Women's Land Rights, Institutional and Policy Awareness in Post-Conflict Liberia's Dual Tenure System

Background: Despite the 2018 Land Rights Act (LRA) guaranteeing customary and women’s land rights and participation in land governance, data on awareness of the Act and the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) among women remains inadequate in post-conflict Liberia's dual-tenure system. Drawing on data from women in four of Liberia’s 15 counties, this study examines economic, participatory agency, and property-rights consciousness predictors that drive women’s awareness of the LRA and LLA. Although both represent key institutional and policy milestones, evidence on the drivers of women's awareness of them remains scarce.
Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of 1,026 women from 20 customary tenure communities across 4 Liberian counties. Binary and multinomial logistic regression examined three domains: economic norms and financial access (land purchase rights, joint ownership, benefit for social development funds), participatory agency (decision-making, conflict resolution, and mediation), and legal consciousness (inheritance, spousal property rights). A three-stage analysis of domain-specific models, full multivariable models, and cross-domain interaction models with predicted probabilities was conducted.
Results: Property consciousness and participatory agency drove institutional awareness more than age. Women affirming land purchase rights were 6 times more likely to be aware of LLA (OR = 6.12, p < .01) and 9 times more likely to be aware of LRA (RRR = 9.35, p < .001). Decision-making participation: 6.7× for LLA, 1.8× for LRA. Interactions demonstrate complementary effects: land purchase × decision-making peaked at 25–30% predicted awareness, 6-fold above baseline. Age had no effect (p > .60); social funds were insignificant.
Conclusion: LLA and LRA awareness result from the interactions between different domain predictors, rather than simply isolated factors. In order for statutory reform awareness to happen, there needs to be active participatory contestation of property norms rather than just information. Give top priority to women's substantive participation in land governance forums, plan community dialogues for the purpose of changing property norms, and reconcile customary-statutory institutions through shared participatory and deliberative processes.

women's land rights, institutional and policy awareness

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