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Strengthening land tenure security and women’s land rights in Ethiopia: Policy analysis, implementation gaps, and gender-transformative pathways

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  • Obaikol, Esther
  • Iraoya, Augustine Okhale

Abstract

Ethiopia’s land rights regime has evolved from an unequal imperial system, through nationalization, to a contemporary federal framework that recognizes secure, inheritable, registrable, and transferable land-use rights for women and men farmers and pastoralists. Ethiopia has undertaken one of Africa’s largest rural land certification reforms over the past three decades, beginning with provision of household certificates and progressing to geospatial mapping of parcels and a digital registry of landholdings. By 2024, an estimated 23 million certificates had been produced. While the certification reforms are a huge achievement, key challenges to transforming recognized rights into usable rights remain, especially for women, pastoral communities, and peri-urban households. Progress towards gender equality in land rights is real, but uneven. Women are still less likely to have documented ownership compared to men, and they face constraints in controlling farmland, accessing credit, and benefitting from climate finance. Future policies and investments should focus on keeping rights current through registry maintenance, enforceable, gender-equitable, and adaptable to pastoral, peri-urban, and climate-vulnerable contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Obaikol, Esther & Iraoya, Augustine Okhale, 2026. "Strengthening land tenure security and women’s land rights in Ethiopia: Policy analysis, implementation gaps, and gender-transformative pathways," GCAN policy notes 184072, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:gcanpn:184072
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    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/184072
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ghebru, Hosaena & Holden, Stein, 2013. "Links between Tenure Security and Food Security: Evidence from Ethiopia," CLTS Working Papers 2/13, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.
    2. Deininger, Klaus & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Holden, Stein & Zevenbergen, Jaap, 2008. "Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1786-1812, October.
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