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Opening programme of the workshop on Urban land registry, Cotonou, Benin 26 February 2010.© GLTN |
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and the Government of the Republic of Benin organised a Workshop to review the documentation of the Urban Land Registry or Régistre Foncier Urbain (RFU) in Cotonou, Benin, 25-26 February 2010. The workshop was supported by the UNDP office in Benin, the Task Force of the Ministère de l’Urbanisme, de l’Habitat, de la Réforme Foncière et de la Lutte contre l’Erosion Côtière (MUHRFLEC) in Benin, the municipality of Cotonou and other local partners.
More than 50 participants (including 19 women) attended the two days’ workshop. Participants were mayors and/or their representatives, chiefs of RFU units in various municipalities, development partners, UN representatives, professional organizations, civil society and the media.
The main objective of the workshop was to present and enrich the preliminary findings of the consultants’ reports on the ways in which RFU has been developed and implemented in various cities in Benin. More specifically, workshop participants evaluated and commented on the consultants’ presentations; were exposed to other actors engaged in the development and implementation of RFU in Benin, and visited the RFU services in the municipality of Cotonou to gain a first hand experience on how such a system is structured, organized and operated.
Participants identified ways in which the RFU could be strengthened, including:
- the urgency for developing other applications (particularly land and urban management) beyond the currently popular fiscal;
- The need for the maintenance of update of the RFU, the land information system, database and maps;
- Prioritise the capacity development and building of RFU operators at municipality level as well as the recently established RFU Users Network; and
- Harmonize procedures and methodologies for developing and implementing RFU
After the workshop, the next steps include the finalisation of the consultants’ reports and the guidelines for the implementation of the RFU. It is also anticipated that a film and photo documentation of the RFU process will be produced.
All information on the RFU including the report of the workshop, the report of the documentation process, the film on RFU and photo documentation, once finalized will be posted on GLTN website.
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