Abstract: This research examines the key aspects of land governance and suggests a policy framework to determine the efficient use of land resources with respect to geographic, economic, and social phenomena of a developing country. It primarily obliges two capacities: the assessment of land use variability, and the identification of development strategies for land use delimitation. Land governance allows local level land use politically, economically and socially transformative, and contributes better physical environment and revenue generation. In a developing country, it is rather sparse from land use regulations to the municipal and rural land use with accessible implications of housing, farming lands, and public assets. The central argument is that developing countries should have given more responsiveness to land governance for sustainable land use that is a key for agriculture, livelihoods, transits, local food security and poverty alleviation. Despite the fact that the local government and rural development agencies are utilitarian for managing the public goods, they do not always meet the government expenditures mostly because of political, economic, or ecological constraints. This paper warns six strategies and concludes that land management needs an informed policy model capable of monitoring and appraising the impacts of land use towards integrated land governance.

1. Integrating Land Governance into the Post-2015 Agenda:
Harnessing Synergies for Implementation and Monitoring Impact
Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington DC, March 24-27, 2014
Introduction
In a developing country it is rather sparse from land use
regulations to the municipal and rural land use with accessible
implications of housing, farming lands and public assets. Land use
policy in those countries has yet to be passable compliance to
enforce land use zoning for sustainable land administration. This
research attempted to examine the key aspects of land
governance to develop a policy model for local land
administration. It primarily obliges two capacities: the assessment
of land use variability in rural agriculture, housing settlement, and
surface water availability; and the identification of development
strategies for dominant land use delineation.
The central argument is that developing countries should
have given more responsiveness in land governance through
sustainable land use that is a key for housing, agriculture,
livelihoods, transits, local food security and poverty alleviation.
This argument relates two fundamental questions: (a) what are
the current trends in land use? and (b) what are the policy
implications for sustainable land management that is necessary
towards an integrated land governance?
This research assembles: an understanding of the leading
issues and comparative perspectives in land governance; sectoral
policy analysis, regional land use zoning appraisal and micro-level
land use instances in a developing country; and conclusions.
Materials and methods
This paper reviews statistics, journal articles, publicly available
government policy documents and case study areas.
Results
Land governance essentially imparts to identify land zoning impact monitoring to develop a policy model for sustainable land
management, prioritizing: first, the dominant land use variables such as agriculture, housing and settlement, vegetation, and water-
bodies; and secondly, in relation with two complex factors, community and ecology, and policy and institution. Land zoning
characterization is necessary to the land governance policy issues, such as conventional land use, poverty reduction, local dispute
resolution, physical planning and public assets management initiatives.
An example of micro-level land management in Daganbhuiyan, Feni district (Bangladesh), 2007. (A) spatiotemporal changes in dominant land use variables:
settlement (including homestead vegetation), agriculture, and surface water availability; (B) scatterplots showing the relationship between settlements (with
homestead vegetation), agriculture land , and population density (Source: Ahmed, 2007b).
The agricultural occupants have had increasingly a diminishing proportion of total population and women involved in farming and
domestic labour. While the purpose of land zoning policy is to regulate and improve land use practices with accessible choice of
farming lands and livelihoods at the local level. Empirical evidence shows that higher the population density the lower the landholding
distribution and eventually a decreasing trend in households labour force that is highly correlated with agriculture occupancies
especially in the rural areas.
In order to appraise location-specific land use zoning suitability and monitoring regional land management, an integrated land
governance would comprise at least four purposeful necessities: 1. land use delineations, 2. soil and water quality assessment, 3. social
and environmental impact assessment, and 4. Legal, institutional and policy compliance. The policy statement refers regulations and
acts designated for land use provisions. Nonetheless, functional land zoning ought to be assemble a policy framework on the basis of
multijurisdictional land and its integrated use suitability in a region. Consequently, in interpretation, land zoning or land governance is
the functional effectiveness of land topography (LUD, land use delineation by local land use variables i.e., LS+U+W+Ag+F+ .... +X), soil and
water quality (QS+W), social and environmental impact assessment (IS+E), and legal, institutional and policy compliance (CLIP). Hence a
policy model for an Integrated Land Governance can be presented as (Ahmed, 2007b: 55): Z = LS+U+W+Ag+F+ .... +X + QS+W + IS+E + CLIP .
Conclusions
In order to imply a probable zoning policy for a defensible land
use, this paper outlines that land management needs an
informed policy model capable of monitoring and appraising the
impacts of land use towards the integrated land governance. The
public policy in decision-support-system has to be accessible to
precede the progressive examinations of both quantitative and
qualitative information for determining land use zoning indicators
on the socioeconomic, ecological and community perspectives
pertinent to the local level land habits. Land use delineation and
multi-criteria evaluation with spatial data analysis aid to
characterize the complex variables associated to land
management.
