Decentralisation and governance in land administration systems

Abstract

Land administration is a complex process and it is often associated with decentralisation. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the importance of decentralisation governance in land administration systems. At present, there are no standardized frameworks available to assess and compare the consequence of the systems put in place. This is an extremely important area and considered necessary to determine the relative effectiveness of decentralised land administration systems and associated governance arrangements that might affect the performance of the delivery of services. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a framework to carry out such an assessment of performance, which is important to prove the impact of decentralisation on governance. This will allow strategic assessment framework to be formulated to help ensure more appropriate decentralisation governance in land administration system throughout developing countries in the future. This study is probably the first to systematically determine the principles and variables for decentralised land administration governance assessment. The conceptual framework was developed first, and then an empirical analysis by using mixed method approach was conducted. Data to undertake this study was obtained from survey with land administration experts (quantitative phase) and follow by interview of decentralised land administration stakeholders (qualitative phase) in the case studies. In the first phase, the perceptions of land administration experts were evaluated, which highlights the key principles and variables for assessing decentralised land administration governance. The results suggest that the principles can be grouped as relating to transparency, efficiency and effectiveness; sustainability; responsiveness; clarity and simplicity; security and stability; and consistency and impartiality. The six factors demonstrated strong validity and reliability. Then, the developed assessment framework was tested at the second phase with two case studies in the states of Johor and Sarawak in Malaysia in order to assess their respective decentralised land administration governance practices. The results from interviews confirmed the applicability of the principles enabled testing of the assessment framework in the context of specific case studies. Finally, the analysis then identified potential lesson drawing from the case studies to provide strategic framework for assessing decentralised land administration systems. The results of this study would help to better understand the benefits of decentralised system for governance, to facilitate its implementation and to prioritise its practices. It offers a beneficial source of information to land administration fields, particularly in developing countries, which are still lagging far behind when it comes to successful decentralisation practices. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the results and sets out recommendations. Hence, further research is suggested in order to refine the framework, particularly in setting measurable variables and testing across further case studies.