Do No Harm in Land Tenure and Property Rights: designing and implementing conflict sensitive land programs

This guide prepared by CDA Collaborative Learning Projects provides detailed guidelines, assessment frameworks, and worksheets to enable practitioners, non-governmental organizations, and governments to design and implement conflict-sensitive land-tenure and property rights initiatives. Even with positive overarching objectives, land-tenure and property rights interventions that fail to carefully study and account for local context may result in unintended negative consequences for local communities, individuals, and vulnerable groups. The Do No Harm Land Tenure and Property Rights Programming seven-step procedure featured in this guide assists practitioners in identifying and analyzing the crucial actors, circumstances, and factors within a local context that must be considered prior to the planning and implementation of a project. Particular emphasis is placed upon recognizing and ensuring the equitable participation of vulnerable groups and women. The manner of implementation is also key: staff and practitioners must demonstrate respect towards local communities, be transparent, accountable for their actions, and fair in recognizing the value of all community members in order for a project to produce enduring positive change.

Keywords: land tenure security, land-related conflicts, land tools, gender, vulnerable groups.