The Role of Land Records in Support of Post-Conflict Land Administration within overall State Building – the Case of Rwanda

An essential component of every land administration system are the land records. These records contain information about ownership, value and use of land. Conflict and post-conflict contexts, both in literature and in practice, have shown that land administration systems are mostly affected by the loss of land records and staff. Post-conflict contexts are characterized with: institutional weaknesses, economic and social problems and serious security problems. Based on a case study conducted in Rwanda, firstly the type, the format and the status of land records are discovered, and then those are related with the process of post-conflict state building. This relation is explored in depth in order to determine and describe the role of land records in support of post-conflict state building. Here specific attention is paid to the role that land records have in land dispute resolution in such contexts. Findings from this paper shows that a strong relation exists and that land records play a positive role in support of the post-conflict state building.