The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, has promised land reform. The actors gathered around the Framework for reflection and actions on land in Senegal (Crafs), held a workshop yesterday, Friday December 20, 2024, to reflect on the measures that should be taken for good land governance. Crafs said it was worried about the commodification of land and called for usage rights.
The new authorities have promised to initiate land reforms. The actors work there. During a workshop held yesterday, Friday December 20, 2024, the Framework for Reflection and Action on Land in Senegal (Crafs), charted the path for successful land reform. According to its president, Babacar Diop, “we need harmonization of all land policies that have been taken in the past.” Better, he adds, local participation is necessary for rational land management. For the president of Crafs, land reform should be carried out by avoiding the commodification of land so that communities are not dispossessed of their property. Crafs also wants infrastructural investments in irrigated and rainfed crops. Crop diversification and cohabitation between pastoralism and agriculture must be promoted. Babacar Diop calls for a correction of the inconsistencies noted in the administrative division.
Land expert Kader Fanta Ngom added to these proposals: “Crafs maintains the fundamentals of the law on National Domain. It is to give usage rights to avoid the commercialization of land, to give land management competence to local authorities, but also to strengthen the powers of local communities in the process of land governance. For him, there is no real land reform in Senegal because most of the land is still governed by the law on National Domain which dates from June 17, 1964. Better, the different regimes which have succeeded one another at the head of the country, have failed to initiate successful land reforms.
According to the Director of Local Authorities, Arona Ba, “to respond to current and future challenges linked to territorial governance policy, the State will initiate a major reform of decentralization, by capitalizing the existing in general and land management in particular, to promote the conditions for the establishment of inclusive and participatory land reform, based on the principles of transparency, justice, equity and consensus. Better, he judges, “in the State's option to favor the territory, with the objective of promoting endogenous development, land imposes itself as a central issue, and the questions linked to its management are numerous and complex.
The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, announced a new land reform in order to better control the granting of land, during a press conference held on July 13, 2024. To avoid recurring land conflicts in rural areas. “In the name of the National Domain, populations who have cultivated land for generations cannot have property titles to qualify for a bank loan to develop them. At the same time, powerful people monopolize these lands, having property titles established, which are nevertheless refused to the natives, under the pretext that they are not exploited. Of course, if you pass through these areas in the dry season, you will not find anything, because the farmers, family farmers, do not have water to develop them, they are waiting for the wintering. So, wouldn't it be more judicious to join forces: agribusiness provides the financing and rural people the land and labor. Which would suit all parties and avoid land conflicts,” he said.
