Leasehold Rights, Small Scale Farmers and Good Governance: A Case Study of the Oshikoto Region in Namibia
Charl-Thom H. Bayer
Department of Land and Property Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology
Land tenure related problems continue to hamper efforts to improve land administration systems in numerous jurisdictions across the world. Increasingly poor land governance is seen as a critical issue in relation to the land tenure problems. The small scale farmers in the Oshikoto Region of Namibia continue
to experience problems with regards to their inability to develop their farms economically. Their tenure is
insecure and poorly documented, despite this being part of a government programme to bring previously
disadvantaged persons into the mainstream of the economy with formal agricultural leasehold rights.
Previous research using an institutional framework to understand the problems relating to land tenure in the
case study area provided an indication that a land governance approach to analysing the problems might be
more appropriate. As such the research applied the democratic land governance framework to understand the problems experienced with regards to the land tenure situation in the Oshikoto Region and to determine if the governance approach is desirable. Using a democratic land governance framework that is biased in
favor of the landless poor, we were able to apply the land governance principles to assess land governance as it relates to the leasehold rights in the case study area. In the case study of small scale farmers in the
Oshikoto Region of Namibia it becomes clear that despite tenure improvements and reforms intended to
benefit the poor, the lack of good land governance processes instead serves to concentrate power in the hands of the state and reduces legal tenure security for the beneficiaries.
Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018
Only personal, non-commercial use of this document is allowed.