Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department plans to support the development of land registries in developing countries.

The Department for International Development (DFID) targets improvements in overall land governance to support economic development and poverty reduction. DFID funded programmes over the last 5 years have helped to secure the land and property rights of 5.8 million people in developing countries. Our programmes range from supporting the development of land registries and issuance of land titles (for example in Rwanda and Ethiopia) to addressing land-related conflict (for example in Sudan) and supporting community legal empowerment (as in Kenya or Mozambique). We have recently launched a new global programme, Land-Enhancing Governance for Economic Development (LEGEND), which is providing expert advice to our country offices to help design and implement programmes to deliver additional results in this area.