From Africa to the Asia-Pacific: LEI and MRLG representatives showcase projects in Washington D.C.

The World Bank annual conference on Land and Poverty (20-24 March) was bigger than ever in 2017, drawing a record 1,300 participants from around the world. This year’s theme was Responsible Land Governance—Towards an Evidence-Based Approach.

Tony Burns and Kate Fairlie from LEI presented on their recent project work in Ethiopia. The paper sets out core findings and policy recommendations in relation to the status of current pilots being undertaken to create the urban legal cadastre, and the way forward. The work also highlights our understanding of the governance, project management and public awareness challenges associated with registering urban land in Ethiopia. Our presentation covered key limitations to scaling up systematic adjudication and registration (SAR) in urban Ethiopia, and a case study which applied a Costing and Financing Land Administration Services (CoFLAS) model to support estimation of staffing, office needs and costs to ensure that the cadastre is adequately serviced. Work to date has shown that there is significant opportunity for offices to be self-financing.

See: “Establishing a Legal Cadastre for Good Governance in Ethiopia: Identifying Bottlenecks and Steps Toward Scale-Up” (https://tinyurl.com/n63xp3j).

John Meadows presented on our experiences and lessons learnt on the LEI-implemented and DFAT/AusAID-funded Vanuatu Land Program (previously known as the Mama Graon – Land Program) from 2010-2015.

See: “Experiences Implementing Land Reform in Vanuatu” (https://tinyurl.com/molmxmx).

During the conference, and with support from Thea Hilhorst, Tony Burns arranged a session with PS Kayandabila who was leading a group of seven officials from the Ministry of Lands Housing and Human Settlement Development in Tanzania. A range of experts with activities in Tanzania participated in the meeting. These included: Clive English, Chief of Party from the USAID-funded Land Tenure Assistance Program; Anna Locke from ODI (who designed the Land Tenure Support Program, which LEI is implementing); Frank Pichel from Cadasta; Aurélie Milledrogues from IGN International (currently working on the Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMIS) Project); Katlin Cordes from Colombia Law School; Lukasz Czerwinski from Landesa; Andy Smith, Team Leader on the Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) project in Ethiopia; Professor Stig Enemark, Aalborg University; Chris Penrose-Buckley of FCDO, and Harold Carey of USAID. Participants had a very useful experience exchange and discussion on steps that Tanzania can take to improve land administration.

This year, representatives from the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project drew particular attention to cross-sectoral partnerships for tenure security, the tenure needs of smallholder farmers and the opportunities presented by scrutinising land investment flows. MRLG representatives were active across all days of the conference, including preconference and masterclasses. The following MRLG activities from Lao PDR and Cambodia are examples of some of the sessions:

• Jean-Christophe Diepart (MRLG): Author and Presenter of “They Will Need Land! The current land tenure situation and future land allocation needs of smallholder farmers in Cambodia”. See https://tinyurl.com/m9s52kp. Jean-Christophe’s work estimated that a significant amount of additional agricultural land may be required for smallholder farmers in Cambodia up to 2030, as rural population growth is anticipated to outstrip the economic transition away from agriculture in the short term. With this in mind, he suggested a clear priority to coordinate land reform processes across the country, to minimise rent seeking and conflict, as well as to better support rural livelihoods.
• Justine Sylvester (VFI) and Phouvong Phaophongsavath (MPI): Authors/presenters of “Experiences of Agribusiness Investments in Lao PDR”. See https://tinyurl.com/l6dz3sm and https://tinyurl.com/l926scy. Their presentation – part of a discussion about whether agribusiness investment can enhance local welfare – underscored the benefits of multi-sector collaboration between and among governments, private sector and civil society organisations.
• Natalie Bugalski (IDI): Master Class session (supported by Marita Cisneros (MRLG)) on: “Follow the Money – Accountability Hub” – a MRLG-sponsored Innovation Fund (IF) project. See https://tinyurl.com/lk4zc8s and https://www.followingthemoney.org. Follow the Money is based on a project that has received MRLG funding through our IF Grant Facility over the past 18 months. Natalie ran a hands-on session with participants guided in the process of tracing investment flows to land development projects, identifying investor pressure points and developing an advocacy plan with the aim of providing support to communities impacted by harmful investment projects.

The full conference schedule can be viewed at: https://tinyurl.com/jvzeood.