Seen Suuf – improving land management in Senegal

Context

In rural Senegal, only a small part of the population has documented property titles; mostof them only have use rights granted by local or traditional authorities. As a result, land transactions tend to be informal. Thus, administrative boundaries generally remain undefined, and most land areas have no fixed land use. This leads to conflicts between land users, discourages investment and prevents employment creation.

The project aligns with the conventions of the Pact with Africa. It aims to empower relevant land management actors, civil society and the private sector to ensure land tenure security. It also provides advisory services at national level, and to regional authorities, municipalities, the private sector and the education sector. Multi-stakeholder dialogue aims to optimise the legal and regulatory framework.

Objective

Land tenure security is improving for various socio-economic groups in Senegal, leading to poverty reduction and the creation of employment.

Approach

Seen Suuf means “your land” – and the project aims to reduce poverty by securing the land rights and improving land management among the rural population. It seeks to achieve this by raising awareness of their legal rights and revising the legal and regulatory framework. In close collaboration with its partners, the project strives to provide local authorities with the necessary skills to achieve these goals. Its main pillars are:

• improving land governance and management in partner municipalities.
• building the skills in the deconcentrated authorities, the private sector and training institutions required to implement procedures to secure land rights (incl. participatory land use plans, land ownership inventories, etc.)
• improving the legal and regulatory framework for securing land rights.

Last update: November 2021