Côte d’Ivoire: women and land, what the rural land law changes for female farmers

Côte d’Ivoire has moved faster on rural land registration in the past five years than in the previous twenty. The Rural Land Agency (AFOR) says about 68,026 land certificates have now been issued, against roughly 4,000 in 2017, and 86,447 agrarian contracts have been signed [2][3]. But women remain a small minority of registered owners. Official and World Bank figures put their share at between 12% and 22% of certificates, depending on the period and the method [5][6][8]. Yet women make up a large part of the people who farm the land, and a national survey found that 35% of widows received no share of their husband’s estate [10]. A new World Bank-backed programme, PRESFOR, aims to issue 500,000 more certificates by 2029, with a target of 30% for women [7]. Whether it meets that target will decide whether land reform closes the gender gap or locks it in.

Context: a law that is gender-neutral on paper

Rural land in Côte d’Ivoire is governed by Law No. 98-750 of 23 December 1998 on the rural land domain. It says only the State, public bodies and Ivorian natural persons can own rural land. Customary rights are recognised through a certificat foncier (land certificate), which must later be converted into a full title [11]. The law has been amended three times: by Law No. 2004-412 of 14 August 2004, Law No. 2013-655 of 13 September 2013 and Law No. 2019-868 of 14 October 2019 [11].

The 2013 law gave landholders an extra ten years to have their customary rights recorded. After that, unrecorded land could be treated as “land without a master” and revert to the State [13]. The 2019 law rewrote several articles. It allows collective certificates for groups of people without legal personality, bans the transfer of customary land that has no certificate (new Art. 17 bis), and asks certificate holders to confirm the rights of good-faith occupants who farm the land (new Art. 8 bis) [12].

None of these texts mentions women. AFOR itself describes the 1998 law as making “no distinction of sex” in access to land ownership [6]. That neutrality matters, because in practice land is allocated through family and lineage. Women usually negotiate plots with fathers, brothers or husbands, mostly for food crops [8]. When a customary right is written down, it is usually written in the name of the man who is seen as head of the family. A neutral law applied to an unequal system produces unequal results.

AFOR was created by Decree No. 2016-590 of 3 August 2016 to implement the 1998 law. Its work covers village boundary demarcation, land certification, contracts between owners and non-owner farmers, and the consolidation of State concessions [14].

Family law: equal on paper since 2019

Two 2019 laws changed the legal ground beneath land reform. Law No. 2019-570 of 26 June 2019 on marriage states that “the family is managed jointly by the spouses in the interest of the household and the children” (Art. 51). The spouses choose the family home together (Art. 56). Under the community property regime, both spouses must agree before land or other real property is sold or mortgaged (Art. 82) [15]. Joint management of the household was first introduced in 2012, and was then contested by some religious leaders at the time [17]. The 2019 law confirms it.

Law No. 2019-573 on successions says children inherit “without distinction of sex or primogeniture” (Art. 28). A surviving spouse now inherits a quarter of the estate alongside children (Art. 26), and up to half or all of it when there are no children (Art. 27). The spouse can ask to be allotted the family home (Art. 103) [16]. The government told the UN in 2022 that these laws ease women’s access to land and plantations [19].

But these rights apply to civil marriages. Most rural couples marry under custom or religion. A 2016 survey found that only 4.5% of male household heads were in a civil marriage [9]. Equality Now notes that the surviving spouse’s share remains limited and that customary land transfers in rural areas often discriminate against women [18].

Cases and events, 2021 to 2026

2021

• August 2021, north and west. The USAID-funded Improving Land Access for Women (ILAW) activity started, for 2021 to 2024, in the Poro, Béré, Tchologo, Cavally, Guémon and Tonkpi regions. Partners included the Association of Women Lawyers of Côte d’Ivoire (AFJCI) and the rural NGO ARK in Korhogo [27].
• 25–26 November 2021, Abidjan. At national assizes on rural land and mining, an AFOR director said only about 12,000 rural land certificates had been issued nationwide [20].

2022

• February 2022. Farm Radio International published a backgrounder citing AFOR data: women received 12% of land certificates issued from 2017 to 2020 [8]. In Duékoué, the women’s cocoa co-operative Koado-Dué (561 members, 312 of them women) was negotiating with male landowners and chiefs to give women land for cocoa. A union of co-operatives reported that some chiefs now grant land to their daughters and other village women [30].
• May 2022. The Ministry of Women, Family and Children reported to the UN that only 12% of the 116 certificates issued in 2015 went to women [19].
• 30 June 2022. The OECD published its gender and social institutions study of Côte d’Ivoire. It found that 36% of people believe daughters should not inherit land, and that 35% of widows received no inheritance, against 8% of widowers [10].
• September–October 2022, north and west. ILAW trained sub-prefects, judges, mediators and police and gendarmerie GBV focal points on women’s land rights. The report notes that Côte d’Ivoire defines land discrimination against women as a form of gender-based violence [28].

