Land rights in Africa - West Africa

Land Rights	Introduction	Key principles
Africa General	West Africa	East Africa
Horn of Africa	Southern Africa	Links

Benin | Ghana | Liberia | Mali | Senegal | Sierra Leone

West Africa: General

Changes in 'Customary' Land Tenure Systems in Africa
Source: IIED (Lorenzo Cotula Ed)
Summary: Includes the drivers of change; changes in ‘customary’ land management institutions – evidence from West Africa; changes in intra-family relations; changes in land transfer mechanisms – evidence from West Africa; case study of changes in ‘customary’ resource tenure systems in the inner Niger Delta, Mali. Concludes with implications for policy and practice.
Date: March 2007
Download the full paper (981K.pdf file) from the IIED website

Rural Land Tenure and Sustainable Development in the Sahel and West Africa, Regional Summary Report
Source: CILSS (Le Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel) Regional Forum Praia+9, Bamako, Mali
Summary: Contains introduction; background; the principle orientations of Praia; status of implementation of the Praia orientation in CILSS member states (Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad); land tenure situation of the underprivileged groups; management of land conflicts; implementation difficulties and lessons learned; overview of the land tenure situation in some coastal West African countries (Benin, Ghana, Togo); emerging land issues; towards regional charter on rural land in the Sahel and West Africa; appendices with summary table of the policies, legislations and regulations on land and natural resource management in West Africa; glossary; bibliography.
Date: 17-21 November 2003
Download the full paper (844K pdf file)

Making Land Rights More Secure: Conclusions of a Seminar held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 19-21 March 2002
Source: IIED, GRET, GRAF
Summary: Ensuring security for farmers is a fundamental economic, social and citizenship issue, raising institutional questions. There needs to be a break with inherited colonial legal dualism. Local management of land and resources is needed. There is no automatic link between land title and security of tenure. Looks at the main approaches adopted in West Africa in the recent past. Fully confirm the role, dynamism and adaptability of family farms. Positive recognition needs to be given to local land arrangements and informal contracts. Decentralisation offers valuable opportunities.
Date: 19-21 March 2002
Download the full paper (44K.rtf file)

Land Tenure Dynamics and State Intervention: Challenges, Ongoing Experience and Current Debates on Land Tenure in West Africa
Source: Philippe Lavigne Delville (GRET), Hubert Ouedraogo (GRAF) and Camilla Toulmin (IIED)
Summary: Presentation to an international workshop on Making Land Rights More Secure held in Ouagadougou, available in the original PowerPoint and in Word. Its main headings are: why discuss making land rights more secure?; legislation from Independence onwards; in the 1980s growing legal recognition of private property rights; emerging findings cast doubt on assumptions; in the 1990s innovative new approaches; in West Africa, five new approaches; a range of legal and institutional innovations; decentralisation - opportunities and risks; processes underway; securing land rights – a new look; improve understanding of local institutions for managing land; exchanging experience and debating the options; new findings to share; key issues to examine.
Date: 19-21 March 2002
Download the full paper (69K. rtf file)
The original PowerPoint presentation is also available for those able to access it
Download the full presentation (65K.ppt file)

LandNet West Africa: Progress, Achievements and Visions for the Future
Source: LandNet West Africa
Summary: Contains introduction, progress and impacts since Addis Ababa, vision of LandNet West Africa, principles of operation, expected impacts, activities at sub-regional level.
Date: 2 May 2001
Download the full paper (22K.rtf file)

Access to Resources: Land Tenure and Governance in Africa
Source: Simon Batterbury (LSE)
Summary: Report of a Conference at the University of Manchester. Summarises papers by Phil Woodhouse on ‘African Enclosures - the Default Mode of Development’ and Camilla Toulmin on ‘Identifying a Research Agenda for the Reform of Land Tenure’ and the discussions on them. Argued that we cannot assume that poverty reduction or equity will emerge from vesting power over land with local communities and their leaders. Conflicts over resources will be exacerbated by decentralisation. Conflicts between indigenous and outsider communities are now widespread. Land access conditions have tightened for people in West Africa. Individualisation and commercialisation are increasing, posing problems for social differentiation and policies based on equity. These are downplayed in populist writing on African land tenure systems and in sustainable livelihoods thinking.
Date: 5 March 2001
Download the full paper (30K.rtf file)
Also see the paper at the LSE website

