Launched in 2005 with a financial support from the World Bank, Madagascar’s land reform has yielded satisfying results, the Bretton Woods institution said on its website.

“Many other countries could follow Madagascar’s example. Actually, various African nations are already showing interest in the Malagasy land reform as it tackles key challenges and provide technical and legal solutions which are reliable and accessible,” explains André Teyssier, land specialist at the World Bank.

Results in the pilot community, Andriambilany, can already be seen. “The people are asking for deeds knowing it is a guarantee they can use to exploit lands without fearing eviction. For the community, it is also a major source of revenues. With the taxes collected from registered lands, the community was able to secure additional earnings of five million ariary per month,” declares Yvette Rakotomalala, mayor of the municipality.

Explaining how it all happened, an agent of the municipality’s land office said: “the Andriambilany municipality identified 17,000 non-registered plots out of which 11,000 are currently being processed. Truth is, the more people get a land deed, the more, surely their neighbors or family members, come to see us applying for theirs. There is a tangible change in behaviour. We don’t even have to tell them to come to us anymore.”

Besides general excitement, the reasons behind the success of the experimentation lie within the country’s decentralization system. “Various factors explain the success of this experimentation in the municipality, the first being local governance. The mayor puts a particular accent on transparency, accountability and community’s participation in the decision-taking process. There is also a good synergy between the various institutions dealing with land locally; the municipality, the land office, the topography and state domains office,” said Anna Wellenstein, head of strategy and operation at the World Bank and Jorge Munoz, head of social, urban and rural Development and resiliency at the institution.

The World Bank finances Madgascar’s land reform via two programmes: the Emergency Project for Food Security and Social Security (PURSAPS) and the Agricultural Growth ad Land Tenure Project (CASEF), launched in 2014 and September 2016 respectively.