GUIGLO, Ivory Coast, July 22, 2024-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- The Ivorian government and the World Bank today officially launched the Rural Land Security Strengthening Program (PRESFOR) in Guiglo, Cavally region. Implemented by the Rural Land Agency (AFOR), PRESFOR supports the implementation of the National Rural Land Security Program to the tune of $200 million in 16 of Côte d’Ivoire’s 31 regions, with a focus on efficiency, inclusiveness, and social cohesion.
“Securing rural land remains a priority for President Alassane Ouattara and his government. I invite all Ivorians and populations living in Côte d’Ivoire to also make this their priority. Because securing land in rural areas means strengthening and consolidating living together between communities and establishing a lasting climate of peace throughout the country,” something Mr. Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production who presided over the ceremony. “The choice of Guiglo, which is part of the PRESFOR intervention area, is motivated by the recurrence and scale of land conflicts in the Cavally region. The government is thus demonstrating its determination to resolve land conflicts and consolidate living together, peace and social cohesion in the West of our country, and beyond, throughout Côte d’Ivoire,” said– he added. Minister Adjoumani had at his side the Minister of State, Minister of Public Service and Modernization of Administration, Ms. Anne Désirée Ouloto and the Minister of the Interior and Security, Mr. Vagondo Diomandé.
PRESFOR, a five-year, results-based program from 2024 to 2029, will benefit 4 million people. Over the next five years, it will issue 500,000 land certificates and 250,000 agrarian contracts. The program builds on the achievements of the Rural Land Policy Improvement and Implementation Project (PAMOFOR), a $50 million project financed by the World Bank, which enabled 48,000 landowners and farmers to obtain their land certificates and agrarian contracts between 2018 and 2024.
« PAMOFOR’s encouraging results have allowed us to scale up with this new program and four times more funding, to help the government achieve transformational and sustainable impacts in resolving land disputes, guaranteeing farmers’ rights and those of women” said Ms. Marie-Chantal Uwanyiligira, World Bank Country Director for Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Guinea, and Togo. « In a context where most women depend on their father or husband for access to land, the issuance of formal land documents will help protect their rights and those of their children in the event of divorce or widowhood.. Access to land is a matter of human dignity and constitutes economic security.
Formally recording customary land use and ownership rights helps to resolve land conflicts, increase farmers’ land security and their ability to invest in more sustainable land management practices, and ultimately strengthen social cohesion.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of the World Bank.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)
2024-07-22 15:34:37
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