While land policy was long considered an immutable framework condition for international cooperation, certain developments have made it increasingly important to resolve land-related issues:

• Rise in population numbers and the growing pressure this puts on land resources
• Large-scale land acquisition and leasing by national and international investors
• Resource degradation
• Disadvantaged population groups being denied access to land
• Poorly functioning land markets
• Inconsistent state intervention in land law, leading to the absence of political will to ensure consistent land administration, along with inadequate professional administrative competence
• Legal insecurity
• Difficulties reprivatising land in transition countries
• Insufficient regard for ancestral and communal property

The upshots are increased poverty, conflicts over land and fewer agriculturally utilisable areas.
For economic and social development to be sustainable, secure rights of property ownership, usage and disposal along with fair access to land are essential. Legal security and long-term use and ownership rights are the cornerstones of investment security and thus the key to local development as well as to sustainable and productive agriculture.

For this reason, the international community today subscribes to a host of conventions and declarations that underscore the importance of land rights and land administration for sustainable rural and urban development. Through this project’s work, German development cooperation decisively influences the way policies governing land administration are structured around the world. The project also supports the roll-out of international guidelines in various partner countries and assists its partners’ efforts to build up their capacity to pursue a consistent approach to land administration.