IMPACT EVALUATION OF RURAL LAND TENURE PLANS ON LOCAL COMMUNUTIES OF OUESSE DISTRICT IN THE CENTRAL BENIN

To investigate the effects of Rural Land Tenure Plans (RLTP) on rural communities of Ouesse District, in the central part of Benin, an impact evaluation study was carried out. The methodological approach was based on the Double Difference (DD) method. Data was collected from 329 people distributed in 27 villages of Ouesse according to an appropriate territorial sampling based on specific criteria. A comparative analysis of these villages highlighted the impacts of RLTP on local communities. It results from this study that the implementation of the RLTP has partially met most of the local community’s expectations. In fact, the RLTP has contributed to reduce drastically settlement conflicts in all the beneficiary localities. In addition, land right clarification in some villages such as Kokoro, AgboroKombon, Agboro-Idouya, Botti-Houègbo has increased. The RLTP implementation has contributed also to facilitate land conflicts management, access to agricultural credit in Gbanlin’s vllage, access to agricultural land, and increasing the market value of land in villages such as Tosso, Gbanlin, Vossa, Toui-Center, Botti-Hougbo and Kokoro. However, the RLTP implementation has let profound discordance between allochthones and autochthones people.