As we commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December) and International Human Rights Day (10 December), we spotlight this urgent issue. Drawing from Transparency International’s report, This Beautiful Land: Corruption, Discrimination, and Land Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa and field stories from ILC Africa, we explore how corruption robs Africa’s vulnerable populations of land, livelihoods, and dignity and what must be done to reclaim justice.
Stories from the Ground: The Human Cost of Land Corruption
Youth: A Future in Jeopardy
Corruption denies young people the ability to inherit land, secure economic futures, and shape their communities.
In Zambia, the national land policy officially reserves 20% of state land for youth. In practice though, young applicants are often sidelined. Stereotypes portraying them as inexperienced or unproductive lead to their exclusion from both state and customary land allocation processes. Chiefs, for example, may view young people as less deserving of plots, rejecting their claims in favor of older applicants or influential individuals.
In Zimbabwe’s Insuza region, the struggle for land has driven many young people to migrate or become embroiled in illicit land deals. Similar injustices have been reported in Kenya, where young individuals lost their rightful inheritance when village elders took advantage of the absence of a family patriarch. Displacement often results in young people migrating to urban centers or other rural areas, where they face precarious job markets and limited opportunities. Corruption threatens a generational right to access communal lands, creating a cycle of poverty and displacement
Women and Girls: The Gendered Impact of Land Corruption
Systemic patriarchy worsens land corruption’s impact on women and girls.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), customary land systems marginalize women, preventing them legal claims to access land and exposing them to forced evictions. Similarly, in Tanzania, women affected by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project lost access to communal grazing lands and medicinal plants crucial to their livelihoods. Without formal land titles or fair compensation, they remain trapped in economic dependency and food insecurity.
Communities’ Livelihood and Cultural Practices at Risk
Entire communities across Africa have seen their human rights violated due to land corruption.
From Tanzania’s EACOP pipeline-affected villages to Senegal’s disposses farming communities, displacement leaves millions without homes, jobs, or access to essential services like water, health, and education. Corruption in land management destabilizes local economies and disrupts cultural practices.
The Path Forward: Addressing Land Corruption as a Human Rights Imperative
Addressing land corruption requires coordinated action across key areas:
Strengthening Legal Frameworks and Operational Protocol, and Ensuring Strict Implementation
Governments must ensure the strict enforcement of existing laws and policies while striving to align them with international standards for land governance, such as for example the African Union’s Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa. Government must put in place strong operational procedures, including guaranteeing free, prior, and informed consent from affected communities and ensuring equal non-discriminatory land access
Advancing Transparency through comprehensive Land Registries
Transparent land acquisition processes should include land registries accessible to the public. Among others, accessible land registries should be free, use clear and simple language, provide detailed information on key criteria, offer both online and offline access, adhere to open data principles, and be supported by strong outreach campaigns.
Engaging Local Communities, Youth and Women
Awareness and legal training programs must target affected communities, youth and women to build their capacity to safeguard and advocate for their land rights. This can take the form of initiatives such as TI Zimbabwe’s School of Integrity for Emerging Young Leaders which aims at equipping youth with the skills to address corruption.
Systems can be put in place to ensure that local communities, youth and women have recourse to legal advice and grievance redress mechanisms. This can include Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALACs) which not only allow citizens to report cases of land-related corruption but also help redirect these cases to relevant authorities and advance land justice.
Call to Action: Stand with Us for Corruption-free Land Governance
Land corruption is not inevitable, it thrives in the absence of accountability. On these important dates, we call on governments, businesses, development partners, civil society organizations, and communities to continue taking bold actions to promote corruption-free land governance systems.
Join us ILC Africa and Transparency International in amplifying the voices of Africa’s local communities, youth, women, and girls. Together, we can build policies, partnerships, and practices that restore justice, equity, and human dignity.