This research warns six leading options comprising 17
functional areas for land governance. First option, strategy for
physical environment development for livelihood, considering
policy instruments (Hawlet & Ramesh, 1985), agro ecological
zone (Brammer, 2002), and land zoning indicators associated with
biophysical boundary, context-specific and space-base land use
(Bellefontaine et al, 2010).
Second is identification of land use impediments at local
and regional levels by defining land use zoning parameters. Third
strategic option is institutional approach of land governance
indicating local government and governance structure,
agriculture and rural development plans, and land use optimality
with respect to cost-effectiveness (Deininger & Feder, 2009;
Deininger et al, 2012). Fourth option is legal strategies of the
zoning regulations, inter alia, criteria for institutional settings,
symmetry of land use pattern and its future operations, and
region-specific integrated policy alternatives. Fifth option is land
zoning impact appraisal and policy model incorporating the
evidence from pilot exercise with micro-level land use inventory
at the revenue jurisdictions, including: land use policy
compliance, population distribution pattern, occupational
households’ dispersion, and land use and land cover change
dynamics.
The sixth and last strategy is land zoning information
management (Ahmed, 2007a & 2007b) for integrated land
governance policy implementation planning and impact
monitoring by promoting institutional linkage for spatial data
governance, deployment of remote sensing and geographic
information system, and continuing land governance monitoring
and impact consultation.
In the long run, this policy framework can be useful to
sustainable land management to uphold the land use rights and
the beneficiaries with the essential elements of societal and
economic values of a region.
References
Ahmed, Shamsuddin (2007a). “Land Zoning Information Management” (Chapter 9), in Inception
Report: Study of Detailed Coastal Land Zoning Including Two Pilot District, Ministry of Land,
The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. November 27, 2007. Pages 151 -170.
Ahmed, Shamsuddin. (2007b). “Land Zoning Impact and Policy for Sustainable Land
Management” (MPA Dissertation in Governance & Public Policy). Civil Service College,
University of Dhaka, December 2007.
Bellefontaine, Teresa, Jean Haley & Bernard Cantin (2010). “Exploring the Role of the Canadian
Government in Integrated Land Management (Research Paper)”. Sustainable Development,
Policy Research Initiative, September 2010, Government of Canada.
Brammer, Hugh (2002). Land Use and Land Use Planning in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The University
Press Limited
Deininger, Klaus, Selod Harris & Anthony Burns (2012). The Land Governance Assessment
Framework: Identifying and Monitoring Good Practice in the Land Sector. Washington DC,
USA: The World Bank.
Deininger, Klaus. & G. Feder (2009). “Land Registration, Governance, and Development: Evidence
and Implications for Policy”. World Bank Res Obs (2009) 24 (2): 233-266, June 11, 2009.
Howlett, M. & Ramesh, M. 1995. Studying Public Policy: policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems.
London: Oxford University Press
Shamsuddin Ahmed
York Centre for Public Policy and Law, York University, Canada
shamsuddin.ahmed08@yahoo.ca; suahmed@yorku.ca
Key aspects of land governance: A policy framework
for developing countries
Acknowledgements
This work is an independent
research and does represent the
abstract that was submitted in
November 2013. The author likes
to thank The World Bank – 2014
Land and Poverty Conference
organizers. Special thanks to- Dr.
Fahimul Quadir, Faculty of
Graduate Studies, York University
(Canada), and the organizations
the author is associated. Detailed
references can be seen in final
paper.
A Land facet that bears the convolution of
resource use treaty for housing and
settlement, livelihood, food security, safe
water, and commercial utilities beside the
persistent capacities and the catastrophes
(Photo: Shamsuddin Ahmed, 2002).
A simplified model of an Integrated
Land Zoning Information System
for monitoring land governance
(Source: Ahmed, 2007a).
Integrated Land Governance: An Illustration of schematic flow of Information for
Sustainable Land Management (adapted). Source: Ahmed, Shamsuddin (2007b)
An instance of land use change dynamics reveal the complexity of
sustainable land use mostly at the local level land management. In a decade,
1996 – 2006, agriculture and surface water resources had decayed or lost
over 15 percent of area because of an increasing pressure of new housing,
settlements and commercial utilities (Source: Ahmed, 2007b)
Hectares Percent Hectare Percent Hectares Percent
Water Bodies 1,744.2 12.5 670.2 4.8 -1,074.0 -7.7
Agriculture Land 8,497.8 60.7 7,379.8 52.7 -1,118.0 -8.0
Settlement + Veg. 3,766.8 26.9 5,958.7 42.5 2,192.0 15.6
Land Use / Cover
1996 2006 Area Change