Abstract

This study sought to find out central-local governmental relations and land policy implementation in the selected Districts of Kasese, Sheema and Bushenyi in Uganda since the Uganda National Land Policy (UNLP) 2013. The objectives were: to find out political relations, administrative relations and financial relations between central and local governments in the delivery of secure land rights and land rights administration; and to find out the effect of customary institutions and practices in the delivery of secure land rights and land rights administration. Using mixed methods design data was collected from 436 participants and respondents. It was analysed using SPSS 23 for quantitative analysis and general content analysis for qualitative analysis. The study found out that central-local governmental relations are dissatisfactory and are in need of addressing so they can lead to good land policy implementation. The study also found out that customary institutions and practices are moderating in land policy implementation and should be further addressed for better land policy implementation. The study recommended that: there is need for harmonizing existing laws and regulations with the UNLP 2013; to further decentralize land rights administration and delivery of secure land rights by engaging and integrating customary land institutions and practices as required by the UNLP 2013 to allow for further local participation; there is need to divorce politics from administration; to standardize information by developing and disseminating an operational manual for clarity; improve communication; develop a code of conduct and professional standards; decentralize and improve training; there is need for stakeholder mapping to determine where all land stakeholders are and what they are doing, this will help in coordinating efforts and to ensure everything the UNLP 2013 requires is being done at the right time in the right fashion; capacity building must be carried out in all land institutions at central and local government level; the government should fast forward the creation of an autonomous agency in charge of land and enable it operate using a private sector model that will generate and reinvest funds to provide for the untimely funds, lack of funds and to ease auditing and accountability of the land sector; lastly customary institutions and practices should be studied and all compatible practices with the UNLP 2013 integrated into land policy implementation. The research upheld the systems theory supported by the bottom-up approach for central-local governmental relations in land policy implementation.