The Poor and Land: A Situational Analysis of Access to Land by Poor Land Users in Ghana

Abstract

This article examines the situation of poor land users in Ghana. Literature was analyzed on how various issues affect poor land users, and gaps in the literature were identified. An identifiable gap in the literature concerns innovation in, for example, chieftaincy institutions and the impact of such innovation on the poor’s access to land, which could make it difficult to implement such policies as land banks, cooperative ownership schemes, and land trusts. The absence of empirical studies that shed light on the quantitative relationship between incomes and access to land by the poor indicates that policies are likely to be based on guesswork and luck. To bridge the gaps in existing literature there is the need to organize thinking along disciplinary lines and identify critical crosscutting and interdisciplinary themes supportive of effective policymaking.