Robust Land Rights for Sustainable Development in Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper presents the land rights in present day Ethiopia by classifying it into rural and urban land systems. An attempt has also been made to give a brief review of the land rights operational during the past (pre 1991) two regimes of the Imperial and the Marxist Derg eras. The Imperial era was better in terms of provision of land rights although the system was in general inequitable since land was controlled by the elite. The Derg’s land tenure system was equitable since it created access to land for all people although it restricted the freedom of using one’s land property rights. Now the mission for the current government, when it came to power in 1991, should have been how to solve the problems encountered by its predecessors: how to ensure equity in land holding, while at the same time liberalizing the land rights of the people. In this paper it is argued that the current government should do more in creating access to land rights, especially in urban areas, and in liberalizing the land use rights in the country within the given constitutional arrangement (state and public ownership of land). By creating more access to rural land, liberating the land holding rights, and by fairly compensating the loss of properties during expropriation, the current government could give more secure land rights compared to its predecessors.

Keywords: Land Rights, Holding Rights, Expropriation, Agricultural Investment