Land Tenure Dynamics and State Intervention: Challenges, Ongoing Experience and Current Debates on Land Tenure in West Africa
March 2002
Philippe Lavigne Delville (GRET), Hubert Ouedraogo (GRAF) and Camilla Toulmin (IIED)
Presentation to an international workshop on Making Land Rights More Secure held in Ouagadougou. 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.