**1. Introduction**

Land is a key natural resource, means of livelihood, and development asset for many societies in Ethiopia. The relationship between people and land also bisects almost all sustainable development goals (SDGs) [1,2]. The SDGs and other recent global initiatives have renewed and increased the need to improve land tenure to address a multitude of development challenges [3]. Secure land tenure has regularly been prioritized by policymakers to ensure long-term land-based investment, agricultural productivity, as well as to address changing climate risks, biodiversity loss, poverty reduction, food security, and spur sustainable growth [3–6].

Traditionally, land administration systems were created to record information about property ownership, rights, and boundaries, and other attributes of real properties [7]. However, depending on the context, the strengthening of land rights can take a variety of forms, from documenting customary uses to formalizing individual rights [3]. In other instances, existing customary land tenure systems may be sufficient to ensure land tenure security [8]. Land registration and information system programs and procedures to implement these programs are among the major reasons for failure or success to achieve

**Citation:** Abab, S.A.; Wakjira, F.S.; Negash, T.T. Determinants of the Land Registration Information System Operational Success: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia. *Land* **2021**, *10*, 1394. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/land10121394

Academic Editors: Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, Ruishan Chen and Chao Ye

Received: 28 October 2021 Accepted: 10 December 2021 Published: 16 December 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

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stronger tenure security [6]. Thus, land registration and information system organization should be part of studies on land tenure and investment in land and productivity [9].

Land information systems (LIS) in this paper are understood as a set of land information technologies (hardware, software, infrastructure, and equipment), personnel, data, rules-based procedures, and organizational structures. The existence of good and wellfunctioning land information infrastructure is key to answering the fundamental land development and management decision-making questions (i.e., why, who, what, where, when, and how) [10]. The LIS should be complete, reliable, uniform, up to date, and sustainable [11]. Accurate and up-to-date land administration data are also understood as occurring between land information system establishment and maintenance phases [12]. Hence, LIS needs to reflect the reality on the ground and transform itself into a dynamic and sustainable innovation hub and meet service expectations [13,14].

However, it is worth noting that the overall establishment, effectiveness, and maintenance of an integrated geospatial land information system depends on governance, technology, and people factors [15,16]. The governance factor further decomposes to the establishment of appropriate policy, legal framework, and governance structures, while the technological aspects include the data, innovation, and standards. The people dimension is concerned with capacity building, education, partnership, communication, and engagement [2]. Particularly, understanding factors influencing the intention of personnel to accept and use the system is important for the digital transformation and effective land administration service deliveries [17].

In the land registration and land tenure discourse, the 1970s and 1980s marked a move from a paper-based and manual type of data management and process to digital and automated systems in developed economies [1]. Many attempts have been made to set up titling systems in numerous African countries in the same period [18]. However, the efforts have largely failed to achieve the expected transformation, owing to colonial imported rules and systems that disregard local context, among other reasons [19,20]. In most cases, land registries failed to provide authoritative records of titles and transactions and quickly became outdated due to poor planning, lack of capacity, and the flouting and manipulation of law by officials and elites [21].

Despite low coverage of land registration in Africa (only 10%), the surge of land titling programs following the recent reform of land policy and legal framework, such as in Ethiopia and Rwanda, have shown positive trends and outcomes [19,22]. The reform provides a rapid scale-up across the continent that improves access to land and tenure security [19]. These approaches take different forms, ranging from fit-for-purpose to propoor land recordation approaches [22–24]. Advancements in information technology have also facilitated the speedy acquisition, storage, dissemination, and application of data related to tenure, use, value, as well as the development of land and other natural resource governance [25]. Demands for a more customer-oriented focus is also one of the drivers for the automation of the land administration systems [1,15]. In this regard, a first step in introducing a new information technology (IT)-enabled land administration system is the determination of the user needs [7]. Hence, if LIS is to be successful, it will be designed to fulfill the requirements of its end-users [14]. Evidence shows that some African countries such as Rwanda and Ethiopia have launched modernization initiatives for their land information systems [13]. These countries accelerate and securely register land titles into a functional land registration information system [26,27].

In Ethiopia, at the heart of the land administration reform is the digitalization of the manual land register. Recognizing the manual land register shortcomings related to the maintenance, security, accessibility, and integration of land information at different administration levels, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has opted for digitalization. Between 2015 and 2017, the MoA has developed and successfully piloted the national rural land administration information system (NRLAIS) in the highland regions [28]. NRLAIS is a web-based system developed on open-source licensed software and based on the land administration domain model (LADM). Hence, NRLAIS is the programmatic approach

of the MoA to address the shortcomings of the semi-manual land register, improve the standardization of service delivery, and promote informed policymaking [28].

While the transition to the NRLAIS is at an initial stage, its operational success has not been researched based on explanation and prediction theories. There is little knowledge about what causes user acceptance and actual use of the NRLAIS in the land administration domain. It is also not know why and how the woreda land administration experts choose to discontinue the use of the semi-manual land register that they are using currently. There are a few similar studies in Africa such as Zeng and Cleon [17] on the implementation and development of land information systems (LIS) in Liberia, which adopted the diffusion paradigm. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt in the country. Taking the woreda land administration experts as a unit of analysis, the study seeks to understand the behavior of the woreda land administration experts towards the acceptance and actual use of the NRLAIS and document its operational success. The proposed and empirically tested model of this study reveals a strong construct validity and predictive power. The model captures multiple aspects of each variable, which is a change from much of the measurement of LIS success model constructs that focus on only one aspect of the construct. The study also highlights the needed policy and strategic actions to achieve robust and sustainable digitalization.
