The kebele of Debeso, a majority Muslim community in southern Ethiopia, faces many of the same challenges one encounters across the country. Scarce water resources, near exclusive economic dependence on agriculture, and a government that owns all land in the country, create feelings of insecurity and hardship among rural Ethiopians, who represent about 85% of the total population. Located in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Debeso is one place where USAID is working to address some of these challenges. Through a project centered on surveying land parcels using GPS technology and issuing land certificates to those occupying the land, USAID and the Government of Ethiopia help secure property rights so that residents can focus on investing in production and limit conflict.
Two weeks after receiving their certificates, some Debeso residents are already planning to use it as an assurance for creating rental and sharecropping agreements. A month ago they would have hesitated to make these types of arrangements for fear that those farming the land would claim it as their own. The certificate, accompanied by a parcel map, also gives land holders accurate measurements of property which help them set fair prices for use agreements, improve economic benefits, and avoid boundary disputes.
These women and men in Debeso now have secure property rights through a USAID land certificate project. Photo Credit: Gregory Myers, USAID
The land certification project provides equal benefits to men and women. Married women are listed as rights’ holders on the certificates along with their husbands, and certificates can be issued to an individual woman. Before certification, individual women were vulnerable to claims from others and could spend a large amount of time disputing a border; now they feel safer and can justify a claim quickly.
Both men and women in Debeso expressed a desire to use the certificate to access microcredit loans. One gentleman noted that with certificates from a previous project, about 50 land holders were able secure loans of as little as 55 US dollars, up to 300 US dollars. This credit allows land holders to invest in fertilizer and other technologies to increase production.
Just 20 years ago, the idea of smallholder farmers having secure land over time was unthinkable in Ethiopia. Under the Derg government, in power from 1974 to 1991, land boundaries were allocated and modified by the state frequently. Based on the outcomes of USAID’s land certification demonstration projects, the government’s approach to land rights is changing and communities are finding their own ways to solve some local food production challenges.
The USAID land certification demonstration project is the cornerstone to economic development throughout the underdeveloped world. Land titles given to the kebel of Debeso in Ethiopia prove that property rights have the ability to fix an asset’s economic potential to a form of capital that can be used to initiate additional production. For instance, the USAID certification program allowed farmers to bring to life the capital under their feet by using land titles to access loans for the purchase of fertilizer and other goods that increase production and generate greater GDP. The key factor here is that the land title takes undocumented property and transforms it into a legal asset that holds value and can be used as collateral to gain loans. Property systems in the developing world have unlimited upside due to their ability to group assets together and expand economic markets. By forming a single property system governments and development agencies such as USAID are able to create a network of people who can trade assets freely between one another. Where land titles do not exist individuals are limited in transforming their assets into capital within local communities where ownership is understood amongst a select few; however, when all land is titled under one system individuals from the northernmost part of the country to the southernmost can trade property through the same system in a safe and secure manner.
Looking at the issue of property rights in least developed areas of the world I believe the next two centuries of development work will drastically change the landscape of our global economy. If property rights can be established under single country systems throughout the world trillions of dollars’ worth of buried capital will enter the global marketplace. I define buried capital as an asset that exists physically, such as a small farm in rural Honduras, but fails to be legally recognized on paper through a title system. Transforming these dormant assets into working capital that can gain value or be used to access business loans is the single most crucial development process that must take place over the next two centuries. As people gain more wealth and fiscal responsibility, public health and water access with strengthen, education will become a priority as people strive to better their economic opportunities and overall living standards will increase. Although, none of the mentioned development opportunities will take place unless substantial efforts to implement property laws in least developed countries takes place.