Iraq has experienced several waves of mass displacement over the last forty years that have caused an intricate land and property situation. Land and property challenges have further been complicated by multiple causes of property loss, including expropriation by the Ba’ath regime, terrorism, sectarian violence, military operations, economic hardship, and a general climate of fear. Today, internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees, including minorities, face major challenges in proving their ownership or occupancy rights, particularly where there is an absence of cadastral data, registry information, maps delimiting property rights, and a lack of official documents.
LAND-at-scale in Iraq consists of two complementary projects. UN-Habitat will initiate and conduct national policy dialogue on the reform of laws related to land governance to address challenges faced by Iraqis; while also contributing to securing tenure and protect housing, land and property (HLP) rights by registering and resolving land claims of IDPs and returnees in war-affected governorates in Sinjar. Secondly, The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) will identify existing small-scale initiatives addressing HLP issues in Sinjar and support these for further scaling and explore integration in the policy dialogue.
Three key strategies are employed:
- Inclusive policy dialogue to discuss the reform of the legal framework on land governance;
- Enhancing and protecting the security of tenure for selected IDPs and returneesthrough increased local capacity by applying the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) and providing legal assistance;
- Identify and support local HLP rights justice solutions
The LAND-at-scale programme is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (MFA) and managed by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). For more information/research refer to LAND-at-scale – Land Portal or follow us on LinkedIn. Further to stay updated on this LAND-at-scale project and others, please sign up(link is external) for our quarterly newsletter.
Project details
- Project value €2,100,000.00
- Duration 10/23 – 10/26
- Status Completed
- Implementing Organisations UN-Habitat
- Donors Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency, Government of the Netherlands
- Data Providers Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency
- Contact land-at-scale@rvo.nl
Program LAND-at-scale.
Related IATI activity records
- LAND-at-scale Iraq: Housing, land and property rights for displaced people
- LAND-at-scale Iraq: Justice innovation for land and housing claims
Related resources in library
- LAND, DATA & DIGNITY: Architectures for Sustainable Peace Through Land Governance · 19 March 2026 · Land Portal record
- Preparatory Study Iraq · 21 January 2026 · Land Portal record
Related content
- Launching the LAND-at-scale project in Iraq · 09 October 2023 · Land Portal record
- LAND-at-scale Iraq · December, 2023 · Land Portal record
Original project description from Land Portal. Text republished under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.