Thinking outside the box and introducing land readjustment against the conventional urban land acquisition and delivery method in Ethiopia

The conventional and state controlled expropriation is the sole urban land acquisition method for housing and other urban development purposes in Ethiopia. Transitional peri-urban areas are those places where state controlled expropriation measures are largely executed as a response to the growing land and housing demands induced by rapid urbanization. Thus, the aim of this study is to review the deficiencies associated with the existing urban land acquisition and delivery method with a view of arriving at an alternative means of mitigating the challenges associated with it. A mixture of desk review and case study approaches were employed to achieve the objective of the study. The findings of the study shows that the urban land acquisition strategy employed by the government has been exerting unnecessary pressure on peri-urban land and it is also largely criticized for inducing displacement and disruption to the local farming peri-urban communities. The challenges seen in the peri-urban areas stipulate policy makers and researchers and other stakeholders to think outside the box and bring alternative solutions for it. In line with this, the reviews of international experiences on urbanization and associated growing demand of land, land readjustment has largely been implemented as alternative and emerging land acquisition and delivery tool. Therefore, government led land readjustment is recommended to be introduced in the Ethiopian urban land development system as a mechanism to revert the unpleasant urban development practices and trends seen in the peri-urban areas of Ethiopia.