Land Governance
Sierra Leone has a physical landmass of 71,620 km2 (27,653 sq miles) and a water area of 120 km2 (46 sq mi). This landmass is also estimated at 7.2 million hectares. The country’s population was estimated in 2015 at 7,092, 113, until then, there has not been any official national census. However, a recent estimate by the World Population Reviews in 2021 at 8,082,075. The country is administratively divided into fourteen political districts, five regions, and the Western Area Urban and rural of Freetown, the capital city.
Land administration in Sierra Leone is not very clear. Many refer to Sierra Leone’s land governance system as dualistic in the sense, that land within Freetown and its environs (Western area) is said to have been bought by the British Colonial masters and was handed over to the government after independence in 1961. Therefore, the government continues to lay claim of ownership over all the land in the Western Area. Land within the Western Area accounts for less than 5% of the country’s landmass. Any private individual (citizens and non-citizens) can buy, lease or gain private ownership over land in Freetown. However, the government has used a provision in CAP116 of the Public Land Ordinance 1898, to compulsorily repossess any land for a specific purpose, including, but not limited to defense; Public safety; Public order; Public morality; Public health; town and country planning; and for the development and utilization of the property to promote the public benefit.
On the other hand, land within the provinces is administered according to the traditional norms and customs of the area and cannot be owned privately or privatized. Land in the provinces either belongs to families or the community. Thus, a foreign investor who wants to acquire land in the provinces will have to lease the land.
However, urbanization in several cities, peri-urban communities, and larger towns is changing the narrative. Private individuals, including foreigners, are buying land and other properties and laying claims of ownership over those properties.
Reforms
Land of reliable data and outdated legal framework are the two common-ground perspectives that exist about Sierra Leone’s land governance context. To change this narrative, discussions started around 2010 for a reform in the land sector of Sierra Leone. Since then have been a scaled-up effort to change the land laws, thus several versions of National land policies were being formulated until in 2015 when the sixth version which majority described as one of the best in the region, was formulated and approved by cabinet. Key policy recommendations in the 2015 National Land Policy call for the government to protect customary land rights and make land governance administration inclusive, recommending for the establishment of separate National Land Commission.
In 2019, the Ministry of Land with joint funding support from FAO and the Government of Sierra Leone, hired a team of consultants to facilitate country-level consultation for the development of two bills. By the first quarter of 2020, the consultants had produced their reports in the format of two model land bills titled: The Customary Land Rights Act and the National Land Commission Act. Those model bills and other relevant documents such as the policy brief elaborated by the Network Movement for Justice and Development through the Land for Life Initiative and other CSO recommendations, were all sent to the Law Officers Department of the Ministry of Justice.
On the 27th September, 2021, the two bills (National Land Commission Bill and Customary Land Rights Bill) were gazette by the Government of Sierra Leone, and on the 22nd October 2021, the Minister of Land Housing and Country Planning was granted the permission by the Parliament of Sierra Leone to introduce the two bills in parliament. The bills were produced for each parliamentarian to have and prepare for a second reading which will be followed by a plenary.
Finally, on the 6th and 8th of September 2022, the two land bills ( the Customary Land Right and National Land Commission Acts) were signed by the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone to become a legal instrument in the country. With the signing of these laws, Land for Life is now set to educate communities on the content of the laws.
Bottlenecks
As contentious as it is, land reforms are characterized by several levels of protracted disagreements and misunderstandings. This is the case with the current reforms in Sierra Leone. Three strong interest groups exists and the government is there to provide the neutral role, facilitating the dialogue. First, the private sector wants the reforms to reduce or remove all ambiguity along the pathway to smooth acquisition of customary land. They have expressed that they would want the government or any designated agency to serve as a legal intermediary between them and the customary land-owning families and communities. Therefore, in a list of concerns raised, they have desired for the reviewed of some of the proposed provisions in the gazette bills.
The paramount chiefs are the current power-holders for the governance of customary land. They have such powers guaranteed by the misinterpretation of the existing 1927 protectorate Land Ordinances and reaffirmed in the 1965 Provincial Lands Act which recognizes the chiefdom councils as custodians of all customary lands. By the term ‘custodian’; it has evidently emerged that some chiefs consider themselves as legal owners of all land within their jurisdiction.
The civil society as pioneers of the change, have stood their ground, calling governments’ attention to the need to reform the land laws and make them people-centered. The civil society (in which category we count ourselves) have the backings of the larger population of the vulnerable land owners, women and youth in rural communities who benefit very less from the benefits coming from the use of their family or communal land.
Meanwhile, the government has its interest to making all gains – political, economic, social and international. Thus, this comes with huge pressure to listen to all sides – to the private sector for sustainable investment opportunities, to the local authorities for the perceived political powers they hold as custodians of the people and to the civil society for social stability. To try to play in-between these interest and make progress has been difficult task for the government. However, the current Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning and his team at the VGGT secretariat have played the middle-role well. On the 20th May, 2022, there was a large roundtable engaging bring into one room representatives of these three factions. The desired goal was to bring to the attention the varying interest, dialogue and reach a common-ground. The engagement was a very critical one, was full of life and tensions were almost rising. But in the aid, some consensus were reached and the bills are progressing back to the parliament.