Plans Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation 2011, Baseline Survey
Benin, 2011
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Reference ID
BEN_2011_PFRIE-BL_v01_M_v01_A_PUF
Producer(s)
Markus Goldstein
Collection(s)
Metadata
Created on
Dec 02, 2015
Last modified
Feb 02, 2016
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Identification
Survey ID Number
BEN_2011_PFRIE-BL_v01_M_v01_A_PUF
Title
Plans Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation 2011, Baseline Survey
Subtitle
Baseline Survey
Translated Title
Impact Evaluation of the Rural Land Use Plans 2011, Baseline Survey
Country/Economy
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Benin | BEN |
Study type
Other Household Survey [hh/oth]
Abstract
Throughout rural Sub-Saharan Africa, the allocation and enforcement of land rights involve a diverse and complex set of customary arrangements made and upheld by local stakeholders such as village chiefs, councils of elders, and land chiefs. Customary land tenure systems often coexist with formal land administration systems, where proof of ownership or of use rights is documented with registered titles or deeds. Yet only a small proportion of the population holds formal land titles for the land they de facto own. This lack of formal land rights may lead to under-investment and sub-optimal yields. Codification of private property rights within an effective legal framework should in theory increase agricultural investment and productivity, and spur economic development. Hence, the policy response to undocumented property rights has often been the “formalization” of land tenure (i.e., the incorporation of “informal”, customary, undocumented tenure claims into the formal system of property rights), often through the provision of freehold titles.
While land titling programs have met with relative success in rural and urban settings, the evidence from Africa is less positive. This contrast is perhaps due to oversimplified interventions that neglect the complexity of customary land relations in rural areas, the limited capacity of central land administrations for the delivery of titles, or the difficulties in establishing decentralized institutions. The distributional impacts of land formalization programs are also ambiguous: Despite some claims of the possibly deleterious effects of individualizing land rights for women, there is scant rigorous evidence from impact evaluations to support or refute these claims.
Benin is one of the countries in West Africa where the design and implementation of policies to consolidate land rights is furthest advanced. The Plan Foncier Rural (PFR), first tried in Côte d'Ivoire in 1989 and piloted in Benin since 1993, is a key policy experiment in this respect. The program is currently in the initial stages of a planned implementation scale-up in Benin. The objectives of the program are to improve tenure security and stimulate agricultural investment in rural areas through the registration of land rights.
The Plan Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation presents early evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization policy. The study was designed to address the following questions and issues:
- What is the effect of the PFR on perceived and de facto tenure security?
- What is the effect of the PFR on land market participation and land prices?
- What is the effect of the PFR on investment in land and agricultural production and yields?
- Additional issues: off-farm activities and gender differentiated impacts
The study examines the links between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. Consistent with the model, improved tenure security under demarcation induces a shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. This investment does not yet coincide with gains in agricultural productivity. The analysis also identifies significant gender specific effects. Female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women further respond to an exogenous tenure security change by moving production away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels.
While land titling programs have met with relative success in rural and urban settings, the evidence from Africa is less positive. This contrast is perhaps due to oversimplified interventions that neglect the complexity of customary land relations in rural areas, the limited capacity of central land administrations for the delivery of titles, or the difficulties in establishing decentralized institutions. The distributional impacts of land formalization programs are also ambiguous: Despite some claims of the possibly deleterious effects of individualizing land rights for women, there is scant rigorous evidence from impact evaluations to support or refute these claims.
Benin is one of the countries in West Africa where the design and implementation of policies to consolidate land rights is furthest advanced. The Plan Foncier Rural (PFR), first tried in Côte d'Ivoire in 1989 and piloted in Benin since 1993, is a key policy experiment in this respect. The program is currently in the initial stages of a planned implementation scale-up in Benin. The objectives of the program are to improve tenure security and stimulate agricultural investment in rural areas through the registration of land rights.
The Plan Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation presents early evidence from the first large-scale randomized-controlled trial of a land formalization policy. The study was designed to address the following questions and issues:
- What is the effect of the PFR on perceived and de facto tenure security?
- What is the effect of the PFR on land market participation and land prices?
- What is the effect of the PFR on investment in land and agricultural production and yields?
- Additional issues: off-farm activities and gender differentiated impacts
The study examines the links between land demarcation and investment in rural Benin in light of a model of agricultural production under insecure tenure. The demarcation process involved communities in the mapping and attribution of land rights; cornerstones marked parcel boundaries and offered lasting landmarks. Consistent with the model, improved tenure security under demarcation induces a shift toward long-term investment on treated parcels. This investment does not yet coincide with gains in agricultural productivity. The analysis also identifies significant gender specific effects. Female-managed landholdings in treated villages are more likely to be left fallow—an important soil fertility investment. Women further respond to an exogenous tenure security change by moving production away from relatively secure, demarcated land and toward less secure land outside the village to guard those parcels.
