Somalia - Land Governance Country Profile

8. Recommendations

While land governance reforms cannot be addressed until there is effective government in Somalia, the following recommendations can be made to guide possible policy and legal directions. These are:

• There is a need to provide security to rural farmers and herders for their possession of land and their access to resources. The neglect of important rural interests and poor management of the scarce agricultural land were among the key factors leading to the collapse of national government. It is important that planners tap the knowledge and expertise of rural people in developing new strategies;

• There is need to concentrate on the understanding indigenous ways of dealing with changes in land use and the traditional social institutions which continue to dictate access to natural resources. Accordingly, policies which take environmental, social and cultural conditions into account should be formulated. Such policies should be flexible enough to reflect changing conditions the same way community-based tenure systems do;

• Alternatives to individualized titling should also be explored, such as registering land at the village level and allowing community-based tenure systems to continue to govern resource access and control. Under such a system, multiple parcel holdings and land sales could be allowed, some parcels of land could be retained in bush (uncultivated), women could retain access rights to land and equity could be maintained. Such a method of registration would also reduce costs, as village lands are already clearly demarcated in some areas;

• If the formal registration system is to be resurrected, some important revisions will need to be made. Its purpose should be to confirm traditional right-holders in their control of the land. The registration process should be more efficient, less expensive and decentralized so that smallholders are able to partake of it; the district level is the most appropriate in which to conduct registration procedures. In addition, smallholders should be granted exclusive rights of occupancy for an unlimited term, and restrictions on the number of parcels held should be reduced. There will need to be consideration of whether leasehold tenure should be used for land formally titled, or whether full private ownership or other options should be considered.