2023

• 10 February 2023, Abidjan. The agriculture minister said 16,000 rural land certificates had been issued and 37,000 more were planned under the PAMOFOR extension [21].
• 3 May 2023. The Council of Ministers adopted a decree on the procedure for declaring “land without a master”. In June, AFOR’s director general reportedly said the deadline to register land had been moved from 2023 to 2033. Opposition voices called the decree a form of expropriation [14].
• 7 December 2023. A World Bank feature reported that over 41,000 landholders had received a certificate or contract since 2018. Women interviewed in Bécédi-Brignan said they could not inherit land from parents or husbands before [22].
• Late 2023, north and west. A USAID-funded women’s land project run by Tetra Tech reported that more than 100 men had requested certificates including their wives’ names. Some chiefs added women to village land committees, while resistance continued, notably in Béré [29].

2024

• 8 March 2024. The World Bank reported that PAMOFOR had delivered over 33,000 certificates, 22% of them to women landowners [5].
• 18 July 2024, Guiglo. The government launched PRESFOR, a US$200 million programme for 2024 to 2029 covering 16 of 31 regions. It plans 500,000 free certificates over 5 million hectares [23][24]. AFOR reported 57,171 certificates and 660,184 certified hectares, 2.87% of the rural domain [1].
• September 2024, Abidjan. AFOR gave a more detailed gender breakdown for PAMOFOR: women held 4,200 of 26,849 individual certificates (16%) and were 13,463 of 67,183 rights-holders on collective certificates (20%). The project target was 30%. In a World Bank pilot, 88% of men agreed to transfer a plot to their wife, but only 26 certificates had been issued to women at that point [6].

2025

• January 2025. A World Bank supervision mission set PRESFOR’s gender targets: 30% women among registered owners and users, and 30% of parcels in women’s names, against 0% achieved at that early stage. None of the payment-linked indicators is gender-specific [7].
• 13 June 2025. The World Bank said 19% of the 218 local land office managers hired by AFOR were women, and that an independent evaluation found the programme increased tenure security, “especially for women” [25]. A randomised evaluation covering 58 sub-prefectures, registered in 2024, plans to measure plot ownership and decision-making by sex [26].
• 18 November 2025, Abidjan. AFOR trained rubber planters with their organisation OPHéCI. Organisers said fewer than 10% of planters hold a certificate and 42% to 62% do not know the steps to obtain one [31].

2026

• February 2026. Funders (World Bank, AFD, KfW) praised PRESFOR’s early progress: over 1 million hectares surveyed and 14,000 village committee members trained. AFOR’s director general called for more effort on women’s access to land [32].
• March 2026, Bongouanou. At the first electronic signature of certificates in the Moronou region, four of the five beneficiaries were women. Processing took under five months, against over 18 months before [4].
• 23 May 2026, Facobly. A mid-term review found 4,090 certificate requests, 36% of the target. Some residents feared non-natives could become eligible, and warned that resistance would continue [33].
• 11 August and 5–7 October 2026, Abidjan. At the first Abidjan Land Days, the agriculture minister reported 68,026 certificates and 5,786 demarcated villages, and called for “more equitable access to land for women and young people” [2][3]. AFOR said about 2 million hectares were certified by 7 October [34]. No national figure for women’s share was published.

The data: who works the land, who owns it

The figures do not all agree. A 2023 World Bank feature said “about a third” of 20,000 owners were women [22], while its 2024 results brief gave 22% [5]. AFOR’s own September 2024 data are lower still [6]. Survey data on “ownership” also include informal and joint holdings, which explains why they are higher than certificate figures. We found no published national breakdown by sex for 2025 or 2026.

Certificate totals also vary by source and date: about 12,000 (November 2021) [20], 16,000 (February 2023) [21], 57,171 (July 2024) [1] and 68,026 (August 2026) [2]. An AFOR document gives 992,640 certified hectares [35], while AFOR officials cited 2 million hectares in October 2026 [34]. These numbers come from different reporting dates and may count different things.

