Institutional resilience and land-related conflict governance: a systematic literature review

In recent years, institutional resilience has gained growing attention as a concept for addressing governance challenges in conflict settings. However, its application in land-related conflict governance (including tenure, acquisition and expropriation disputes) remains fragmented and underexplored. This study conducts a systematic literature review to examine how institutional resilience influences governance performance under fragmented institutional arrangements. A total of 637 articles (2005–2025) were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science, from which 16 core studies were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and analyzed using the TCCM framework. The review identifies (1) three conceptualizations of institutional resilience, (2) four key governance mechanisms, (3) its manifestations in fragmented governance, and (4) its influence on governance performance. This study advances the understanding of institutional resilience as a governance strategy within complex land systems and provides both conceptual and practical guidance for policy formulation in conflict-prone settings. This review was not prospectively registered. No funding was received. No formal risk of bias assessment was conducted. The main limitations relate to the limited number of included studies (n = 16) and the predominance of qualitative research designs in the existing literature. The findings offer theoretical and policy insights into addressing overlapping mandates, conflicting interests, and institutional fragmentation in land-related conflict governance.