ABSTRACT
The Benin case examined the Plan Foncier Rural (PFR) program funded through the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and implemented between 2006 and 2011. The PFR program sought to identify, map, and register individual and household rights within customary tenure regimes. The program aimed to incentivize land improvements that would increase agricultural productivity; it also aimed to reduce land conflicts and catalyze a more robust land market. Program designers tried to build in mechanisms for identifying and recording multiple rights. However, implementation of these mechanisms was flawed, in part because it is difficult to translate complex rights into a system structured to record simplified rights. The most significant positive investment outcome was that female heads of households in PFR villages were more likely to leave their demarcated (but certificate-lacking) fields in fallow, an outcome contributing to soil recovery and likely due to a sense of increased security for those parcels. Still, the final project evaluation found no impacts on agricultural productivity. Overall, the project encountered challenges in incorporating the secondary rights of women and migrants into the rights recording process.
