Analyzing the Benin Land Law: An alternative viewpoint of progress

International audienceEkpodessi and Nakamura recently published in Land Use Policy a paper on the 2013 Benin Land Law, which stated objective is to evaluate its effectiveness. Benin case is particularly interesting because two different contradictory land reforms have been enacted in a few years. The 2013 Land Law is merely a reform in land administration bodies. It reaffirms the focus on private ownership and aims at simplifying and reducing the costs for accessing a land title. The new agency responsible for land administration has been created and just began to deliver titles, but not all the policy tools are yet in place. It is thus too early to evaluate its effectiveness. It is useful and necessary to question the assumptions and the content of the Benin Land Law and its ability to address land issues. But the above paper suffers from several mistakes and approximations. Whatever focus is chosen, policy analysis and evaluation require relevant frames and methods