IFG 6: Land Governance in West Africa through Interdisciplinary Empirical Lenses

MIASA CC-BY-4.0: Poster IFG 6
MIASA’s sixth Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG 6) explored the issue of land governance in West Africa. They demonstrated that access and use of land is a multi-dimensional source of social, political, juridical and economic tension. Each actor or actor group has their own perceptions and interests of how to regulate land use, distribution and ownership. The aim of the research was to produce knowledge that contributes to equitable, sustainable, and efficient delivery or urban and rural land in West Africa.
Contested legitimacies: legal pluralism, customary institutions, and exclusion
The research focused on case studies in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Senegal. During the fellowship, all IFG 6 members conducted a joint fieldtrip to Kumasi. Central research findings of IFG 6 included:
1. Tensions and contestations over legitimacy exist between state and customary institutions as well as people and their social practice.
2. Customary landowning communities lack understanding of the language of formal legislation, eroding their confidence in statutory efforts towards equitable land governance.
3. Attention to land values and rights of groups such as women, youth, and migrants is imperative to reducing land-based tensions, contests over legitimacies, and social deprivation.
4. The implementation of technology must consider differences in culture, abilities, and capacities across various groups of people in order to minimise digital and technological inequalities.
The final conference of IFG 6 on “Land Governance and Conflicts in West Africa” was organised from 18 to 19 August 2022. Part of the conference was held at the Regional Lands Commission, Accra. Officers from the regional lands commission of Greater Accra and Kumasi, but also a delegation of dignitaries from La and Gbawe actively participated in the conference.
Period: May to August 2022
Conveners: Dr. Lamine Doumbia and Dr. Peter Narh
Members: Dr. Aly Tounkara and Dr. Austin Ablo
Mentor at the University of Ghana: Prof. Kojo Amanor
Principal investigator at MIASA: Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
teammiasa (January 24, 2024). IFG 6: Land Governance in West Africa through Interdisciplinary Empirical Lenses. Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa - Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2025 from https://miasa.hypotheses.org/2028