Strengthening Institutional Capacity for service delivery - Burundi Team Marco Larizza (WB – TTL) Sadia Afolabi (WB) Philip Verwimp (Université Libre de Bruxelles) Eric Mvukiyehe ( WB – DIME) Dan Rogger (WB – DIME)

Country Background 2 ed most densely populated country in Africa Very low urbanisation rate 80% of the population lives from agriculture History of civil war Land conflict prime cause of intra-family and intra-village disputes and litigation Beefing up of tax collection capacity Low expectations in terms of service delivery

Program summary Using improvements in the quality of service delivery as a way to strengthen local institutional capacity and trust in government Target land registration and certification to increase land rights, reduce land conflict and increase agricultural productivity Increase local capacity for tax collection Improve analytical capacity of National Statistics Office Learn lesson from 22 pilot communes, unfortunately without robust evaluation design

Land titling process inventoryregistrationcertificate

Research Questions How does land titling affect village-level and family-level conflicts ? What is the most appropriate way to engage communities/citizens in a land titling program ? Can a land titling program increase trust in government and increase state legitimacy ? What is the best way for a commune to raise money for a land titling program?

Evaluation Design Randomisation at two levels: in 40 of the 80 remaining communes and within those communes in X number of eligible villages (sous- collines) Two treatment arms: - X/3 will receive andawareness program on the importance of land titling, and individual families have to come to the office to pay for their certificate Here we can vary the amount of money we ask for the certificate - X/3 will be ask to raise a specific sum of money in order for everyone in the village to receive their certificate - X/3 will serve as the control group Before and after household survey in each of the three groups

Challenges and pitfalls Politisization Capacity at communal level Sensitivity of certain groups to tax collection Gender element in land registration Capturing of public land by local elite