Within the framework of the PRRPB project currently underway in Burundi, a stakeholder sensitisation workshop on gender mainstreaming in the land certification process was held in Gitega on 30 and 31 August 2022. The workshop was attended by several actors involved in the land sector, including state actors, UN organisations, local and foreign NGOs and technical and financial partners supporting the land sector.
On the agenda of the workshop were discussions on the modalities of revising the ministerial order N° 770/485 of 22 March 2017, which sets out the models for the chronological register of land certificate applications, the communal land register and the land certificate. The objective is to develop a draft ordinance adapted to the context, after sharing the results of the Grouped Recognition Operations, with a particular dimension of taking into account the respect of women’s land rights in the land certification process.
The results of the land certification component of the PRRPB project were also reviewed. Overall, the implementation of this component is at a satisfactory level. The work already accomplished exceeds a rate of 93% of achievements in the two pilot communes, Isare and Buhinyuza. In fact, out of 91,854 hillside surveys already carried out in the 22 hills of the project’s intervention zone, 67,971 plots have been registered, either in the name of the two spouses or in the name of the women. These values represent a percentage of 73.9%.
The achievement of this very high percentage is motivated by the population’s understanding of the value of household protection. In addition to this, the administrative authorities are very involved in recognising women’s land rights for the land they own and in registering the names of their spouses on the land certificates.
The mention of the name of the spouse on the recognition report and consequently on the certificate is of capital importance in the protection of the household’s land assets and is specifically involved in the prevention of land conflicts that could arise in the event of the death of one of the two spouses. A revision of the regulatory text in this sense would therefore constitute a major advance in the preservation of the rights of vulnerable populations and in the fight against poverty.
Since 2020, the IGN FI/ GEOFIT/ LADEC consortium has been supporting the Burundian government in the implementation of the Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (PRRPB) funded by the World Bank.
This land sub-component of the PRRPB aims to clarify and secure land rights as well as to resolve land conflicts in the communes of Isare, Buhinyuza and Matongo.