Land Governance Arrangements in Eastern Africa: Description and Comparison

This study is aimed to assess features of land governance arrangements in the
Eastern Africa region. Comparative and qualitative research approach was
employed to achieve the objectives of the study. The research was also
conducted within the context of long standing research collaboration under the
umbrella of the Eastern African Land Administration Network (EALAN). The
Eastern African countries included in this study are those represented through
respective institutions in the EALAN, namely: Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The
findings of this research reveals that the region manifests diverse background of
land governance arrangements where formal and informal actors and processes
still important. The study also shows that the formal systems in most of the
countries are not reaching large parts of the society yet. Due to the limitations
of the formal systems, aspects of custom and informal authority structures exist
and seem to be used by most people for conflict resolution and other
transactions related to land. Therefore, more effort is required to make the
formal systems more accessible, including altering current formal systems and
making them less bureaucratic and more affordable for majority of the people
in the region.