Shaping The Future Of Customary Land Secretariats In Ghana

Customary Land Secretariats in Ghana have been in operation for close to two decades. They were introduced as part of the implementation of the Ghana Land Administration Project to help improve upon customary land management and administration at the customary level, bearing in mind their potential to aid the public land sector agencies particularly the Lands Commission, the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority achieve their respective mandates. This work reviewed the operations of existing Customary Land Secretariats vis-a-vis their mandates as prescribed and outlined in the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036) in terms of dispute resolution, recording of customary land grants, coordination and collaboration with stakeholders. The work assessed their overall impact on customary land management. The work lays out the implementation successes and challenges and makes recommendations towards improving their effectiveness. Overall, the work concludes that Customary land Secretariats if well-resourced have the potential to install discipline in the local land market by regulating abuse of authority by some customary land authorises particularly chiefs, clan and family heads and tendons. The work also reviewed progress on the resolution of land-related disputes via Alternative Dispute Resolution. Finally, the work makes recommendations with far-reaching implications for the existing, new and yet-to-be-established Customary land Secretariats.