When land formalization projects do not extend formal rights to all of the landholders in the project area, project designs should anticipate and mitigate potential negative spillover effects for landholders in the project area whose land has not been formalized. The evaluation found that in some of the project areas, on average the Land Tenure Services Project (LTS) resulted in increased concerns about boundary encroachment and land expropriation. The evaluation hypothesizes that this result was driven by the experiences of landholders in the project areas who did not receive land use property rights certificates (DUATs), particularly rural female-headed households. For these landholders, observing that others in their villages received DUATs appears to have raised concerns that their rights had become more vulnerable as a result, leading to an increase in perceived tenure insecurity. This finding highlights the potential for land projects that do not comprehensively extend formal rights to all landholders in a project area to result in negative spillovers for those who are left out.
LTS had intended to comprehensively formalize rights in the project area, but project delays and other unexpected difficulties, including lack of follow through by beneficiaries to formalize rights, meant that not all of the intended beneficiaries received their DUATs. Other land formalization projects in similarly challenging contexts are also liable to face risks of falling short of comprehensive implementation. Such projects should anticipate these risks and consider including outreach and sensitization components to address potential concerns for landholders whose rights will not be formalized, as well as to ensure equal access for women and other vulnerable groups. This lesson also has relevance for the design of land formalization projects that take a sporadic, case-by-case approach to implementation.