In Cote d’Ivoire, on April 20, the ministry of agriculture and rural development launched, in Grand Bassam, 43km east of Abidjan, a workshop on the access of arable by vulnerable people, Agence Ivoirienne de Presse (AIP) reported.

Themed “land tenure for women and social cadets in rural areas”, the workshop which is backed by the European Union (EU) should help “identify means to boost land tenure for the targeted groups”. Those most concerned here are women which suffer a patriarchal custom, despite the fact that the law gives men and women equal rights over lands.

“Under customary law, in general, land is handled by men, both in matrilineage and patrilineage societies of Cote d’Ivoire. In spite of legal provisions, access to lands and tenure remain a complex issue to solve,” said Kouamé N’Guessan, representative of the minister of Solidarity, Woman and Child Protection, Mariatou Koné.

A discrimination which Stéphane Brossard, EU’s representative, also points at indicating that “since the December 23rd 1998 Act came into force, only 3,857 or 11.43% of land titles issued across the country have gone to women”.

Souha Touré