Kind of Data
Sample survey data [ssd]
Unit of Analysis
Household and Community
Version
Version Description
Version 01, edited version with direct identifying variables removed.
Scope
Notes
Household Survey:
- Employment and enterprise
- Habitation
- Lands
- Old lands
- Agriculture activities
- Men
- Perception on the lands
- Participation on the land use plan
- Women
Community Survey:
- Socio - demographic aspects
- Accessibility and access to basic services
- Economic activities
- Infrastructures
- Lands
- Use of the lands
- Market land
- Land dispute
- Other village structures
- Agriculture
- Credits
- Rural land use
- Employment and enterprise
- Habitation
- Lands
- Old lands
- Agriculture activities
- Men
- Perception on the lands
- Participation on the land use plan
- Women
Community Survey:
- Socio - demographic aspects
- Accessibility and access to basic services
- Economic activities
- Infrastructures
- Lands
- Use of the lands
- Market land
- Land dispute
- Other village structures
- Agriculture
- Credits
- Rural land use
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The study gathered information on 3,507 households interviewed in 291 villages selected from 40 communes which cover 9 of Benin's 12 regions (départements) or first-level administrative divisions.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Markus Goldstein | The World Bank |
Producers
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Kenneth Houngbedji | Paris School of Economics and University of Namur |
| Florence Kondylis | The World Bank |
| Michael O’Sullivan | The World Bank |
| Harris Selod | The World Bank |
Sampling
Sampling Procedure
The sample was drawn using a sub-set of rural households from a national household survey from 2010. In total, 3,507 households were surveyed in 291 villages, of which 192 were selected to receive a PFR and 99 were randomly selected to serve as control villages, resulting in 66 observed lottery pools. In line with the identification strategy, this study focused on those households with at least one landholding in their village of residence: 85% of households had one landholding in the same village as their homestead, 9% had their landholding outside their village of residence, and 6% had no landholdings. This led to a working sample of 4,972 households, with detailed information on 6,094 parcels.
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2011-03 | 2011-04 | Baseline Survey |
Data Collection Mode
Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]
Data Collection Notes
The first wave of survey data collection took place from March to April 2011 with the technical support of the Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IREEP) based in Benin. Much effort was put together by the impact evaluation team and IREEP team in order to adapt the survey to local and cultural context. The team also worked to finalize the questionnaire instrument for the two separate modules (household and community), which were then piloted prior to the survey. Enumerators were recruited based on their past experiences in conducting survey in rural areas and their ability to implement the survey in local languages.
All field staff received training on data collection for 2 weeks. This consisted of instructive lectures and demonstrations followed by practice sessions at different households outside the sampled villages, and finally a special briefing session about different field techniques. The enumerator teams were led by supervisors and controllers. They were selected among the most experienced enumerators.
The Impact Evaluation research team and the survey field coordinator closely monitored all the field activities through frequent visits for spot checking. They also revisited a random sub-sample of the respondents, called back the respondents for verification of information, and checked completed questionnaires for consistency. During their visits, assistance and guidance were provided to enumerators and their supervisors where needed.
All field staff received training on data collection for 2 weeks. This consisted of instructive lectures and demonstrations followed by practice sessions at different households outside the sampled villages, and finally a special briefing session about different field techniques. The enumerator teams were led by supervisors and controllers. They were selected among the most experienced enumerators.
The Impact Evaluation research team and the survey field coordinator closely monitored all the field activities through frequent visits for spot checking. They also revisited a random sub-sample of the respondents, called back the respondents for verification of information, and checked completed questionnaires for consistency. During their visits, assistance and guidance were provided to enumerators and their supervisors where needed.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
The multi-topic household survey instrument covered a detailed set of questions related to basic demographics, parcel land use, intra-household control of resources, and agricultural production. The land modules elicit a rich set of information on perceived and de facto tenure security, perceived rights, market participation, and investment at the parcel level, while the agricultural modules allow for productivity estimates at the agricultural plot level. A community questionnaire was also administered to a set of key respondents with diverse responsibilities in each village. It includes information on village-level demographics, infrastructure, social services, economic activities, and mode of land acquisition, land market activity, and conflicts.
Access policy
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Markus Goldstein | The World Bank | mgoldstein@worldbank.org |
Citation requirements
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Markus Goldstein, The World Bank. Benin Plans Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation (PFRIE-BL) 2011, Baseline Survey. Ref. BEN_2011_PFRIE-BL_v01_M_v01_A_PUF. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Markus Goldstein, The World Bank. Benin Plans Fonciers Ruraux Impact Evaluation (PFRIE-BL) 2011, Baseline Survey. Ref. BEN_2011_PFRIE-BL_v01_M_v01_A_PUF. Dataset downloaded from [URL] on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Metadata production
DDI Document ID
DDI_BEN_2011_PFRIE-BL_v01_M_v01_A_PUF_WB
Producers
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development Economics Data Group | DECDG | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
Date of Metadata Production
2015-11-11
DDI Document version
Version 01 (November 2015)