1. Towards transparency in land ownership
A framework to research beneficial land ownership
Researchers: Caitlin Pierce, Nick Tagliarino, Poppea Daniel
A joint initiative by: Transparency International, Global Witness, IALTA, Trócaire, Community Land Scotland; supported by International Land Coalition

2. In many countries, unidentified private individuals and legal entities, the hidden or beneficial owners, retain significant economic benefits from land. This lack of transparency can make it harder for affected communities and or governments to hold legal entities accountable for land use decision-making and any sort of violation they commit.
The issue

3. beneficial ownership secrecy
A beneficial owner is the real person who ultimately owns, controls or benefits from a legal entity (like a company or trust fund) and the income it generates. The term is used to contrast with the legal or nominee company owners and with trustees, all of whom might be registered as the legal owners of an asset without actually possessing the right to enjoy its benefits. Complex and opaque corporate structures set up across different jurisdictions, make it easy to hide the beneficial owner, especially when nominees are used in their place and when part of the structure is incorporated in a secrecy jurisdiction.

4. Governments should establish mandatory, public registers that disclose the beneficial ownership of legal entities, trust funds and companies. Public registers of beneficial ownership would allow ill-gotten gains to be more easily traced and make it more difficult and less attractive for people to benefit from the proceeds of corruption, crime, and mismanagement.
Why it matters

5. Building on TI’s methodology used to investigate beneficial ownership of legal entities, this paper proposes a framework to investigate beneficial ownership in large (greater than 200 ha) land holdings.
The framework was tested using field research in Scotland and desk-based research in Sierra Leone.
The framework

6. The research framework: questions
At the crux of assessing transparency of beneficial ownership of land are five primary questions:
1) what information on land ownership and control is collected and how?
2) What information on land ownership and control is accessible and by whom?
3) What information on legal entity arrangements is collected and how?
4) What information on legal entity arrangements is accessible and by whom?
5) How do these systems connect to each other, if at all?
The research framework: questions

7. Analyzing and coding the results
After completing the full assessment, the researchers highlight stronger and weaker components of a country’s legal framework and implementation for each section. Stronger components receive a “green” rating and weak components receive a “red” rating, with “yellow” being areas in need of improvement.
There is no one internationally agreed standard that addresses all components, and these ratings are subjective, based on the researcher’s knowledge of a variety of standards (e.g. VGGT, World Bank Land Governance Framework) and their own expertise. Other researchers might arrive at a different conclusion.
However, such a coding can nonetheless be useful as a benchmarking exercise for policy makers and others to quickly see which areas of their policy and legal framework need improvements to promote increased transparency. It is a less useful exercise for comparing across-countries unless one specific external standard is used and one researcher conducts the coding for and has similar knowledge of all countries considered.
Analyzing and coding the results

8. tests the framework on beneficial land ownership in Sierra Leone and provides key insights related to the land tenure system, land registries, company registries, and beneficial ownership requirements.
examines whether there are legal and voluntary frameworks in place to ensure those who own, control, and benefit from land are responsible for protecting human rights, the environment, and food security.
The main finding: Sierra Leone currently lacks an adequate legal framework for publicly disclosing information about private individuals, companies, legal entities, and other beneficial owners, so the public can identify and hold these actors accountable.
Testing the Framework in Sierra Leone: A desk review of laws, policies, and secondary sources

9. Sierra Leone: Land Registration System and Information Collection

10. Sierra Leone: Access to Information on Land Ownership and Control

11. Sierra Leone: Beneficial Ownership Framework

12. Sierra Leone: Access to information about businesses and other legal entities

13. Sierra Leone: Responsibilities of land-owning entities

14. Sierra Leone: Recommendations