Burundi / PRRPB: The end-of-project seminar was held on 23 March 2023 in Bujumbura

Burundi / PRRPB: The end-of-project seminar was held on 23 March 2023 in Bujumbura

The end-of-project seminar of the Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (PRRPB) was held on 23 March 2023 in Bujumbura, in the presence of many officials. The final workshop aimed at sharing the results and experience of the PRRPB in land certification, the approach and the lessons learned throughout the project. The IGN FI / GEOFIT / LADEC consortium was selected to implement the PRRPB’s land certification component.

Beginning in January 2021, the land certification component of the project consists in particular of:

  • Supporting three communes, Isare in the Province of Bujumbura, Buhinyuza in the Province of Muyinga and Matongo in the Province of Kayanza, in the establishment and operationalisation of their communal land services (SFC)
  • Supporting the SFC of these three communes in the realization of  ‘Grouped Operations’ for Recognition (OGR) (i.e. the systematic formalization of land rights) in 26 ‘collines’ (12 of Buhinyuza, 10 of Isare and 4 of Matongo) as well as in the reception and processing of isolated requests for land certificates on the other 50 ‘collines’ of the project intervention.

This component intervenes in a very degraded national context which is characterised, for example, by a very low rate of formalisation of property rights, the loss or wear and tear of purchase deeds, the failure to secure land acquired by inheritance, the inadequacy of land titles due to a lack of decentralisation, the length of procedures or the sometimes high cost of procedures… almost 70% of civil cases brought before the courts are related to land.

The land component of the PRRPB project therefore aimed to achieve a sustainable decentralised land management system and to issue land certificates to users. The current situation of land management in Burundi has important consequences in terms of deterioration of social cohesion, decrease in productivity and also in terms of stability of investments.

At the end of the 26-month project, the IGN FI/ GEOFIT/ LADEC consortium has achieved very significant results that go beyond the contractual commitments of the consortium. Indeed, more than 105,000 ‘collines’ surveys have been carried out in Buhinyuza, Isare and Matongo. More than 103,000 land certificates have been produced with a particular focus on the problems of women and vulnerable populations. More than 70% of the land certificates produced now bear the names of women. This very positive indicator is undoubtedly the result of major awareness campaigns conducted in the villages of the project’s communes. More than 100,000 people have been made aware of land certification.

Finally, the consortium has developed an efficient land information system for the production of land documentation (posting lists, land certificates, land registers).

In addition to the results presented in detail, the objective of the final workshop is also to exchange on the scaling-up strategies to be adopted for a national coverage in systematic land certification.

The group’s mission will officially end on 31 March 2023.