The evaluation of the Save our Neighborhood (SNQ) program judged the servicing of the neighborhoods completely inadequate. According to the _Mairie du District de Bamako_ (2010), ‘the speculation that characterized the operation prevented the people who had been evicted from taking full advantage of the resettlement areas. Excluded from the resettlement process, these people simply re-established their precarious lifestyle elsewhere’.

Since 2002, _communes_ can allocate plots of land with precarious titles (CRUH and CUH). This requires an initial transfer from land registered in the name of the state according to the needs of _communes_ as assessed in their development plan submitted for approval to the Council of Ministers.<sup>39</sup> In practice, land is allocated by public authorities, either for resettlement projects following a settlement upgrading and tenure regularization project, or within the framework of a public land development/subdivision project ( _lotissement_ ). We describe these projects below.

# i) Settlement upgrading and tenure regularization project.

The rules for these operations<sup>40</sup> are often ignored. Households entitled to _in situ_ regularization who receive an administrative document ( _lettre de notification_ ) can be granted a precarious title provided they could pay the local development taxes for infrastructure and services ( _frais de viabilisation et d’édilité_ ) and submit many other documents. In practice, as in the 1990s, many beneficiary households do not obtain a precarious title because they cannot pay or because they sell the plot after receiving the _lettre de notification_ . Households not entitled to _in situ_ regularization must be resettled. Those who do not have any documents are at risk of not having access to any plot, either _in situ_ or in resettlement developments. Since there is not much more land available for resettlement within Bamako District, households are being resettled in peri-urban rural _communes._<sup>41</sup> It frequently happens that land allocation benefits households that are not entitled to it. It is a major source of revenue for mayors.

It is a widespread practice in any resettlement scheme in the urban or peri-urban area of Bamako to make more land plots available than are needed to resettle evicted households. The official reasons put forward by mayors or _Préfets_ is that they must take the opportunity of resettlement projects to provide land for housing the urban poor. However, informants indicate that the main purpose is to give the mayors plots of land for housing that they can allocate to their clientele.

# ii) _Lotissements_

Formal land subdivisions, both public and private, are also subject to very specific rules<sup>42</sup> such as, for example, the requirement for _communes_ to take a census of households occupying the area and arrange for compensation. In practice, the rules are often ignored. Some _communes_ engage in _lotissement_ without authorization from the central state and without consulting village headmen, plots are sold with no infrastructure or services and no account is taken of public spaces, even when shown in an urban planning document.<sup>43, 44</sup> The procedures by which the beneficiary of a plot in a land subdivision can obtain a TF are represented in Annex 3.3.

> 39 The first master plan/urban planning document ( _Schéma Directeur d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme_ - SDU) for Bamako was adopted in 1981.  The third revised version dates from 2004 but has not been approved. Some peri-urban _communes_ have prepared planning documents, some of which have been approved by the Council of Ministers (joint SDU for Moribabougou and N’Gabakoro Droit in 2008; joint SDU for Dialakorodji and Safo in 2010; SDU for Mountougoula and Sanankoroba in 2010).

> 40 See decree of March 9, 2005.

> 41 In this way, for example, resettlement areas for _communes_ I and II were planned in N’Gabacoro and, for _commune_ V, in Kalabancoro.

> 42 Decree of March 9, 2005.

> 43 Carrying out a _lotissement_ is a costly operation which requires the assistance of surveyors and various enterprises, so _communes_ are tempted to reward the latter by giving them plots in advance.

> 44 For an example of the difficulties faced by a _commune_ to implement a _lotissement_ , see Djiré (2004) in the case of the _commune_ of Sanankoroba.

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