ABSTRACT

Conventional land administration systems often work against the needs of the poor (Lemmen 2010; Zevenbergen et al. 2013). In sub-Saharan Africa the approach has failed the poor, even for those projects considered partially successful (Van Asperen and Mulolwa 2006; Zevenbergen et al. 2013). Concerns abound that conventional survey and mapping requirements are expensive, timely, and do not align with existing contextual capacity (Enemark et al. 2014). This results in popular estimates that 75% of the global population does not have access to a formally recorded and recognized land right: a land administration divide is evident (Bennett et al. 2013). This is important: property is the basic legal concept on which conventional legal systems are based and on which subsequent human rights are derived, regardless of whether the property is held by an individual, a community, a family, tribe, or clan (Van Der Molen 2006).