Final Report of the Workshop for launching of LandNet West Africa
Source: LandNet West Africa
Summary: Report of a workshop in Ouagadougou to launch LandNet West Africa. Contains context and objectives of the workshop; stakes of land policies and legislation in West Africa (including decentralisation and transboundary issues); success and sustainability of the activities of a network; role of international and sub-regional organisations; major conclusions; structure of the network; funding; list and contact addresses of participants.
Date: 12-13 February 2001
Download the full paper (158K.rtf file)

Livelihood Transformations in semi-arid Africa 1960-2000: Proceedings of a Workshop
Source: IIED (Drylands Research Programme)
Summary: Examines research in 4 semi-arid areas: Diourbel Region (Seneegal), Maradi Department (Niger), the Kano hinterland (northern Nigeria) and Makueni District (Kenya). Presentation of main results of the research, presentation by country coordinators on farmer investments, plenary discussions, reports of working groups, concluding plenary. The foci include livelihood transformations, the impact of population growth, access to land and markets, how to initiate and sustain participatory debates on national policy formulation.
Date: 17 January 2001
Download the full paper (208K.rtf file)
Also see the paper at the LSE website

Report on the LandNet West Africa Core Group Meeting
Source: LandNet West Africa
Summary: Report on meeting of core group of LandNet West Africa with representatives from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Togo. Includes details of networking activities in these countries, lessons, successes and good practice, constraints and risks, funding, preparation for a regional workshop in February.
Date: 12-13 January 2001
Download the full paper (64K.rtf file)

Progress Report on West Africa LandNet Activities December 2000
Source: Hubert Ouedraogo (GRAF) and Judy Longbottom (IIED)
Summary: Contains objectives of West Africa LandNet and its activities since the Addis Ababa meeting in January 2000. Lists activities in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Guinea. Discusses communication problems and main lessons from the interim phase.
Date: December 2000
Download the full paper (48K.rtf file)

Tenure Rights and Sustainable Development in West Africa: A Regional Overview
Source: Hubert Ouedraogo and Camilla Toulmin, Paper given at the DFID Workshop on Land Tenure, Poverty and Sustainable Development in sub-Saharan Africa, at Sunningdale, Berkshire.
Summary: Oxfam GB was closely involved in the planning of this workshop which brought together 75 practitioners from all over Africa. The authors are an international consultant jurist and the Director of the Drylands Programme of IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development). Their regional survey covers tenure problems in West Africa, state policy and the problem of tenure security, pilot land use management schemes, and future issues and prospects.
Date: 16-19 February 1999
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West Africa: Benin

Information on land: a common asset and strategic resource. The case of Benin NEW
Source: IIED Drylands Issue Paper 147 (Pierre-Yves Le Meur) 
Summary: This paper presents the legal framework and methods of producing information about land in Benin, and looks at the complex modalities of determining, recognising and ‘translating’ rights in rural and urban areas (the Rural Land Plan and Urban Land Registry). It provides observations on several current issues, particularly the political and administrative decentralisation that is fundamentally changing the country’s institutional landscape.
Date: May 2008
Download the full paper (223K.pdf file) from the IIED website

Land Rights and Land Conflicts in Africa: The Benin Case
Source: Danish Institute for International Studies (Pierre-Yves Le Mur)
Summary: The report discusses the approach and methods underlying the study and offers conceptual clarifications. It presents the legal framework and historical context in relation to political economy and identity politics. The bulk of the report is devoted to the analysis of significant case studies: on boundary conflicts linked to decentralisation and development programmes, the conservation issue, autochthons/migrants relations, the ‘youth factor’. A final section outlines policy orientations.
Date: October 2006
Download the full paper (576K.pdf file) from the DIIS website

West Africa: Ghana

Improving Tenure Security for the Rural Poor Ghana Country Case Study
Source: FAO LEP Working Paper 2 (George A. Sarpong)  
Summary: Sub-title is Towards the Improvement of Tenure Security for the Poor in Ghana: Some Thoughts and Observations. Has 3 main chapters: the regime of land tenure in Ghana – an overview; insecurity of tenure in Ghana – a gender perspective (also includes pastoralists); insecurity of tenure in rural mining communities – a case study.  
Date: October 2006
Download the full paper (905K.pdf file) from the FAO website

