Guiding Principles:
Land Tenure in Development Cooperation

Orientierungsrahmen:
Bodenrecht und Bodenordnung

Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Technische Zusammenarbeit
Abt. 45 / Div. 45

Development cooperation should contribute to the identification of essential land policy instruments. It should also contribute to further developing and modifying land policy instruments according to the framework conditions and needs of the partner countries and, if necessary, the development of new concepts.

• Instruments for improving legal security
  (harmonization of inconsistent and/or contradictory stipulations on land tenure. - In some countries up to 500 laws and regulations must be considered in this area. Closure of loopholes if an obvious necessity for regulations exist; making access to land-related information easier; creating transparency especially in the case of land transfer procedures and efficient contractual conditions; law of inheritance);

• Instruments for land administration
  (land registration and cadastre, land adjudication, land market regulations, lease regulations, land banking, land and property valuation) (see section 4.3);

• Fiscal instruments
  (land taxation, taxes on land value, levies, taxes and fees on transactions, incentives);

• Instruments for rural land development and land tenure
  (agrarian structure development plans, reallocation of land, land use planning, land consolidation, land readjustment, e.g. for irrigation, urbanization and further instruments for influencing the use of land (see section 4.4));

• In addition, instruments for urban land development which can only be mentioned briefly in this publication (land banking, urban land readjustment, regularization);

• Specific instruments for the accompaniment and implementation of agrarian reforms and transformation processes (see section 4.6);

• Instruments for conflict resolution, i.e. dealing with informal occupation of land (see section 4.7); and

• Instruments for capacity development and participation;

• Instruments for project management, program implementation, financial management procedures;

• Instruments for participatory approaches to problem analysis, resolution and impact assessment;

• Instruments for quality control and accountability;

• Instruments on training, (higher) education and applied research (see section 4.8).