Reviewing the evidence on land tenure and governance: An overview of the impact evaluation literature and lessons learned

This paper synthesizes the most recent wave of impact evaluation evidence on land tenure and governance reforms. Building on previous systematic reviews, we focus exclusively on counterfactual-based evaluations, including newly released reports, and expand coverage to both rural and urban settings. Using the Global Land Logic Model as a framework, we assess not only the outcomes reported but also the contextual and programmatic factors that shaped them, including implementation fidelity and sustainability. Across 26 evaluations from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the evidence shows that land tenure reforms, generally, improve perceived tenure security and stimulate investment, while results on productivity, credit, and broader welfare outcomes are more mixed. Successful interventions were typically tailored to local tenure contexts, embedded within legitimate governance structures, and delivered with complementary services such as extension, irrigation, or legal assistance. The review also highlights methodological advances, including the use of RCTs, triangulated data sources, and longer exposure periods. Nonetheless, important gaps remain: few studies examine intra-household or subgroup dynamics, and many suffer from limited measurement of implementation fidelity and assumptions underlying project logic models. We conclude that land tenure security is a critical foundation but rarely sufficient on its own to drive transformative development outcomes. Stronger program design, better monitoring systems, and targeted evaluations are essential to ensure that future land governance reforms deliver sustainable and equitable development outcomes, particularly in resource-constrained environments.