Formulation mission for a 'Land Administration Institutional Development Programme Benin'

General

In Benin, the agricultural and trade sectors are main economic drivers and offer the best opportunities for economic growth and self-sufficiency, with agriculture playing a crucial role in increased food security. The Embassy Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Cotonou aims to contribute to this, as evidenced in its Multi-Annual Strategic Plan (MASP), specifically by promoting a better business climate that empowers poor farmers, to increase production and access food markets. However, this ambition is met with major challenges concerning current land ownership practices, which has pushed the issues of access to land and land ownership up the political agenda. Alongside agriculture and trade, also governance is a key consideration for the EKN, which supports activities that promote improved performance of government institutions, a driver of political stability and important precondition for economic growth. To address the abovementioned challenges, a sustainable land registration is a necessary precondition. For this purpose, the government of Benin has undertaken major steps over the past few years, namely adopting Law No. 2013-01 of the National Land Law (CFD) in the Republic of Benin on August 14th 2013. In this law, l’Agence Nationale du Domaine et du Foncier (ANDF) was appointed to coordinate land and estate management at national level, as the national authorities in Benin want to speed up the process of creating a national Cadastre. ANDF is a formal authority responsible for the sustainable land administration in Benin. Since its designation, ANDF has established an office building and started the recruitment of staff but recognizes the need for financial and technical support to realize its ambitious mandate. ANDF is looking for a suitable partner and to support this organisational development process, namely the establishment of appropriate systems and structures, strengthening the capacity of existing new and current staff and the development of a sustainable business model to ensure ANDF can develop and maintain a national Cadastre in Benin.

Objectives

Overall objective - Improving social economic development by facilitating access to land and tenure security for all citizens in Benin. On programme level, the project purpose of the future programme can be defined (draft) as to the following: - Establishing the technical and organisational capacity of the national land administration agency in Benin (ANDF) to independently manage and (continue to) develop a country-wide land administration system promoting equal and sustainable access to land for all citizens. These will be further elaborated in the formulation mission. Purpose of the formulation mission 1) Developing a clear overview of the activities - that are necessary to achieve a strong national land agency that is capacitated to fulfill its mandate - that could form a coherent four year programme to be financed by The Netherlands; 2) Developing a justified quantification (detailed budget) of the costs for the activities identified; 3) Developing a transparent and clear justification in the form of a tender dossier of the programme including all necessary elements such as a theory of change, stakeholder analysis, risk analysis, etc.

Other

Indicators: 1: Complete tender dossier (DAO) 2: Stakeholder analysis 3: MoU prepared and ready for signature 4: At least six consultation missions organised to Benin 5: Detailed training plan for four years 6: Land registration testing exercise developed and implemented 7: Acquisition plan for hardware / software