Decentralised and simplified land management addresses the administrative bottlenecks to securing rural land in Madagascar

Location: Madagascar

Timeline: 2005 - 2017

Principal organisations: World Bank

The introduction of a decentralised and simplified land management system at municipal level has significantly reduced the regulatory burden of securing tenure of rural land parcels. Cost and time of land tenure registration have been reduced from USD 500 to USD 14, and from 6 years to 7 months. As a result of an innovative land reform, between 2005 and 2017, newly established communal land offices in 535 out of 1695 communities in the country issued over 140,000 land certificates to households. Over 30,000 women, either alone or jointly, had their rights to their land parcels legally secured. An on-going pilot of a systematic approach in 13 communes has enabled the local government to demarcate and adjudicate over 100,000 in less than six months.