Navigating between local visions and goals of national policies for sustainable land management in Ghana

Abstract

This study sought to understand the extent to which goals of national land policies are reflective of the visions of diverse land users for sustainable land management in northern Ghana. The study is qualitative and employs semi-structured interviews, a multi-stakeholder workshop, and document reviews, to unpack the synergies between national land policies and stakeholders’ visions for sustainable land management in northern Ghana. The study finds that national visions for sustainable land management diverge from local stakeholders’ visions and fail to capture the complexities of gendered land uses. The overall goal of the newly enacted Land Act 2020 coheres with the goals of the National Land Policy, although unlike the policy, the Act has provisions that could advance the quest to improve gendered land rights. It is concluded that the National Land Policy is obsolete and should be reviewed to reflect current land governance challenges and to provide guidance to future legislation on land management.