Sander van Hooft

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2009-11-15T15:54:30Z

BDV-213551-BDV will be deleted

I’m having a blast

2009-11-01T18:32:31Z

A quick post to satisfy your hungry minds… I have been unable to maintain this blog lately, however I’m planning to post again more frequently. Let’s start with a quick-and-dirty update (I will fill you in with the specifics later on). Since my last post, I: have achieved a Bachelor degree in Information Science at The [...]

Opportunities and Complexities of ICT for Ethiopia’s Land Administration

2009-11-01T18:32:31Z

As mentioned before, the past months I’ve been working on my Bachelor Thesis (Information Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands), and I can now proudly announce it’s accepted in its final version. To my supervisor Luca Consoli: Thank You! The thesis can be downloaded in pdf format here. Abstract An overview of complexities and opportunities regarding the use [...]

Kilil, woreda and kebele: the administrative divisions of Ethiopia

2009-11-01T18:32:31Z

I mentioned some terms like kebele and woreda in my latest posts, obviously neglecting the fact that most readers are not familiar with the administrative divisions of Ethiopia. In fact, in literature these words are used but in most cases left unexplained. So, let me introduce you to the concept of kilil, chartered city, zone, [...]

Nine benefits of Ethiopia’s Land use and Administration Committees (LACs)

2009-11-01T18:32:32Z

The decentralized approach on land registration is regarded as the key to Ethiopia’s successful swift and cost-effective land registration. Ethiopia’s success seems to be a rare case though: “In fact, hardly any of the [sub-Saharan] countries that introduced legal reforms with much fanfare have succeeded in developing, let alone rolling out, a low-cost system for land [...]

Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 3: 1991 – now: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

2009-11-01T18:32:32Z

After the defeat of the socialist Derg regime in 1991, the Peasant Associations were dissolving rapidly. However, the government announced the continuation of the land policy of the Derg regime. When Ethiopia in 1995 became the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia the new constitution approved and confirmed the state ownership of land. Even today, “[l]and [...]

Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 2: 1975 – 1991: The Derg regime

2009-11-01T18:32:33Z

In my previous post I discussed Ethiopia’s land registration during the Solomonic Dynasty (until 1975). Emperor’s Selassie’s imperial rule was overthrown by the Derg regime in 1975. This socialist regime nationalized all rural land and redistributed the land to its farmers. In order to abolish the exploitative landlord-tenant relations, the farmers were organized in Peasant Associations [...]

Ethiopia’s history of land registration part 1: until 1975: the Solomonic Dynasty

2009-11-01T18:32:33Z

Crewett et al. summarize that “Ethiopia has a long legacy of intervention in land tenure relations. The Ethiopian state has exerted considerable influence on local land tenure regimes throughout different political regimes.” But what does this long legacy look like? In this post I discuss the period of the Solomonic Dynasty, until 1975. Ethiopia’s land registration [...]

On the electric chair

2009-11-01T18:32:33Z

“We’ll clean up,” the manager said. The next day, I returned and saw a pile of broken chairs being loaded on a truck. “Good, now all that mess is gone and we can move around the office more efficiently from now on,” was my first thought. It already seems like ages ago, but when I was [...]

Land registration in Ethiopia and possible roles of ICT

2009-11-01T18:32:33Z

During a study project in Gondar, Ethiopia, it came to my understanding that the registration of land is a national issue receiving many attention in politics. Camilla Toulmin (January 2006), puts it like this: Secure rights to land and property depend on a combination of two key elements. The rights being claimed must be seen, first, as [...]