of complex interlocking historical processes that are often a result of dominant groups’ efforts to retain power.

We confirm that gender is a primary element organizing access to land. The way this is performed in Northern Ghana results from the construction of tradition through post/colonial, religious and neoliberal contexts.

The originality of this work lies in its use of in-depth ethnographic data.

Hong Kong and Singapore are characterized by rapid economic development and a high population density of 6,250 and 6,055 per km² land respectively. Land revenue is their major source of income to finance their public infrastructure and social services. Their design and collection of taxes on land, their value‐capture instruments and their allocation of revenue for public works are examined. The article finds that there are some similarities between the two cities in capturing land value, such as the collection of annual rates and stamp duty on property. The differences include the adoption of property tax surcharge and the development charge. In fact, each mechanism has its pros and cons. The method and the extent of each mechanism depend on the goals of the government in respect of the social and economic conditions.