Innovations institutionnelles des acteurs non-étatiques face à la crise foncière en RDC: légitimité, cohérence et durabilité

For more than a decade, non-state actors, mostly Congolese civil society organizations, international organizations and United Nations agencies have been involved in implementing alternative mechanisms to land management at local level. Their actions meet a popular demand for institutional renewal to deal with the land crisis in the DRC. These mechanisms include the introduction and systematization of writing practices in customary access to land, land mediation, land socio-therapy and local land regulation (édits fonciers). Based on empirical research conducted in 2012 and 2013 in North and South Kivu, this paper describes these institutional innovations and discusses their impact and challenges in local land disputes (1). It then shows how, while trying to respond to the “inability” of the state to respond to the popular demand of institutional renewal, these innovations contribute to changes within the customary land management framework (2). Finally, the paper analyzes the legitimacy, effectiveness and sustainability of such innovations in the context of a “post-conflict” state (3).