On 4 and 5 April last in Paris, the “Land and development” technical committee (CTFD) (in french) organised two days of reflection at the Agence française de développement’s headquarters on the subject of “Reform, crises and development: Agricultural and rural land tenure issues in Mali”.
The land issue is at the heart of contemporary development, governance and civic issues in Mali. By providing an opportunity to Malian experts and representatives from farming & pastoral organisations, and from the administration to share and discuss their analyses and experiences, these two days contributed to a better understanding of the three major rural land tenure issues in Mali: the implementation of the agricultural land tenure law; securing the rights of irrigated land in the Office du Niger area; and connections between the dynamics of agro-pastoral land tenure and violent conflicts.
Ousmane Sy, a former Decentralisation Minister, concluded the seminar and put the land issues analysed in the various sessions into perspective with issues concerning development of rural territories, decentralisation and the construction of the Malian State.
With approximately fifty participants (land tenure experts, representatives from farmers’ organisations, representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture in Mali and the Office du Niger, researchers and project operators), these two days met with great success and were appreciated for the quality of presentations and the time given to debate. The presentations and discussions will be published in the near future in a summary brief.
The CTFD is a think tank working for the development and implementation of more inclusive land tenure policies, bringing together experts, researchers and professionals in the sector under the auspices of AFD and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. GRET has been ensuring its scientific secretariat since 1996.
