Land Tenure and Property Rights

Secure property rights are a key to economic growth. Equitable access to land is the basis for pro-poor and socially inclusive economic growth, while competition for land often inflames tensions between different groups, resulting in conflict. In the context of climate change and population growth, with greater pressure on scarce resources, secure and equitable access to land is becoming increasingly important. As a result, the international development community is escalating its support for land-related programs around the world.

Over the past two decades, DAI has successfully worked with diverse set of international clients and development partners—including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the European Union, and private partners, to implement land tenure and property right (LTPR) projects worldwide. We’ve built our land practice by using cost-effective methodologies, working through and strengthening local institutions to regularize tenure while placing relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries front and center.

Deploying proven program management framework, we take an integrated approach that brings together:

• Locally tailored interventions building on local practices and experience.
• Pilot testing of innovative practices, which then allow for larger roll-out programs.
• A commitment to ensure that the poor, women, and marginalized groups are included in every aspect of the program.

Our land tenure and property rights work includes securing property rights, policy and legal reforms and regularization, cadaster development, land record rehabilitation and management, land information systems, institution building and information dissemination, participatory land use and resource planning, dispute resolution and mitigation, training, research and communications, and grants management.

DAI holds an indefinite-quantity contract with USAID—Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR)—through which DAI and specialist partners provide land tenure and property rights services to USAID and its government, private sector, and nonprofit partners around the world. DAI tenure specialists carry out cutting-edge research on the impacts of tenure interventions on economic development, equity, and social stability. We are also a leading provider of land services to the U.K. government, with a successful portfolio of work in Africa and the Caribbean.

For more about our work in this field, see the Land Rights issue of Developing Alternatives.