IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v8y2019i12p189-d295826.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovating Along the Continuum of Land Rights Recognition: Meridia’s “Documentation Packages” for Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Fuseini Waah Salifu

    (Ghana Lands Commission, P.O. Box CT 5008, Cantonment, Accra CT5008, Ghana)

  • Zaid Abubakari

    (Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands)

  • Christine Richter

    (Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Documentation of land rights can ensure tenure security and facilitate smooth land transactions, but in most countries of the global south this has been difficult to achieve. These difficulties are related to the high transaction cost, long transaction times, and procedural rigidity of land registration processes. In response to these problems, innovative approaches of tenure documentation have been conceived at a global level and are being promoted in many countries of the global south. Little is known yet about how such innovative land tenure documentation approaches unfold in various contexts and to what effect. The implementation of innovative approaches is challenging, due to the legal pluralistic nature of land governance and administrative hybridity in many countries of the global south, including the West African region. This qualitative study explores how Meridia, a small for-profit company, develops innovative approaches to register land rights in the form of “documentation packages” within the existing institutional setting of Ghana. In the paper, we describe both the processes of preparing the documentation packages and respective actors involved, as well as the nature of encounters between innovative interventions and existing institutions. Meridia develops specific products in response to both the regional diversity of land tenure, uses, and market demands, as well as in response to the challenges that the institutional context poses to the process of land tenure registration. As such, the case illustrates how innovation evolves in step-by-step fashion through negotiations with existing land institutions. The various documentation packages developed in this manner differ in terms of cost and complexity of preparation, in terms of recognition by customary and statutory institutions, as well as in the usability of the issued certificates and the extent of exchangeability of associated land parcels. Therefore, Meridia’s product innovation reflects the continuum of land rights, but it also poses questions for future research regarding the political economy of land tenure certification and regarding the actual uses and benefits of issued certificates.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuseini Waah Salifu & Zaid Abubakari & Christine Richter, 2019. "Innovating Along the Continuum of Land Rights Recognition: Meridia’s “Documentation Packages” for Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:12:p:189-:d:295826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/12/189/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/12/189/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Breckenridge, Keith & Szreter, Simon (ed.), 2012. "Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780197265314, Decembrie.
    2. Zaid Abubakari & Christine Richter & Jaap Zevenbergen, 2019. "Plural Inheritance Laws, Practices and Emergent Types of Property—Implications for Updating the Land Register," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, November.
    3. Czarniawska, Barbara, 2004. "On Time, Space, and Action Nets," GRI-rapport 2004:5, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg Research Institute GRI.
    4. Biitir, Samuel B. & Nara, Baslyd B. & Ameyaw, Stephen, 2017. "Integrating decentralised land administration systems with traditional land governance institutions in Ghana: Policy and praxis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 402-414.
    5. Frank F. K. Byamugisha, 2013. "Securing Africa's Land for Shared Prosperity : A Program to Scale Up Reforms and Investments," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13837, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kwabena Obeng Asiama & Rohan Bennett & Christiaan Lemmen & Winrich Voss, 2021. "Land, Innovation, and Social Good," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-6, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zaid Abubakari & Christine Richter & Jaap Zevenbergen, 2020. "Evaluating Some Major Assumptions in Land Registration: Insights from Ghana’s Context of Land Tenure and Registration," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Ibrahim, Abdul-Salam & Akanbang, Bernard A.A. & Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall & Kuusaana, Elias Danyi & Ahmed, Abubakari, 2020. "Collaborative customary land governance: Motivations and challenges of forming land management committees (LMCs) in the upper west region of Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Chaoran Chen, 2017. "Untitled Land, Occupational Choice, and Agricultural Productivity," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 91-121, October.
    4. Gottlieb, Charles & Grobovšek, Jan, 2019. "Communal land and agricultural productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 135-152.
    5. Festus A. Asaaga, 2021. "Building on “Traditional” Land Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Rural Ghana: Adaptive or Anachronistic?," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Aimee Louise Middlemiss & Ilaria Boncori & Joanna Brewis & Julie Davies & Victoria Louise Newton, 2024. "Employment leave for early pregnancy endings: A biopolitical reproductive governance analysis in England and Wales," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 75-91, January.
    7. Anne Kokkonen & Pauli Alin, 2015. "Practice-based learning in construction projects: a literature review," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 513-530, July.
    8. Lambert Jerman & Julien Raone, 2014. "Dompter La Verite Dans L'Organisation : La Subjectivation Comme Production De L'Animal Confessant," Post-Print hal-01899765, HAL.
    9. Ghebru, Hosaena H. & Pitoro, Raul & Woldeyohannes, Sileshi, 2015. "Customary tenure and innovative measures of safeguarding land rights in Africa: The community land initiative (iniciativa de terras comunitárias) in Mozambique," IFPRI discussion papers 1484, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Lindberg, Kajsa, 2014. "Performing multiple logics in practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 485-497.
    11. Social Policy and Population Section, Social Development Division, ESCAP., 2014. "Asia-Pacific Population Journal Volume 29, No. 1," Asia-Pacific Population Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 29(1), pages 1-150, November.
    12. Roel Heijlen & Joep Crompvoets & Geert Bouckaert & Maxim Chantillon, 2018. "Evolving Government Information Processes for Service Delivery: Identifying Types & Impact," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, May.
    13. Caroline A. Bartel & Raghu Garud, 2009. "The Role of Narratives in Sustaining Organizational Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 107-117, February.
    14. Harbers, Imke, 2020. "Legal identity for all? Gender inequality in the timing of birth registration in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Fenna Blomsma & Mike Tennant & Ritsuko Ozaki, 2023. "Making sense of circular economy: Understanding the progression from idea to action," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1059-1084, March.
    16. World Bank Group, "undated". "Africa's Pulse, No. 14, October 2016," World Bank Publications - Reports 25097, The World Bank Group.
    17. Liz Alden Wily, 2018. "The Community Land Act in Kenya Opportunities and Challenges for Communities," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, January.
    18. Catherine Boone, 2017. "Legal empowerment of the poor through property rights reform: Tensions and trade-offs of land registration and titling in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-37, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Myers, Gregory & Sanjak, Jolyne, 2022. "Reflections on the limited impact of the VGGT in sub saharan Africa and opportunities for its future with lessons from Nigeria and Sierra Leone," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    20. Sasu, Alexander & Javed, Arshad & Imran, Muhammad & Squires, Graham, 2024. "Land banking, land price and Ghana’s informal land markets: A relational complexity approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:8:y:2019:i:12:p:189-:d:295826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.