Dr. Logan Cochrane, associate professor at the College of Public Policy (CPP) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), co-authored a paper with Addiswork Tilahun of Hawassa University, Ethiopia, on how converting peri-urban land into urban land affects the land rights and tenure security of farmers.

The authors posit that as the global population continues to urbanize, increasing pressure is put upon urban centers and the carrying capacity of the already built-up areas. One way to meet these demands is horizontal expansion, which requires new lands to become incorporated into urban centers. 

The paper, “The Rush to the Peripheries: Land Rights and Tenure Security in Peri-Urban Ethiopia’, investigates land rights issues and tenure security conditions of peri-urban farmers in the case study sites of Addis Ababa and Hawassa. The analysis suggests that the urban development and expansion strategies adopted by the respective city administrations are impacting land rights of the peri-urban farmers and their tenure security, albeit in unique ways, from which lessons can be drawn about how urban expansion policies can be more appropriately designed and implemented.

The article has been published online by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute at https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/193.