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Main characteristics of land administration in MENA countries

by Rafic Khouri

Advisor to the President of the Arab Union of Surveyors

New York 2 June 2016

MENA Population

The second half of the 20th century—particularly the last quarter of the 20th

century—has witnessed

an explosive population growth throughout the MENA region. The region’s population growth rate

has reached a peak of 3 percent per year around 1980. Currently, the population of MENA is

growing at nearly 2 percent, still higher than the world average. Today, with half of its population

under age 25, MENA has the second youngest population among world regions, after sub-Saharan

Africa1. However, the average of arable land per person in this area is only 0.1ha, and 60% of the

MENA population lives in cities (World Bank data). There is therefore a very serious scarcity of arable

land. One of the consequences of these facts is that the MENA region has the highest youth

unemployment rate in the world: the Middle East and North Africa regions continue to show by far

the highest youth unemployment rates – 28.2 and 30.5 per cent, respectively, in 2014 – and rates

have continued to worsen since 2012, particularly for young women2.

The resulting high cost of land and poor public land management, coupled with the high price of

housing available in the formal sector, has contributed to the proliferation of slums and

informal/squatter settlements in cities throughout the region. Over 50% of Egypt’s urban population

lives in such conditions of limited, if any, tenure security and poor access to basic infrastructure

services. Amman (capital of Jordan) stands out as one example of a city that is taking a proactive

approach and recently received a World Leadership Award (2007) in the planning division for its

visionary master plan (World Bank 2008)

The overall lack of secure property rights, particularly concerning land and real estate, and difficulties

in accessing land have been identified by firms in most MENA countries as a constraint to investment

(Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, and Syria). The lack of secure property rights severely hinders the ability

to use land and real estate as collateral to access finance, which in large part explains why housing

mortgage finance markets in the region remain undeveloped (Jordan and Tunisia are exceptions)

(WB 2008).

In December 2015, Mr. Sherif Samy, chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority,

declared that more than 90 per cent of the units in Egypt still do not have proper titles. “The title

registration regime is very antique, time consuming and cumbersome,” he says3.

1 Farzaneh Roudi, United Nations Expert Group Meeting On Adolescents, Youth And Development, YOUTH

POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: OPPORTUNITY OR CHALLENGE?,

New York, 2011 2 ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2015, p.6

3 The National newspaper, UAE, December 9, 2015

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Main characteristics of land administration in MENA countries:

Of course, such a tense socio economic situation requires high standards in land governance, which

would guarantee transparency as well as all citizens’ land rights, providing clear identification of the

owner(s) and the rule of law, but most of MENA countries haven’t engaged enough yet in this

process.

One of the most important sources of indicators about land administration is the World Bank’s Doing

Business project. It monitors on a yearly basis the procedures, the duration of the registration

process as well as the reliability of this process. It also monitors the reforms in which the countries

are engaged. The general ideal of the Doing Business project is that registering property should be

short, with a minimum number of procedures, and should require the cheapest possible cost. It is

globally admitted that the registration complexity and its high cost are obstacles to property

registration, particularly for the disadvantaged sectors of the population.

On the other hand, complex procedures are often a source of corruption, entailing additional costs, a

situation detrimental to the rule of law and to the State’s image. In addition to the two criteria of

duration and cost of the registration process, the Doing Business team computes an interesting index

measuring the quality of land administration. This index puts greater focus on the qualitative aspects

of land registration: i.e. reliability, transparency, coverage, and dispute prevention.

The Doing Business reports have computed the following average indicators of land registration in

the MENA region:

• Registering Property MENA average index 61.43 (0=very bad and 100=very good)

• Procedures (number) 5.7

• Time (days) 29.6

• Cost (% of property value) 5.6

• Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 12.5

These figures show that registering property remains a risky issue, with a poor quality of land

administration index (12.5/30), and a global average index of 61.43 (max 100), at least in some MENA

countries.

However, the Doing Business has been a powerful global tool able to foster progress in the field of

land administration. The following table monitors the progress of the different regions of the world,

including MENA from 2005 to 20164:

4 World Bank, How Innovation in Land Administration Reform Improve on Doing Business, Washington, 2015,

p.3

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The table shows shorter procedures, as well as less important costs and fewer procedures. However,

this positive evolution does not apply to all MENA countries. The following table illustrates the

discrepancy between these countries (Doing Business 2012).

