Land at the Center of Inclusive and Sustainable Development

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors established the Inspection Panel in 1993 as an independent complaint mechanism for people and communities who believe they have been or likely will be adversely affected by a World Bank-funded project. Under its mandate, the Panel provides advisory services in the form of lessons from its cases. These lessons endeavor to increase institutional learning at the World Bank and throughout the larger development community to enhance the application of social and environmental policies and standards for the overall sustainability and effectiveness of operations. The case studies and insights presented herein may also interest civil society organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and academia. This report focuses on Panel investigations of land administration and management projects in Honduras, Panama, and Cambodia. It explores some of the challenges of land tenure security, regularization, and titling and discusses the importance of assessing the context in which such activities are undertaken, and the challenges of stakeholder engagement associated with them