(Ecofin Agency) - Land reform in Mali in progressing well. On November 22 and 23, in the presence of the Minister of State domains and Land Affairs, Mohamed Aly Bathily and Colonel Mamadou Djfaga, chief executive of the permanent Secretariat for domain and land reform in Mali, took place a workshop to validate report for the review of the domain and land code of the “legal framework, formalization of land rights and land conflicts resolution” sectoral group.

Organized by the permanent Secretariat for domain and land reform, the workshop’s objective, as Le Débat reports, was to “provide the government and citizens a land and domain code which will bring out a new vision and management method of land and domains which will be able to insure land securing of land rights and improve livelihood of villagers in Mali”.

Speaking at the event, Minister Bathily highlighted the importance of these works by the technical committees established based on the recommendations of the general meetings on land held in 2008 and 2009.

“In the legal and regulatory aspects particularly, the general meetings revealed how challenging it is to respect the land and domain rule, which is inadequate and not well harmonized. Truly, many laws are in place in this regard. They include: land and domain code, mining code, forest code, water code, agricultural orientation law, etc. However some of their components are limited, conflicting, or ineffective on the field. Also, the necessary implementing legislation for these laws is often missing. To this add a poor knowledge of the law by the various actors and the population, due to poor dissemination, often not in local dialects and not involving media that are not accessible to the population, which for the most part is illiterate,” he said.

Souha Touré