The leaders of peasants and women’s organizations, NGOs, technicians, civil servants, decision-makers and donors who work on rural development issues in Africa need resources to guide their actions in the realm of land policy. The project to produce educational resources proposes a series of short texts, written in accessible and easy to understand language. The goal is to share information and knowledge on a large scale, but also to clarify discussions between a variety of users and to allow them to better define their respective positions regarding land issues.

This initiative was developed by the Hub Rural, aGter, the LandNet West Africa, the GRAF and the ROPPA. It was financed by the AFD (Agence Française de Développement), through the French Co-Operation’s technical committee "Land and Development (Foncier et Développement)."

The dossier includes 17 documents, which are available in both French and English. We have decided to organize them according to 3 major themes.

A. The Nature of Rights and Legal Claimants

• Conceptual Documents
  • Rights to Land and Natural Resources (M.Merlet)
  • Women and Land (M.Koné)
• Examples from Africa
  • Diversity of rights holders and rights to land and natural resources in West Africa (M.Merlet et K.A.Yobouet
  • Land tenure and migration (M.Zongo).
• Examples from other Continents
  • Overlapping of Land Rights in Europe (J.Comby)

B. Policies Promoting Rights Recognition and Security

• Conceptual Documents
  • Myths, deadlocks of land registration and the need for alternative approaches (H.Ouedraogo)
  • Aspects and Characteristics of State-owned land in West Africa (G.Chouquer)
• Point/Counterpoint : Alternatives from other Continents
  • Creating and securing ownership in Europe (J.Comby)

C. Confronting Change : Resources for Analyzing and Implementing Land Policies

• Conceptual Documents
  • Securing and regulating land tenure : putting the issues before the tools. Some of the obstacles to coherent policies (V.Basserie et P.d’Aquino)
  • Local authorities and local territories in rural West Africa (E.Idelman)
  • Land Tax. (J.Comby)
  • Alternative land tenure conflict management mechanisms: Analytical tools (K.Alinon)
• Decentralization or Local Management : A Few Examples
  • Decentralized vs. local management of land tenure: The Niger case history (A.Kandine)
  • Decentralization in Mali: a constrained ”responsibility transfer“ process (C.Coulibali)
  • Are local conventions effective tools for the joint management of natural resources? (L.Granier)

Our intention is to continuously expand and enhance the dossier as the network’s work on this topic progresses.

Translation : Jesse Rafert