Land is more than just a production factor or economic commodity. We often think of land in terms of our home or the home of our ancestors. We build our livelihoods on it and rely on it for our personal freedom. At the same time, land is a government-taxed and widely sought-after commodity, one that lends itself to instrumentalisation by the powers that be and that has the capacity to subjugate people and nurture conflicts.

Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the land policy and land management project designs inputs and provides consultancy services for German and international cooperation efforts. Through close contacts with multilateral donors, such as the World Bank, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the European Union and the African Union, German development cooperation decisively influences the structural parameters of land administration in international cooperation today, shaping its implementation in projects and programmes.