Assessing Transparency Practice in Urban Land Administration

The paper intended to assess the transparency practice in the governance and administration of urban land in Abi Adi  town Tigray region.  Hence accessibility, openness and clarity which are the key principles of transparency were used to assess the governance practice in the urban land. The study used 150 randomly selected sample households from the residents of the town. In order to gather the  necessary data  from  the  sample  households;  questionnaire,  interview  and  focus  group discussions were used as data gathering instrument tools. In light of this, descriptive method of  analysis was employed to analyze the data obtained from the field. In the study area there was  not accessibility of information concerning land to those who will be affected by any decision  and enforcements taken on land. Information was not freely and directly accessible to them. The office was not open to its decisions on land delivery, land acquisition (who gets what) and areas  for what purpose should reserved. Beside of this, even if the procedures for acquiring land and the size of the land to be allocated were clear, the rules governing the land allocation, the time for  allocation  of  land  and  the  election  of  land  administration  coordinator  were  not  clear.  Therefore,  there is a need to make information accessible, open and cl ear to the public. This can be achieved by posting information on a notice board on a regular basis, creating websites, printing of hard copies (by preparing weekly newspapers and manuals) and broadcasting on  radio, etc.