A five-fold increase in land certificates is transforming economies and generating thousands of jobs across Côte d’Ivoire

Secure land tenure transforms dormant assets into active capital—unlocking access to credit, encouraging investment, and spurring entrepreneurship. These are the building blocks of job creation and economic growth.

When landowners have secure property rights, they invest more in their land. Existing data shows that with secure property rights, agricultural output increases by 40% on average. Efficient land rental markets also significantly boost productivity, with up to 60% productivity gains and 25% welfare improvements for tenants.

A Transformative Reform in Côte d’Ivoire

The Government of Cote d’Ivoire is implementing land sector reforms as a pathway to jobs, growth, and long-term stability. Formalizing and enhancing access to land for people and business is central to this strategy, and the Government has an ambitious target of achieving nationwide customary rural land registration by 2033 through its National Rural Land Registration Program. The Government recognizes rural tenure security as a prerequisite for agricultural development and sustainable and inclusive private sector-led development, including in its Second National Agricultural Investment Program.

Building on a long-term partnership with the World Bank, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire has dramatically accelerated delivery of formal land records to customary landholders in rural areas by implementing legal, regulatory, and institutional reforms and digitizing the customary rural land registration process, which is led by the Rural Land Agency (Agence Foncière Rurale – AFOR).

This has enabled a five-fold increase in the number of land certificates delivered in just five years compared to the previous 20 years. Crucially for social cohesion, the government has introduced formal land use contracts to secure the rights of tenant farmers and has prioritized land record delivery for landholders in cash crop growing areas (to enable more traceable supply chains), as well as in conflict-affected and economically lagging regions. An independent impact evaluation found that this project increased tenure security (especially for women), trust in government, and tree planting and reduced land conflicts.

Jobs and Opportunities for Youth and Women

Over the next four years, with World Bank support, and under AFOR’s leadership, Côte d’Ivoire aims to deliver an additional 500,000 certificates and 250,000 formal contracts benefiting an estimated 6.2 million people across half the country. Thousands of trained land sector professionals will be needed to implement this program, and the program is expected to create up to 10,000 jobs, primarily in rural areas, including for women and youth.

Since the new program was launched in February 2024, AFOR has more than doubled its staff and trained and hired 218 local land office managers (of which 19% are women) who will provide frontline rural land administration services to landholders. Banga Bodeh Edmonde and Doulo Lou Claire Epse Loua are two of the young women recruited by AFOR among the graduates of the National Institute for Public Administration and employed as local land office managers.

“Thanks to this job, as a single mom, I can take care of my child without being a burden to my parents. Also, I am happy to be a part of this project that will allow people to secure their lands.”

Banga Bodeh Edmonde, Local Land Office Manager.

“I am happy to have this job, and I can encourage the future promotions of the National Institute for Public Administration and tell them that with the help of this World Bank project, rural land registration leads to employment opportunities.”

Doulo Lou Claire Epse Loua, Local Land Office Manager

AFOR has also partnered with the Youth Employment Agency, the Regional Council of Tchologo, and a private Land Registration Operator to train 1,000 youth to support the rural land registration operations. Mariam Sidibe, from Tchologo region, has benefitted from the training and is now employed by one such operator. AFOR plans to extend this youth training and employment initiative to other regions in the next 6 months, benefiting thousands more youth who will be equipped to support implementation of the Government’s National Rural Land Registration Program over the coming years.

“Today, thanks to the World Bank and to the land registration process, I have a job.”

Mariam Sidibe, Surveyor, Diallo Sékou Expert Surveyor Firm (CGEDS)

Looking Ahead: Scaling the Impact

These reforms are especially relevant given Africa’s growing youth population. Over the next decade, 360 million young people expected to enter the labor market — yet only 150 million jobs are projected to be available. Simpler land rules are needed to secure land access for individuals, families, and businesses and thereby unlock job opportunities and stimulate economic growth in the long term.

To help bridge this gap Cote d’Ivoire is working hard – with World Bank support – to simplify rural land registration and create job opportunities for thousands of young women and men in the process.