General

Burundi has the world’s highest hunger score and around 45 percent of the population is affected by food insecurity. The country copes with increasing scarcity of land as a result of increasing population size, returnees and IDPs and climate change. With the majority of Burundians depending on agriculture for their food and livelihoods, land scarcity makes this reliance on agriculture precarious. This pressure on land causes elevated levels of land disputes with over 55% of all court cases being related to conflicts over land. The results of these disputes are often highly uncertain, as land is commonly not registered and no good documentation of ownership or use rights exists. ZOA has successfully implemented Land Tenure Registration projects in the Makamba-province, but the sustainability of the local land offices (SFCs) remains an issue, as well as guaranteeing gender equality in land governance.The objective of this LAND-at-scale project is to improve tenure security of women and men, conflict resolution and to create the basis for improved agricultural production, access to justice and sustainable, climate smart agri-businesses. This will be done through the following project strategies: 1) Implementing the land tenure registration approach in Nyanza Lac through the operationalization of the SFCs. 2) Ensuring local land conflict resolution mechanisms can effectively resolve land conflicts in Nyanza Lac. 3) Developing a business case that will result in the rollout of (financially) sustainable SFCs at national level, which is validated through multistakeholder engagements.