Gisèle Dutheuil (photo), head of Audace Institut Afrique, declared that 96% of Ivorian lands remain to be registered by the government. It was during a training seminar she co-hosted at the Fondation Friedrich Naumann for Freedom’s headquarters in Abidjan last January 11.

The seminar, under the theme “comment réinventer le foncier en Côte d’Ivoire?” (how to reinvent land in Côte d’Ivoire), was in line with the Program for young politicians in Africa (PYPA). The latter brings together youth to exchange and discuss on key political and social issues related to their respective countries.

Together with the lawyer Boussou Nancy-Ellen and Sosthène Koffi, the sociologist in charge of land issues at Fondation Friedrich Nauman, Gisèle Dutheuil recalled that one of the causes of land conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire is the very low rate of land registration.

Moreover, she suggested the assignment of a legal value to land certificate for it to confer an ownership right. 

Indeed land conflicts are recurring in the country, where a large part of transactions is still not governed by the customary law. In the existence of a newer land legal framework, conflicts arise from the opposition between two regimes, customary and modern.

According to Boussou Nancy-Ellen, this reaffirms the necessity for young people “to be trained and informed on the customary and modern aspect [and to be represented] in village management committees”.