The average ranking of the MENA region computed in this table is 82, with the different MENA

countries evenly distributed above and below this average value (9 countries respectively). This

average is higher than other groups of developing countries (East Asia Pacific, Latin America, and

Sub-Saharan Africa in light blue).

The rich oil producing Gulf States are in the upper positions, with high level ratings. Their situation is

consistent with their willingness to develop the private business, while less developed and more

densely populated countries lag behind.

Some positions raise questions, such as Yemen, in the upper half, which seems questionable to me,

and cannot be consistent, at any rate today, with the current civil strife gravely affecting this country.

The most populated countries, even if they are oil producers such as Algeria, are in the lower half.

They are often known for their powerful bureaucracy.

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Moreover, Doing Business has published the following table which computes the number of reforms

in the field of land administration from 2006 to 2013.

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The table shows that, while sub-Saharan Africa is the region which has implemented the biggest

number of reforms between 2005 and 2012 (52 reforms for 46 economies; average per economy

1.13), MENA’s 19 economies have implemented 12 reforms, with an average of 0.63 reform per

economy, thus highlighting the urgent need to trigger land administration reforms in a number of

MENA region countries.

Another problem in the region is corruption related to land. A survey about corruption in this sector,

as perceived in MENA countries, has been published in FAO’s Land Tenure Journal in 2011. Here are

some of the conclusions published:

“Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) 2009 presents the main findings of

a public opinion survey that explores the general public’s views of corruption, as well as experiences

of bribery around the world. It assesses the extent to which key institutions and public services are

perceived to be corrupt, measures citizens’ views on government efforts to fight corruption, and, for

the first time in the 2009 survey (in cooperation with FAO), includes land questions about the level of

bribery and political corruption in the land sector. The 2009 barometer interviewed 73 132 people in

69 countries. The results for the MENA region are exposed below”:

Question: How serious do you think the problem of grand or political corruption is in land matters in

Middle East and North Africa?

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5 Zimmermann, Willi, Towards land governance in the Middle East and North Africa region, in FAO’s Land

Tenure Journal, 1(2011), p. 117-118

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Another issue of concern is the conservative attitude about women’s access to land in the MENA

region. This problem can be summarized as follows:

This issue is seldom dealt with in these countries, and land ownership records, which are far from

being comprehensive, are seldom disaggregated by gender. However, many studies point to the fact

that women rarely own land in the region. Moreover, when women actually do own land, it is often

controlled by a male member of the family until marriage, and after marriage by their husband or

son. In many countries, women also risk losing their entitlements in case of divorce, widowhood or

husband migration.

Furthermore, women that own land seldom purchase it but inherit it. Women also tend to give up

their land rights in return for a portion of the land's remittances. Finally, the rare lands owned by

women are also smaller in area than the ones owned by men. This bleak overview contrasts with the

high percentage of women working in agriculture in the MENA: up to 60% in Morocco and 50% in

Egypt for example.6

Reminder: the Sustainable Development Goals 1.4, 2.3, 5.a, mention equal access to land, to both

men and women.

In addition, the League of Arab States has adopted a Cairo Declaration in February 2014, following a

high level meeting dedicated to Millenium Development Goals for Women and Girls, Gender Equality

and the Empowerment of Women in the Arab Region. This declaration encompasses the following

paragraphs:

In spite of this declaration, according to SIGI Index, which measures the discrimination against

women worldwide, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is the poorest performer in the

world. The majority of the MENA countries are positioned in the highest discrimination level, and

no country is in the very low level7.

Therefore, my recommendations for the MENA region are:

- Advocacy, promotion of land governance principles and initiatives, together with developing

research and capacity building so that this issue is put high on the development agenda

6 Karine BADR, Rural women and agriculture in the MENA, C I H E A M Briefing Notes, N °66 – 17 May 2010

7 OECD DEV, Social Institutions & Gender Index 2014, Synthesis Report, 2014, p. 43

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- Promote participatory urban planning

- Promote women’s right to access land

- These aims would best be attained in a democratic context

These actions would usefully contribute to strengthening the rule of law in the MENA region, and

would contribute to enhance the development effort of these countries.