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Housing, Land and Property (HLP) issues: root cause, consequence and condition for durable solutions to forced displacement
In 2024, 2/5 protection incidents monthly signaled by communities involved violations of the right to property. At the same time, 2/5 respondents identified HLP as a cause of intercommunity tensions. Taking the form of extortion, theft, looting, destruction, seizure and confiscation of personal property, conflict-induced HLP issues represent one of the most prevalent forms of violence threatening civilians in the Central Sahel. Often forcing families to flee their homes and countries of origin, HLP-related risks and incidents further worsen during and after displacement. Data shows that, in 2024, forcibly displaced persons expressed twice higher shelter needs than host communities. In the meantime, half of the surveyed displaced and host communities identified construction or rehabilitation as their main housing need, highlighting the structural dimension of HLP issues in the Central Sahel.
Adding extra pressure on the provision of services, access to resources and employment in the (semi-urban) areas of arrival, forced displacement exacerbates pre-existing HLP challenges and needs. This increases tenure insecurity and risks of forced evictions in areas where access to land is regulated by competing customary and legal norms. At the nexus between land rights, emergency needs and infrastructural gaps, land management is a critical prerequisite to any impactful assistance. For instance, installing shelters or implementing agricultural income-generating activities would, first and foremost, require a secure and durable access to land. Beyond such challenges, data shows that donations have consistently remained the main modality to access to land (65%) in the Central Sahel. Furthermore, surveyed communities cited HLP as a positive factor influencing their willingness to voluntarily return and/or integrate local/host communities. Located at the nexus between land rights, emergency shelter needs, infrastructural gaps, fit-for-purpose land administration and peacebuilding; HLP issues require enhanced cooperation, complementarity and coherence between the actions of humanitarian, development and peace practitioners.