International Development ISSN 1470-2320 Working Paper Series 2020 No.20-200 Push, Pull, and Push-back to Land Certification: Regional dynamics in pilot certification projects in Côte d'Ivoire Professor Catherine Boone Published: March 2020 Department of International Development London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street Tel: +44 (020) 7955 7425/6252 London Fax: +44 (020) 7955-6844 WC2A 2AE UK Email:
[email protected] Website: www.lse.ac.uk/InternationalDevelopment 1 Push, Pull, and Push-back to Land Certification: Regional dynamics in pilot certification projects in Côte d'Ivoire by CATHERINE BOONE, Professor Department of Government, London School of Economics (LSE) Connaught House 604, Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE, UK.
[email protected] with Pr. Brice Bado, Assistant Professor Aristide Mah Dion, Master's en Droits Humaines 2020 Zibo Irigo, Master's en Droits Humaines 2020 CERAP, Centre des Etudes et d'Action pour la Paix (Institution Universitaire Jésuite) Cocody, Blvd. Mermoz, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire 2 Abstract Since 2000, many African countries have moved toward land tenure reforms that aim at comprehensive land registration (or certification) and titling. Much work in political science and in the advocacy literature identifies recipients of land certificates or titles as "program beneficiaries," and political scientists have modeled titling programs as a form of distributive politics. In practice, however, land registration programs are often divisive and difficult to implement. This paper tackles the apparent puzzle of friction around land certification. We study Côte d'Ivoire's rocky history of land certification from 2004 to 2017 to identify political economy variables that may give rise to heterogenous and even conflicting preferences around certification.