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OCIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTES
ENVIRONMENTALLY AND SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
Note No. 44                                                     December 1998
Social Assessment Identifies Land
Management Concerns in Cote d'Ivoire
Rural areas in Cote d'Ivoire account for 55 percent of  Several basic steps were followed in carrying out the
the total population. Rural people rely heavily on  SA. First, the social space where different actors
export- and food-crop production as their primary  articulate their claims and defend their rights to land
source of livelihood. However, 71 percent of the rural    and other land-based resources was conceptually
population live below the poverty line. A general lack    determined. Second, key stakeholders and vulnerable
of new initiatives and investment opportunities has  populations were identified and associated with
provoked an upsurge in rural-urban migration,    reported patterns of land conflicts. Next, an
especially among youth. Prevailing constraints are  institutional analysis was conducted to assess the
further aggravated when delivery and support     regulatory framework and the organizational
systems do not exist or are distorted by bureaucratic  structure required for devolution of power to local
and cultural determinants. State intervention in rural    stakeholders and effective management of rural
areas has led to a crisis in the local and traditional  infrastructure. This note captures the findings of the
modes of governance and created an acute situation of   provisional SA process at the project identification
rural dependency.                                stage and raises a number of new issues that need to
The Government of Cote d'Ivoire (GOCI) and the  be addressed through the SA process during the pre-
World Bank agree that access to land and natural  appraisal, appraisal, and implementation stages.
resource management are critical factors in coping  Key Social Development Concerns
with the rural crisis. The GOCI invited the Bank to
help meet the rural development challenge through a  The key social development concerns identified by
new project, the Rural Land Management and       the SA were access, control, and management of land
Infrastructure Project (PNGTER). The project was  rights. The SA also assessed the potential for an
designed as one component of a nationwide        eruption of conflict when indigenous landlords
decentralization program, and it seeks to suggest new    attempt to dispossess migrants of their access rights to
approachesforlziocl presogra, and agtsemeksntosuggest  n land, or when landlords discover that the latter
approaches for local resource management         occupy more land than was provided in the initial
Social Assessment                                grant. The SA assumed that clarification of land rights
The social assessment (SA) aimed to: (a) identify the    will secure tenure rights and thus lead to better land
social development concerns and stakeholders     management, eventually producing greater long-term
relevant to the project; (b) undertake an institutional    investment in land. However, this land clarification
analysis that examines the regulatory and        process will also gradually transform customary land-
organizational framework; and (c) define a       tenure laws.
participation framework for stakeholders in the   Under customary principles of tenure, land cannot
identification, design, and implementation of local  be alienated by sale. Consequently there is no local
development plans.                              institutional framework for land transmission
This note was prepared by Cyprian Fisiy and Deborah Youssef of the World Bank. For more information on the social
assessment, contact Cyprian Fisiy, The World Bank, 1818 H St, NW, Washington DC, 20433, USA, Fax: 202-473-7913, E-
mail: cfisiyEworldbank.org. To view other Social Development Notes on social assessment, please visit the World Bank's
website at: http://www.worldbank.org, and click on the "Social Assessment" section in 'Development Topics."
Tire viezvs expressed in this note are those of thze autlhor(s) and do not necessarily reflect thje official policies of the World Bank.



through market mechanisms. The state land-delivery    social capital in rural areas and integrate the urban
mechanism, based on the land registration process     elite in development planning. The next steps of the
for a title deed, is out of reach for most peasants.  SA should include a further definition of the
Local land transactions are therefore not supported   framework of participation for key stakeholders.
by any legal document. Moreover, if the certification  Specifically, it is strongly recommended that a
of use rights to land has to take the form of titling,  willingness/ability to pay study be conducted in
then some of the major stakeholders - specifically    some pilot cases. The anticipated output should
migrants from Mali and Burkina Faso - will be losers,  provide an empirical base for establishing the
as the state is reticent to give land titles to foreigners.  eligibility criteria for rural funds (FRAR) available
The distinction between the nontransmissibility of    from the project to finance rural infrastructure
land through market instruments and the ability to    proposals from local communities.
sell use rights in the forest is another important    Next Steps
concern, and affects the mode of institutionalization  The next ste in the SA  rocess should be to assess
of these rights. The SA raised the question of how    The poli p m  the curprent regi e to effess
best to proceed with land registration once land use  the political will of the current regime to effectively
rights are clarified. It found that since access rights to  decentralize decisionmaking powers and
land and other productive resources are usually       management prerogatives to local decentralized
recorded inother narodctivemale head of household     bodies. This political will could be assessed by (a)
recorded in the name of the male past o useholl       determining the willingness of the regime to deliver
women, youth, and nomadic pastoralasts may fal        village/collective land titles to the newly created
through the cracks of the system if a land titling    rural decentralized communities, to be administered
approach is adopted.                                  by the rural councils; (b) putting in place mechanisms
Institutional Issues                                  and regulations that allow local communities to
Two levels of institutional issues are relevant to the  participate in the design, implementation, and
maintenance of local investments; and (c) creating
SA. At the micro level, the SA provdesappropriate devery systems to finance and provide
time of the institutional arrangements for land, which  technical support to local communities. Furthermore,
are constantly evolving. It recognizes existing      to enhance the effectiveness of the rural funding
patterns of land management, and represents a key     mechanism as a vehicle to finance rural development
transitional phase that records existing rights to    projects in the context of the project, it is
land, and might facilitate the movement from          recommended that a willingness/ability to pay study
communal ownership with individual use rights to      be conducted in some pilot cases.
the recognition of individual occupation. At the
conmmunity level, rural councils are expected to play a  To further enhance local ownership of the project, a
pivotal role in articulating the framework of rural   more detailed stakeholder analysis should be
development planning as a result of decentralization.  conducted to establish some of the systemic and
The extent to which these new institutions can ensure  cultural factors that account for the vulnerability of
the project's development agenda depends on the       certain groups (especially women and youth). In
acceptance of a mapping of rural villages into        addition, to provide a strong institutional and
decentralized local communities and the internal      organizational framework for the project, an
level of coherence and ability of the units to design  organization and manpower study should be
and take full ownership of development initiatives at  conducted to determine (a) the new organizational
the local level.                                      framework required to enable rural communities to
become effective in development planning and
Participation Framework                               implementation; (b) the skills-mix needed to carry out
Defining the participation framework for the          their mission, and (c) institutional arrangements
proposed project requires two steps. First, providing  linking these rural communities to other higher levels
local communities with the required skills to         of the state structure.
participate actively in the design of their local     Finally, a framework for monitoring and evaluation
development plans and to ensure their                 should be prepared. This will require developing
implementation; and second, establishing a            differentsets of idicators to monitor variations in
committed technical unit to back up the planning       dholding perf   indica        tor  andother
exercise at the local level. It is also clear from a  process indicators, as well as the establishment of
linkage analysis that to enhance the project's        local orgainiational units to record changes to
development effectiveness, the participation          local or onal rits tore           cheseeare
framework should capitalize on existing networks of   existing property rights before these are
systemnatically reported to a registry office.
Social Development Notes are published informally by the Social Development Family in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable
Development Network of the World B'ank. For additional copies, contact Social Development Publications, The World Bank, 1818
H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, Fax: 202-522-3247, E-mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org.
@3   Prited on Recycled Paper