(Ecofin Agency) - The Ivorian government announced it launched a large-scale project to reduce land conflicts in rural areas, by facilitating land title access to landowners and updating the existing rural land law.
The $116 million project, funded jointly by European Union (€41 million) and World Bank ($50 million), will include social and institutional components, with the goal to achieve a land policy that will prevent or cushion new rural land conflicts.
In an institutional framework, the project will enable Côte d'Ivoire to fully operationalize the Rural Land Agency (AFOR), a public body set up in September 2017 to facilitate the implementation of the rural land policy. It will also foster the creation of village land management committees capable of establishing a transparent local process for land registration and update the land register.
Meanwhile, at the social and community level, it will provide required information and assistance to landowners in rural areas to help them obtain land titles and secure assets obtained under customary law.
These steps are lauded by Pierre Laporte, World Bank’s operation director for Côte d'Ivoire, who said in a statement that these actions will “help Ivorian authorities develop a national and rationalized program for land tenure in rural areas to accelerate the registration process and ensure full enjoyment of property to beneficiaries”.
For the record, land conflicts are recurrent and sometimes deadly in the country’s rural areas where less than 2% of lands are registered.
In Yamoussoukro, this new project is a crucial step towards rural land law’s modernization and a means to ensure land tenure necessary for investments in the agricultural sector.
The African Development Bank has approved a $304 million loan to Botswana to support the southe...
BRVM and Africa50 signed a deal to create new infrastructure financing tools The plan inclu...
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliamentarians met in Lomé from May 6 to 9,...
Nigeria’s audit industry grew 65% in 2024, reaching 28.2 billion naira ($14.4 million). KPMG, EY,...
Africa’s digital economy is growing rapidly, and the demand for data storage, processing power, and ...
• Chad is home to one of the world’s largest shea tree reserves, with up to 82 million trees.• The country could produce up to 800,000 tons of shea nuts...
• The ICJ granted Equatorial Guinea sovereignty over three disputed islands in the Gulf of Guinea.• The ruling opens access to potentially oil-rich waters...
• Jean Bamanisa says Kinshasa needs 3,500 km of roads rebuilt at a cost of over $10 billion.• He warns that without urgent investment, the city...
• Uganda’s telecom industry has launched a joint anti-vandalism initiative led by UCC.• Over 820 cable vandalism incidents and widespread service...
Marojejy National Park, located in northeastern Madagascar, is one of the island’s most pristine and spectacular natural treasures. Nestled in the Sava...
Located about 3 km (1.8 miles) off the coast of Dakar, Senegal’s capital, Gorée Island is one of the most emblematic historical sites in West Africa....