Different strategies and procedures to formalise rural land rights
Résumé
Formalising land rights entails giving written and legal form to rights that were previously mainly regulated by local custom rather than the law. Policies toformalise rural land rights in francophone Africa and Madagascar employ a wide range of strategies, methods and mechanisms. They reflect different conceptions of land governance, different interactions between state and local rules and procedures, and different social choices.Policies to formalise land rights face numerous practical difficulties. This note highlights the advantages of mechanisms that focuse on the formalisation of land transactions and agreements, within and between families.