An Evaluation of Financing Urban Land Administration Reforms in Africa: Comparative Insights and Policy Pathways for DFIs

Transitioning to effective urban land administration is a key challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where weak governance and land administration institutions, land insecurity, and land governance fragmentation are a barrier to economic development. Evidence of how the financing models and enabling policy conditions between DFIs and conventional financial institutions differ is still limited, and strategic potential to catalyse reform is not yet fully realised. This paper evaluates how DFIs fund and facilitate urban land administration reforms across four African countries - Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. A comparative multiple-case study approach with documentary analysis and a structured expert survey of 12 practitioners in Southwest Nigeria was used to analyze data, which were then thematically coded in NVivo 14 based on three dimensions: financing structures, DFI roles and policy frameworks. The results show that public budgets and concessional loans are by far the most prevalent financing instruments, whereas blended finance, PPPs, and land value capture instruments are hardly used. DFIs are mostly involved in technical assistance, policy dialogue and capacity building, and have almost no gender equity provisions in place, except in Rwanda. The following is identified as pre-conditions for the effective engagement of DFI: legal harmonisation, tenure integration and enhanced institutional mandates. The paper offers comparative policy approaches on how to diversify finance, how to coordinate institutions, and how to integrate gender-sensitivities in the DFI-supported land reform in Africa.