Next February 1st, a conference on land reforms in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia will be held in the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation building in Paris. The event will be hosted by Omar Bessaoud, researcher at the International Centre for Higher Education of Montpellier (CIHEAM-IAM).

Organized by the non-profit French law international association AGTER, the conference will focus on reviewing reforms implemented in the three countries, in regards to their agricultural sector. It should also provide new insights to improve tenure of agricultural lands in these nations.

“After talking about the environments that prevailed after the independence of each the three nations, Omar Bessaoud will describe each of the land reforms implemented in the 1960-70s as well as their outputs. He will analyze the main reasons behind the failures of these reforms. Bessaoud will next look at the major public agricultural policies in place in these countries, focusing especially on agricultural structures. He will discuss about how small farmers are left out when it comes to land access, how they are kept in the dark in regards to agricultural and rural programs,” says a statement.

“Founded in March 2005, AGTER exists to improve management of land, water and other natural resources and establish reforms, in the domains to land and natural resource tenure, which are adapted to the current century. It works to encourage permanent brainstorming and group learning, which help members of the civic society and other concerned actors to get informed, and offer adequate solutions while insuring their application,” the association says on its website.

Souha Touré