Third Phase Community Based Rural Development Project

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The development objective of the Third Phase (APL 3) of the Community Based Rural Development Project and Sustainable Land and forestry Management Project for Burkina Faso is to enhance the capacity of rural communities and decentralized institutions for the implementation of local development plans that promote sustainable land and natural resources management and productive investments at commune level. There are five components to the project. The first component is strengthening capacity for decentralized rural development. The first component of Phase 3 aims to enhance local governance and improve local development planning and management by local governments at all levels. It will build on achievements from earlier phases by deepening technical and capacity building for local stakeholders. Under the project, local governments will develop new communal development plans, prepare annual investment plans, and identify local development projects in strategic, holistic and multi-sectoral manner in collaboration with local communities, local communes, and deconcentrated technical services, the private sector and civil society. The second component is implementation of the rural land legislation and enhancement of local dispute resolution mechanisms. With the legal and regulatory framework for land tenure now in place from earlier phases, the component seeks to support the implementation of the land tenure policy and law. This will be pursued through: (i) the establishment and operation of rural land tenure services at commune level, village land tenure commissions, and village conciliation commissions; (ii) land titling operations; (iii) strengthening of capacity of local actors and rural communes to carry out land titling processes efficiently and transparently; and iv) dissemination of the law to increase men, women and illiterates' awareness about their rights, and pave the way for a more gender-balanced access to land. The third component is local and regional investments. Component three will support communes in promoting socio-economic growth and sustainable development through the financing of strategic local development investments, for all the 302 rural communes in the 13 regions. The fourth component is sustainable land and forestry management. This component aims to support restoration and protection of natural resources, forest and biodiversity in the larger ecosystem landscape related to agricultural expansion. It will include natural resource management and protection of select ecosystems beyond the community-based investments of third component and capacity building of first component above. The fifth component is project management, monitoring and evaluation. This component's objective is to ensure that the project components and activities will be effectively carried out, coordinated, monitored and regularly evaluated.