Toward addressing land tenure security in rural Haiti
Vaz Rodrigues, Gabriela & Kevin Barthel
In 2011, the Government of Haiti requested support to the Inter-American Development Bank to prepare and finance a Land Tenure Security Program in Rural Areas. Expected to commence in 2013, this five-year project seeks to promote investments in agricultural productivity and sustainable natural resources management by enhancing tenure security in pilot rural areas. This paper presents the programms design, its rationale and challenges, and assesses its contribution to addressing the multiple limits to tenure security in Haiti. We identify two structural limitations to tenure security: the lack of a land regularization framework, and the weakness of the land administration system, which have led to an overall lack of clarity and legality of tenure. The program limited its intervention to demarcating parcels and to clarifying and documenting their tenure status in six communes, while strengthening at the same time the land administration system. If successful, it could be expanded to other communes and inform discussions on a future regularization framework. Its success will depend on overcoming a number of challenges, above all managing potential expectations and providing confidence to farmers that have no legal guarantee to their claimed rights.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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