Land Security and the Poor in Ghana: Is there a Way Forward? A Land Sector Scoping Study
Source: DFID Ghana’s Rural Livelihoods Programme (Liz Alden Wily and Daniel Hammond)
Summary: A summary of a larger study commissioned by DFID Ghana. Covers findings of the study and suggestions for moving forward. The conclusions include that tenure insecurity is more widespread than generally recognised, its sources are complex, current strategies are inadequate, promising conditions exist, reform rather than improvement is needed, a community based approach is the way forward. The National Land Policy is not pro-poor, nor are classic titling approaches serving the poor.
Date: October 2001
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West Africa: Liberia

Whose Land is it? Commons and Conflict States. Why the Ownership of the Commons Matters in Making and Keeping Peace NEW
Source: Rights and Resources Initiative (Liz Alden Wily)
Summary: Addresses the tenure fate of three commons: the 30 million hectares of pasture lands of Afghanistan which represent 45 percent of the total land area and are key to livelihood and water catchment in that exceedingly dry country; the 5.7 million hectares of timber-rich tropical forests in Liberia, 59 percent of the total land area; and the 125 million hectares of savannah in Sudan, half the area of that largest state of Africa. All three resources have a long history as customary properties of local communities and also share a 20th century history as the property of the state.
Date: July 2008
Download the full paper (307K.pdf file)

So Who Owns the Forest? An Investigation into Forest Ownership and Customary Land Rights in Liberia NEW
Source: Liz Alden Wily (for Sustainable Development Institute, Liberia / FERN)
Summary: State/people forest relations are at a turning point in Liberia. The crux of the issue is property relations and how the rights of rural Liberians to forests are treated in law and in practice. Central to the problem and the solution is the status of customary land rights. The paper tracks what happened to the natural rights indigenous Liberians have to their lands and the valuable forests that grow on them. It looks back at the treatment of customary land tenure over the century-long process of forming the modern Liberian state. Through fieldwork, the study identifies customary property norms as operating today. It finds that colonial policy with regard to indigenous land interests was uncharacteristically benign, as was the imposition of indirect rule. Together these have created a foundation on which democratic land relations may be rebuilt. There is also genuine vibrancy in collective norms of customary tenure closely linked to the role of forestland in the rural economy. Interference in customary property rights is severe but mainly recent. Favourable conditions for remedying the situation exist. Remedial rather than radical action is required. Practical steps towards achieving a solution are suggested. Much rests on the proposed Community Rights Law.
Date: November 2007
Download the full paper (3,766K.pdf file) from the FERN website.

West Africa: Mali

Improving Tenure Security for the Rural Poor Mali Country Case Study
Source: FAO LEP Working Paper 4 (Moussa Djir)  
Summary: Has three main chapters: modes of access to land and natural resources and the tenure situation of the poor and marginalized groups (customary rules, statutory law, development of commercial transactions); some ways of securing land rights for the poor and other vulnerable groups (local resource management agreements, formalization of collective rights and of land transactions, access to justice); can the necessary reforms be carried out? 
Date: October 2006 (updated February 2007)
Download the full paper (624K.pdf file) from the FAO website

West Africa: Senegal

Land and decentralisation in Senegal
Source: IIED Drylands Issue Paper 149 (Jacques Faye) 
Summary: Land and decentralisation policies in Senegal have been closely linked since independence in 1960. Public lands are currently managed by the local governments of municipalities and rural communities, with the latter responsible for the land and natural resources in unprotected parts of their territory, and the former empowered to issue building permits. The law also provides opportunities for rural communities, municipalities and regions to be involved in managing special areas such as classified forests, national parks and protected spaces, thereby recognising that land and natural resources cannot be managed effectively unless the communities concerned are engaged in the process through their local governments. Popular participation depends on several factors: how far the central government and administration are prepared to go in involving local people and local governments, and therefore what rights they grant them; the competences and resources available to communities; and the human and financial resources that local governments can call upon in order to fulfil their roles. This paper explores these issues and discusses their effect on decentralisation and land management in Senegal.
Date: May 2008
Download the full paper (172K.pdf file) from the IIED website

West Africa: Sierra Leone

Land and Pro-Poor Change in Sierra Leone
Source: Shaun Williams (for EU-DFID Country Assistance Plan)
Summary: Contains situational analysis, policy context, tentative conclusions and options for intervention. Addresses the question of how to increase security of land rights for the urban and rural poor. Examines the existing multiple land tenure system. Argues that land reform in Sierra Leone is both necessary and possible though there are many constraints. The costs of doing nothing will likely include further civil unrest and environmental degradation.
Date: July 2006
Download the full paper (270K.doc file)