Access to land tenure information to secure tenure rights for the rural poor

The experience of Tenure Commissions in Niger

LSP Working Papers 43

This paper was prepared for FAO’s Land Tenure Service and Sub-programme 3.1 “Access to natural resources” of the Livelihood Support Programme.

As part of its work programme for 2006-2007, FAO’s Land Tenure and Management Unit identified access for poor rural populations to information and legal procedures to secure land rights as a central item on its agenda. Moreover, the livelihood support programme includes a section on “Access to land and natural resources” that analyses the link between access to land and the securisation of the means of livelihood. The objective is to define development approaches, mainly in areas of intervention falling within the scope of land institutions and rural development.

The purpose of this study is more specifically to “provide partial answers based on empirical observations” to the following research issues encountered in the case studies on the COFOs (Land Committees) of Mirriah and Gouré in the region of Zinder:

• How do current procedures aimed at securing and formalizing land transactions and rights actually work ?
• Why do groups of various players resort to different procedures for securing their land rights or transactions, although they all live in a town with an operational COFO?
• What are the expectations of various rural groups and the constraints facing them in trying to secure more easily their land transactions and rights (LTR) on a legal basis?
• What avenues should be recommended to broaden and facilitate access to legal procedures for all rural populations, and particularly the poorest and vulnerable groups?

To that end, this study analysed the reasons for which some of the players continue to resort to alternative modes of securisation, despite the existence of an operational COFO in their administrative area, while identifying the constraints facing the various rural groups in legally securing their land rights.

(Available in French)

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