ABSTRACT
Insecure land tenure, outdated land laws, and slow or dysfunctional institutions of land administration can restrict private investment, undermine good governance, and reduce the ability of local authorities to raise taxes. Highly skewed distributions of landownership and patterns of land access that discriminate according to gender or ethnicity limit the ability of decentralized market mechanisms to put land to its best uses; shrink economic opportunities among disadvantaged groups, including the ability to use land as collateral; and foment social conflict and violence.
