1 Place des Doyens - 1348 Louvain la Neuve - Belgique
Tel : (32) 10 45 17 60

The Université catholique de Louvain established in 1425, has a very strong research base with activities which include the promotion of fundamental and applied research, technology transfers, patent applications, promotion of science parks at Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels. The Institut d'Etudes du Développement (IED) was established in 1961 in the Economic Social and Political Sciences Faculty, and is aimed at teaching and post-graduate research, taking an interdisciplinary approach. Its research activities comprise both pure science and policy research for development interventions. Within IED, the research group FEED (Resource tenure, land, environment and development) has a strong focus on issues of institutional change and the local management of natural resources. Its members have field experience (both as researchers and consultants) on these issues in the Sahel and central Africa, and they have published several books and papers on issues of local institutions, land tenure policies and the local management of natural resources.

Catherine André, economist, works on institutional changes and the effects of land tenure transformations on vulnerable groups (women, migrants) in a context of intense scarcity of land and high socio-economic instability, particularly in Rwanda. She will be recruited to work on WP 1 and 2, principally in Burkina Faso.
Recent publications include:
1996, "Modes d'accès et occupation des terres dans le Nord-Ouest du Rwanda" in Mathieu, P, Laurent, P-J, Willame, J-C (eds), Démocratie, enjeux fonciers et pratiques locales en Afrique Conflits, gouvernance et turbulences Afrique de l'Ouest et Centrale, Cahiers du CEDAF, n°23-24, Bruxelles, CEDAF, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1996 · with Platteau, J-P, 1996, "Land Tenure under unbearable stress: Rwanda caught in the Malthusian trap", Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, vol 34, February, 1998
1998,"Rwanda Land: Access, Policy and Land reform", Center for Development Studies Publications, #29, 1998, 33p · 1998, "L'accès des femmes à la terre au Rwanda", Intercoopérants Agridoc Dossier: foncier rural: enjeux et perspectives, n°12, décembre 1998, pp23-25 · with Lavigne Delville, P, 1998, "Changements fonciers et dynamiques agraires: le Rwanda, 1900-1990", Lavigne Delville, P (dir), Quelles politiques foncières pour l'Afrique noire rurale? Réconcilier pratiques, légalité et légitimité, Paris, Karthala/Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, 1998

Paul Mathieu, socio-economist, UCL Professor and FNRS researcher (Belgian fund for scientific research) has studied land tenure issues in the Sahel since 1985, particularly at the interface between local practices and institutions and national policies. He has been visiting professor at the Dept of agricultural economics, Land Tenure Center in Wisconsin, and has published numerous books and consultancy reports on land tenure policies and institutions, particularly in West Africa. He will be responsible for the contribution of IED in WPs 1, 2 and 3, in Burkina Faso. He will also contribute to exchanges on WPs 1 and 3 with Côte d'Ivoire and in Mali, in the cotton zone.
Recent publications include:
E Le Bris, E Le Roy et P Mathieu (Eds), 1991, L'appropriation de la terre en Afrique Noire Outils d'analyse, de décision et de gestion foncière Paris: Editions Karthala,
Mathieu, P, PJ Laurent et JCl Willame (Eds), 1996, Démocratie, enjeux fonciers, pratiques locales en Afrique Cahiers Africains (CEDAF- L'Harmattan), n° 23-24
Chauveau, J-P and P Mathieu, 1998, Dynamiques et enjeux des conflits fonciers, in: Ph Lavigne-Delville (Ed), Quelles politiques foncières pour l'Afrique noire rurale? Paris: Karthala, pp 243- 258
Mathieu, P, à paraître, Transactions informelles et marchés fonciers émergents en Afrique in: "Politics, property and production: Understanding natural resource management in the West African Sahel" , Tor A Benjaminsen & Chr Lund (eds) Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute

Zougouri SITA, sociologist, MSc student researcher. She has worked with P. Mathieu on land tenure issues, in the framework of a project supporting cooperation between IED and the Dept of sociology at the University of Ouagadougou. In the present proposal, she will work part time in the field within the UERD team, then will work on a DEA diploma programme (Diplôme d'études approfondies) at IED-UCL (15months), then will return to the UERD, during the last year of the project. She will be focusing on southern Burkina Faso, on the interactions between indigenous people and migrants, and particularly in furthering the understanding of the consequences of these changing relations for resource tenure agreements and the means of access to common resources (WPs 1 and 2).