History and Political Economy of Land Administration Reform in Benin
August 2019
Economic Development & Institutions, Benin Institutional Diagnostic WP19/BID08 Chapter 7, Philippe Lavigne Delville with discussion by Kenneth Houngbedji
This chapter deals with the issue of land tenure, which has been identified as one of the major institutional problems in Benin. It deals specifically with the recent land reform that was enacted by the 2013 Code Foncier et Domanial (Land and Domain Code). The orientation of the chapter is not so much a question of proposing an institutional diagnosis of the sector and highlighting desirable areas for reform, as of analysing an ongoing reform process. The chapter deals with the political economy of the reform, with the reform’s political and economic stakes, the groups of actors and interests which pushed it, those which are opposed to it, and those which seek to shape it for their own benefit. It also provides a detailed history of the reform process.