Although there is no official definition of these different zones, the urban and peri-urban areas can be distinguished from field observation and satellite imagery. The urban area is characterized by built-up contiguity; the peri-urban area by a mix of rural areas, incorporating core villages, agricultural land and uncultivated land that are being subdivided, built up and integrated within the urban area and buildings being erected at a low density. The rural hinterland does not have visible/physical characteristics that make it possible to identify it through satellite imagery. It can be defined as the rural area that is under the direct land market influence of the city. This is mainly reflected in land prices, which are higher than land prices in other rural areas that have similar physical characteristics and agricultural potentialities (see Annex 2.2). Consequently, the rural hinterland to be covered by the survey could not be identified prior to the fieldwork but in the course of the study, on the basis of the recorded land transactions and land prices.<sup>27</sup>

# **3. LAND DELIVERY CHANNELS**

We identified three land delivery channels:

- The customary channel (section 3.1), where transactions are most commonly informal;

- The public channel through which allocations and sales of land are initially made by the public and parapublic authorities (section 3.2);

- The formal private channel (section 3.3) through which land and plots equipped with property title are initially sold by property development companies and purchasing cooperatives and where transactions result in notarial deeds or equivalent documentation.

As in other cities in the sub-region, non-market forms of land allocation by the state and local authorities coexist with land markets _._ This classification requires the following comments: First, it can be noted that land markets operate within and across land delivery channels. There is a _formal_ market for plots obtained through the private formal land delivery channel and for plots initially obtained through the customary channel or bought from public authorities but whose tenure was formalized so they can be sold with a transferable property title. There is also an _informal_ market for plots with a non-transferable right, for plots with a transferable right but whose transfer is not made according to legal rules, and for plots with no legal right at all.

Second, in relation to the first comment, it can be noted that legal and illegal practices, the latter greeted with a degree of tolerance or resignation, are found in both land allocations and land-market transactions. In the public channel, allocations do not always follow the procedures laid down by law and decree and beneficiaries often do not take the necessary steps to obtain a precarious title. Transactions on the secondary market for land obtained by private individuals or small property developers from the first two channels are, in most cases, informal.

Third, a variety of tenure situations can be encountered on the different land delivery channels, depending on the documentation and conferred rights. Table 3.1 below shows the three major categories of documents relating to land tenure by increasing levels of tenure security.<sup>28</sup> The “administrative documents” category refers to documents that are not considered titles, although issued by the public authorities (state representatives or _communes_ ). Precarious titles give their holders temporary rights of use but not ownership. Only holders of property titles, known here as _Titres fonciers_ , enjoy full, absolute ownership.

> 27 The map does not show a boundary between the peri-urban area and the rural hinterland which would require further work involving treatment of satellite imagery. 28 Tenure security does not only depend on the document(s) held but also on various other factors including social recognition (a household whose parcel is in a village where everyone knows it may experience a certain level of solidarity should its occupation be challenged), connections within the land administration and political powers, or land prices (as the value of land may motivate attempts to grab the land).

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