The cocoa sector

Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest cocoa producer [8]. Women work on cocoa farms, but men generally sell the cocoa and control the income, while women sell food crops [37]. A gender expert at the Ministry of Women told Farm Radio that women cocoa producers earn about half as much as men [30]. Researchers note that female-headed households in cocoa areas own less land than male-headed ones, and that land access is a key constraint for women in the value chain [37]. The EU describes workload and income gaps in agricultural value chains and abuse of women in cocoa zones [38]. AFOR now promotes land certification as a way to meet EU deforestation rules and join company sustainability programmes [35]. If certificates go mostly to men, these traceability benefits will go mostly to men too.

What the law says and where the gaps are

• Gender-neutral land law. Law 98-750 contains no provision on women, no joint-titling rule and no quota [11][12]. The 2015 Agricultural Orientation Law gives preference to vulnerable groups including women, but sets no percentage [19].
• Civil marriage gap. Joint management and spousal consent protect only civilly married women [15]. In the World Bank pilot, upgrading customary marriages had low take-up because of ID documents, time and cost [9].
• Customary practice. One in three people think daughters should not inherit land [10]. The 2019 ban on transferring uncertified customary land may also block informal gifts to women [12].
• Deadlines. Land not certified in time can be declared “without a master” [11][14]. Women who farm land registered under a male relative’s name risk losing even informal use.
• Cost and information. PRESFOR certificates are free [24], but many farmers still do not know the procedure [31]. Women’s illiteracy was 63.7% in 2015 [19].
• Representation. Each village land committee must include at least one woman [6]. One is not enough to shift decisions.
• Weak accountability. PRESFOR’s gender targets are not tied to disbursement [7].

Côte d’Ivoire is bound by the Maputo Protocol. Article 6 protects a married woman’s right to acquire her own property. Article 19 calls on states to promote women’s access to and control over productive resources such as land. Article 21 guarantees widows an equitable share of their husband’s property and equal inheritance for women and men.

What RFLD asks for

1. Publish sex-disaggregated data every year. AFOR should report certificates, contracts and hectares by sex, region and project, for both individual and collective certificates.
2. Make joint titling the default. Amend Law 98-750 so that land held by a married couple, civil or customary, is certified in both names unless the wife refuses in writing.
3. Tie money to results for women. Make PRESFOR’s 30% target a disbursement-linked indicator, as the World Bank already asked for gender parity to be considered [7].
4. Protect women in the “land without a master” process. No land should be declared vacant without checking whether women farm it.
5. Bring civil marriage to villages. Offer free civil marriage registration and ID papers during certification campaigns.
6. Parity in village land committees. Raise the rule from one woman to at least 30%, rising to parity.
7. Legal aid for widows and daughters. Fund paralegals and women lawyers’ groups to enforce the 2019 succession law in rural courts.
8. Cocoa companies must count women. Traceability and sustainability programmes should report how many certificates in their supply chains are in women’s names.

RFLD tools you can use today

• Côte d’Ivoire women’s rights laws: the main texts on marriage, inheritance and land in one place.
• Women in Leadership Tracker, Côte d’Ivoire: follow women in decision-making roles.
• Maputo Barometer 2026: see how Côte d’Ivoire performs on the Protocol.
• Maputo Protocol Training Manual: train village committee members on Articles 19 and 21.
• Legal Framework for the Rights of Women and Girls in West Africa (2023) and West Africa women’s rights laws: paper vs practice.
• Benin Land and Property Code (Law 2013-01): a neighbouring model to compare.
• Climate Justice and Sustainable Agriculture and the Economic Justice podcast.
• CEDAW and UPR review calendar: plan shadow reports on rural women’s land rights.
• RFLD Francophone Academy: free certified courses in French.

Closing

Côte d’Ivoire has built the tools for a land revolution: an agency, digital registers, free certificates and a decade-long plan. The 2019 marriage and inheritance laws give women equal claims on paper. But a certificate written in one name fixes customary inequalities in law for a generation. The next 500,000 certificates are the test. If women get 30% or more, land reform will strengthen the women who feed the country. If not, it will make their exclusion official. RFLD and its member organisations stand ready to work with AFOR, ministries, chiefs and cocoa companies to make sure women’s names are on the paper.

References

1. CICG / Abidjan.net, “Sécurisation foncière rurale : 660 184 hectares ont été certifiés et sécurisés”, 29 July 2024. news.abidjan.net
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4. Sika Finance, “Côte d’Ivoire : 68 000 certificats fonciers délivrés en 2026 contre 4 000 en 2017 grâce au numérique”, 22 October 2026. sikafinance.com
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