Customary cadastres and smartphone surveys: fitting with the local needs

The complex nature of customary land administration, coupled with slow, expensive and highly centralised national land registration systems, means the registration of customary land rights is oft neglected. Estimates suggest a mere 0.5% of Ghanaian customary land holdings are registered, making land grabbing in peri-urban areas easier and land management activities, such as land consolidation, highly impeded. Read on for an article showing the results of an experiment in which a smartphone app was used to enable a participatory, faster, cheaper and a more fit-for-purpose approach to rural customary land administration.