To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. ---Marilyn vos Savant
Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for it's the only thing in this world that lasts. It's the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for. ---Margaret Mitchell
We have selected a few papers that are representative of the work performed by the Global Land Coalition. This work spans all of the capability areas including: Policy Reform, Institutional Reform, Legal Reform, Land Use Planning, Land Information Systems, and Environmental Conservation. Each paper referenced below includes a short abstract for your review.
Land Policy Framework: Sri Lanka by A. A. Wijetunga Presented to the Ministry of Lands, Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 2004
Abstract: This paper traces the past experiments undertaken in land tenure reform and the restrictions imposed in land legislation in Sri Lanka and proposes a land allocation policy for state-owned land based on land capability and suitability, and through market mechanisms, while safeguarding the interests of vulnerable groups. Legislative, administrative and institutional interventions, which have impacted negatively on land use, sale, development of economically efficient land management, environmental management and investment in housing, agriculture, industry, commerce, tourism and recreation are identified and policy prescriptions proposed to overcome them. Other subjects that are addressed in this paper cover environmental conservation, urban land, privately owned land, and acquisition of land for public purposes.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform, Institutional Reform, Legal Reform, Land Use Planning, Land Information Systems and Environmental Conservation
Sri Lanka: A Study of the Land Market by A.A. Wijetunga et. al. Prepared for the World Bank by Abt Associates Inc. USA June 1998
Abstract: This report identifies the reforms to the present land tenure system, including policy, legal and institutional measures and implementation programs necessary for a rural land market to function openly and effectively. The study assesses the impacts of the current land tenure systems in Sri Lanka on the operation and efficiency of the agricultural land markets. It examines in some detail the extent of government policies and socio-cultural practices that have impacted on this particular issue. Further, it identifies and recommends changes for reform and presents them in the form of an implementation plan.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform, Institutional Reform, Legal Reform, Land Use Planning, Land Information Systems and Environmental Conservation
A Tentative Exploration of Links Between Land and Poverty Through a Rights-Based Approach by R .D.Wanigaratne Presented at 6th Annual Symposium on Poverty Research in Sri Lanka, Center for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), to be published November, 2006
Abstract: The study brings together case experiences of individual families in both private lands and state land alienation programs who have gained, lost or are losing rights they held over land parcels, bringing into focus particular combinations of causal processes that operate at the ground level. The paper case experiences demonstrate that changes in land ownership registration laws and simplification of land registration procedures, coupled with higher awareness creation among landholders, could effectively increase the security of land rights as well as improve the livelihood choices among landholders, particularly the poor.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform and Poverty Alleviation
Persistent Poverty: Long-Run Evidence from the Mahaweli Multipurpose Irrigated Settlement Project by Ranjith. D.Wanigaratne & John R. Heath Published in "Understanding the Impacts of Development Interventions on Poverty", A publication of the Center for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) and the Program for Improving Capacities for Poverty and Social Policy Research, University of Colombo, Series No.4, 2005
Abstract: The study based upon a formal empirical survey conducted in 2004 vindicates judgments based on a series of quicker, more limited repeated assessments made through a small purposive sample of farm households located within Sri Lanka’s Mahaweli Scheme over the previous twenty years. Concerns raised in the early 1980s about the likely economic stagnation of the irrigated program area have been fully borne out by more recent evidence, supporting the case for policy makers to make greater use of quick assessments to track poverty trends.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform and Poverty Alleviation
Informal Tenure Conditions in Irrigated Settlements of Sri Lanka: A Review of Empirical Research Evidence by R. D. Wanigaratne LTC Paper 151, Land tenure Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 1995
Abstract: The study, through a review of empirical literature, finds that in spite of legal restrictions against market infiltration spontaneous flexibilities have emerged within the agricultural land base of irrigated settlements in the presence of informal land-transaction processes. Such land market adaptations are found to yield positive dividends with respect to the creation of larger operational holdings with higher investment, greater use of technology, more commercialization of production, and increased displacement of inefficient cultivators.
Capability Categories: Legal Reform
The Impact of Land Distribution and Tenure Structure on Poverty among Small Farmers and Landless Poor in Rural Sri Lanka by R. D. Wanigaratne World Bank Technical Report, January 1989
Abstract: The study reviews on the basis of empirical research evidence the impact upon rural poverty of radical land and tenancy reforms instituted in the post 1950 period as well as liberal land redistributive reforms through the creation of state land resettlement projects. In the above context, the liberal macroeconomic policy reform pursued by the country since late 1970s in promoting land productivity and urban-industrial-service sector growth and an accompanying diversification and growth in income, employment and investment avenues is examined as to their impact upon the continued relevance of (a) providing legally secure access rights to land to micro land owners, tenants and agricultural labor in tenanted lands, (b) redistributing segments of larger land holdings taken over under the 1970 land reforms for house-plots to the landless poor of villages, and (c) accommodating landless poor in state land settlement projects as tenants and wards of the state without full title rights to lands they occupy. A case for a higher securing of land rights and a higher direction of land productivity enhancing services is highlighted as a means of directly improving the livelihoods of the landless and near landless poor in the country.
