Promoting Land Ownership Certification in Makamba and Nyanza Lac Districts, Burundi

The project aims to establish and operationalize land certification services in the two districts, which have experienced high levels of land conflicts. The project is implemented by ZOA Burundi, with MIPAREC and IDLO as subcontractors. The target group for the project includes landowners in the 58 villages of Makamba and Nyanza Lac districts, as well as the districts' leaders and agents of the District Land Service of Makamba. Additionally, 32 village recognition committees (CRC) in Makamba District and 26 peace committees in Nyanza Lac District are involved in resolving land disputes during the registration process. During the quarter of November 2017 to January 2018, the project implemented various activities, including sensitization of the population on land certification, land rights, and women's land rights. A total of 105,617 people, including 59,004 men and 46,613 women, were sensitized through four approaches: public meetings, door-to-door sensitization, performance of sketches, and the animation of the program "TUMENY'IVY'AMATONGO YACU." The program "TUMENY'IVY'AMATONGO YACU" showed a high level of participation from women, with 75% of participants being female. The project also organized information sessions for the population on the role of local mechanisms for conflict mediation. A total of 1,689 persons, including 1,192 men and 497 women, benefited from these information sessions. Additionally, the project conducted recognition of land parcels by grouped approach on 12 villages of the 2nd round, which identified 1,184 cases of conflict. The conflicts identified during the quarter were categorized into different types, including conflicts of succession, conflicts on boundaries, conflicts related to repatriation, conflicts buy-sell, and other conflicts. The majority of conflicts (45%) were related to boundaries, followed by conflicts of succession (27%). The project aims to resolve these conflicts through local land conflict resolution mechanisms, including CRC and peace committees. The project has made significant progress in increasing awareness of the targeted populations on land rights and local land conflict resolution mechanisms. However, the project still faces challenges in resolving land conflicts, particularly in Nyanza Lac District, where the number of conflicts identified during the quarter was high. The project will continue to implement activities to resolve these conflicts and ensure that the land certification process is successful.