Improving Land rights in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (July 2017-December 2019) (HTML)
Published 18 February 2022
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1. Improving land rights in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC):
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Project tested whether reducing the cost of obtaining a land title increased access to property titles in Kananga, DRC.
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Having the title has benefits to the household, because they gain household security, and to the local government, because they can increase taxation.
2. Methodology
- Randomised Controlled Trial: Part of the ‘Metaketa’ approach, which coordinates multiple studies on a specific topic or intervention in a variety of countries and contexts.
- The study was part of the second Metaketa round focused on formalisation, taxation, and public services, with studies in six countries.
- Households were screened for eligibility for obtaining a land title. If eligible, they were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Treatment group received an invitation to a land titling programme that lowered the ticket price and the transaction costs of acquiring a land title. While individuals often pay $1000 or more for a title in Kananga, the titling program capped treatment household outlays to the official price of $100.
- Treated households were subsequently randomised into a price subgroup offering 0%, 25%, or 50% subsidies, to assess the effectiveness of further reductions in the subsidies.
3. Findings
- The probability that households obtained a property title increased by 14 percentage points.
- Increased citizens’ intentions to obtain a land title by 45 percentage points.
- Almost half of the households that received the door-to-door titling program initiated a titling process by scheduling a visit from government land surveyors.
- Findings suggest ticket and transaction costs are key constraints on land formalisation in Kananga.
4. Impacts
- Obtaining a land tile reduces households vulnerability to losing their homes and they are able to use their property as collateral to obtain loans, such as for starting their own business.
- Seeing the evidence from the programme, the provincial governor of Kananga has championed the initiative and supports scale up of the programme. He is continuing discussions with the research team for his new tax policy strategy.