Land is an economic asset that serves multiple important purposes: residential, agricultural, and communal (grazing lands, forests, water bodies, public infrastructure). Tenure security is crucial in ensuring poverty reduction, food security and equity. Farmers who lack secure land rights are less likely to carry out essential yield-improving investments in their land as the insecurity prevents them from committing to long-term plans.\
The Promotion d’une Politique Foncière Responsable (ProPFR), is a GIZ funded programme to improve the land tenure security of households on customary land in the Borgou department of northern Benin.
The main objectives of ProPFR are:
a) Improvement of institutional conditions and procedures to provide secure land rights (PFR, ADC, formalization of user agreements, group rights) and reducing land conflicts by establishing local conflict mediation institutions.
b) Participation of civil society in the formulation and implementation of the legal framework for land
c) Inclusion of private agricultural investors and raising their awareness for responsible land policies.
Study Objectives:
The PFR activities to be evaluated at end-line consists mainly of demarcation and registration of land parcels (under customary tenure) as Titre Foncier or an Attestation de Droit Coutumière. The impact evaluation aims to quantify and analyse impact of these interventions on productivity and food security disaggregated by target groups and gender.
The research questions to be answered after the endline data collection are:
1. Do PFRs (or ADCs) contribute to a perception of greater land tenure security?
2. Does improved tenure security lead to a growth in agricultural investment and/or changes to management of land?
3. Do PFRs improve access to land and rights over land among marginalised groups (women, youth and migrants)?
4. Do PFRs lead to an increased number of land transactions?
5. Does increased land security address existing constraints on land markets and lead to more efficient allocation of land resources and thereby an increase in productivity?
6. Do property rights and improved user rights result in better access to credit, possibly allowing for income diversification and thus increasing household welfare?
7. Do the new arrangements put in place during the implementation of the PFRs facilitate the resolution of land conflicts, or even prevent the emergence of these land conflicts?