Rural Land Relations in Conflict: A Way Forward
Publisher: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
Author(s): Liz Alden Wily
Date: 2004
Topics: Land, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Afghanistan
The purpose of this AREU briefing paper is to highlight the need for policy makers to adopt localised and participatory approaches to resolve burning land conflicts in rural Afghanistan. It is essential that land policies and strategies that are adopted by the central government are both practically workable and relevant to the majority of rural land families. Approaches to land management in rural Afghanistan that leave decision-making to remote, centralised planning in Kabul, no matter how well financially supported, will not achieve the desired results.
Dealing safely with people’s land interests, particularly in agrarian economies, is first and foremost a matter of governance. Reforms in land administration are underway in many developing economies and there is much to be learnt (and eventually share) from these experiences.
Policy makers are beginning to heed the need for practical trial experience in resolving land disputes before investing heavily in centralised state responses. Classical titling of land as the solution for all tenure-related ills is also beginning to be challenged, particularly where common properties rather than the family farm is most at risk. In post-conflict countries, the need to address historical roots of land conflict is a lesson that appears to have to be relearned in each case.
Devolutionary and simplified approaches to identifying, sustaining and administering land rights, and through regimes in which landholders themselves have a real stake, are emerging as an important vehicle to overcome expensive cadastral systems failures. The need for fresh perspectives on old problems is everywhere echoed as essential to move forward.