Research Project (Ongoing)

The Role of Land Tenure Security in Facilitating the Process of Structural Transformation: An Empirical Analysis of Non-Agricultural Activities, Internal and International Migration

Advanced countries were preceded by an agricultural revolution as a pretext for their progress. These agricultural revolutions were due to increases in land and labour productivity resulting from both technological and institutional innovations that allowed labour to be released from agriculture for employment in industry. The potential for rapid economic development in developing countries therefore increases with the speed of structural transformation. However, the transition from agriculture, which is considered a low-productivity sector, to high-productivity sectors such as industry and manufacturing is not without its challenges.

Strengthening Africa's agricultural sector will lift millions out of poverty. Transforming African agriculture from subsistence to a market-driven, technology-intensive business therefore requires addressing failures in credit, insurance, land markets, and land property rights. Land tenure is therefore one of the most important issues affecting the form of rural development, and the issuance of land certificates to farmers has been a typical policy tool for agricultural development. To address the issue of insecure land tenure and empower smallholder farmers, the World Bank, UN agencies and many donor countries have promoted the formalization of land rights. Land tenure security is critical to the livelihoods of farm households because it provides individuals or communities with legal and recognized rights to use, manage and own land.

This study focuses on Ethiopia's land certification program, which began in 1998, and examines whether land certification, which increases land tenure security, activated the likelihood of employment in casual jobs and the allocation of hours spent in agricultural and non-agricultural activities; on internal and international migration; and the differential impact of gendered certification depending on whether certificates were issued jointly (head of the household and the spouse) or to the head of household alone.