Subsistence Maintenance and Agricultural Transformation on the Frontier in Sri Lanka: The Kaltota Irrigated Settlement Project by R. D.Wanigaratne Unpublished Ph.D.Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1984
Abstract: Accommodation of increasing population and involution in paddy agriculture is examined using empirical information gathered from an irrigated settlement project in Sri Lanka. In a setting of limited land availability and scarce off-farm employment, population growth has forced in a modification of the legally-prescribed tenure system of unitary ownership and succession to holdings through informal land and produce share allocations. At the same time it also has forced technology to adapt to piecemeal agricultural development, where symbols of ‘modernity’ –non-conventional inputs, for example—coexist with ‘traditionality.’ This amalgam of ‘old’ and ‘new’ has proved highly malleable and capable of improving the chances of livelihood at the subsistence margin.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform and Legal Reform
Basic Needs Assurance through Land & Tenure Reforms, Social Welfare Nets and Special Protection Measures in Sri Lanka by R. D.Wanigaratne Position Paper submitted to the UN Common Country Assessment (CCA) on Social Development, January, 2000
Abstract: With a brief discourse on development paradigms which influenced the welfare reform experience of Sri Lanka as a broad ideological and policy setting the paper critically reviews the major Sri Lankan welfare reforms from early 1950s to mid-1990s. A number of critical features generally found associated with the poor and poverty which is often overlooked in broad welfare reform as well as in directed poverty alleviation efforts is identified. The paper considers that such features need to be accorded attention in future welfare reform deliberations as they reveal the presence of specific preconditions which have to be met to realize a more lasting impact on the poverty alleviation.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform and Poverty Alleviation
Proposed Institutional Structure for the Implementation of the National Land Agenda by A. A. Wijetunga Presented to the Ministry of Lands, Colombo, Sri Lanka in July, 2004
Abstract: The study examines the current organizational structure and functions of the Ministry of Lands in Sri Lanka and other agencies responsible for the implementation of the land agenda of the Government and proposes a modified institutional structure in line with the new orientation of land policies, facilitating the implementation of the program. It also provides a time-bound action plan to complete the organizational changes. The recommended reforms are expected to ensure cohesiveness, integration and better coordination, effective and timely participation of the agencies, inter-sectoral coordination and cost-effective service delivery.
Capability Categories: Institutional Reform
Assessment of the Commissioner of State Lands by A. A. Wijetunga Presented to the Ministry of Housing and Settlements Government of Trinidad and Tobago, March 2000
Abstract: The objective of this study is to assist the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in its effort to shift land policy to become more open, accessible, forward looking and market oriented. It recommends streamlining the institutional and regulatory framework of land administration, by developing a clear strategy to utilize more modern management facilities and procedures, and for having a better ability to meet the legal, procedural and administrative demands of the Land Commissioner's Department.
Capability Categories: Institutional Reform
Experiences in the Modernization of State Land Management in Trinidad and Tobago by A. A. Wijetunga et. al. Unpublished Monograph Edition, December 2001
Abstract: LUPAP studies, and attempts to evaluate the evidence, analyze the subject to examine underlying principles and synthesize the ideas to draw conclusions to enable readers to gain an insight into the attempts made to modernize state land management in Trinidad and Tobago. It also provides options that are available to overcome identified bottlenecks and constraints in the existing system. It identifies not only the complexities in public sector land management efforts in developing countries, but also provides policy makers and practitioners of state land management to overcome the numerous problems that they grapple with, in their quest to bring efficiency and effectiveness in to the system of management. It also provides some operational guidance for donor agencies concerned with improving land management in developing countries.
Capability Categories: Policy Reform, Institutional Reform, Legal Reform, Land Use Planning, Land Information Systems and Environmental Conservation
Draft Concepts and Language for the Preparation of Legislation to Establish the State Land Management Authority by A. A. Wijetunga Presented to the Ministry of Housing and Settlements Government of Trinidad and Tobago, March 2000
Abstract: This paper is designed to assist in the preparation of new legislation to establish the State Land Management Authority, particularly to transform policy goals and objectives into the body of legislation. The objects of legislation are defined with a degree of precision, and methods and control systems clearly laid out, to avoid ambiguity. The mandate of the State Land Management Authority has been made to be specific and complete. The concepts in the new legislation entrusts the Commissioner of State Lands with overall responsibility for four (4) basic functions pertaining to state land i.e. Development, Regulatory, Advisory and Coordination. The paper emphasizes the need to have provisions that would enable the Commissioner of State Lands to perform a dual role, namely the functions of the Commissioner of State Lands as custodian of all state lands empowering him to exercise all rights of ownership vested in the State in respect of State lands and that of the Executive Director of the State Land Management Authority.
Capability Categories: Legal Reform
Reforms to the Land Information Structure by A. A. Wijetunga et. al. Published in "Experiences in the Modernization of State Land Management in Trinidad and Tobago, Monograph Edition", December, 2000, Chapter 10
Abstract: This paper points to the fact that if State land management in Trinidad and Tobago is to be made efficient and effective, and if the relevant agencies are to so function, land information is critical. Data must be collected and records organized to facilitate ease of access and management. It identifies the weaknesses in the current land information structure in relation to acquisition, storage and dissemination of information. It recommends methods of improving the present information structure and seeks to develop a National Land and Geographic Information Systems (LIS/GIS).
Capability Categories: Land Information Systems
Computerized Lease Management System and Workflow Management System: Trinidad and Tobago by A. A. Wijetunga, June 2000
Abstract: This project proposal seeks to develop a Lease Management System and a Workflow Management System to facilitate effective lease management, to respond speedily to requests from members of the public and to eliminate stagnation and delay in processing applications by computerizing the essential data from State land records which are held in 30,000 paper files to create a database that would facilitate more effective lease management, maintain current information on tenure status, rental payment status, and compliance with the terms and conditions of leases/agreements. It also tracks progress of all applications made to the Commissioner of State lands and identify delays within the Division as well as with other Government agencies in order to take follow up action in a timely manner.
