Land Titling Project Comes to an End in Lao PDR

As LEI’s successful and committed team of national and international staff close project operations of Phase 2 on the Lao Land Titling Project we reflect on the impact of over 15 years of donor assistance.

Hello, my name is Mark Williams. For those that don’t know me I am the latest in a long line of Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) volunteering on the Lao Land Titling Project II. I am a GIS/IT Officer and within my 8 months here in Laos, have been working on a variety of projects with a range of organisations. These include the analysis of Land Use change over 10 years within Vientiane for a GTZ funded research project, conduct training on quality checking the digital cadastre as well as training the trainers at the Polytechnic College in GIS so they will be able to teach it as part of a module within their new Land Administration Degree.

This short article is written to raise awareness of the ever present theme of gender and the making of inroads towards positive social development by Kate Dalrymple. After a pleasing response to the Laos Community Education and Gender Lessons presentation made at the Knowledge Sharing Workshop, I’m following up with some general discussion for practitioners in our industry to consider. Conveniently, this coincides with the Global Land Tools Network (www.gltn.net) forum discussion on gender responsive land tools (Sept 8 – Oct 15, 2008) which I encourage you all to visit.

LEI has had some good news over the last quarter with AusAID advising of their intention to extend the contract for two years to complete the 5 year commitment of development assistance to LAMPII. This will see LAMP II continue till January 2011. Over the past few months there has been significant progress in the valuation and Innovation Support Fund components of LAMP II as well as good movement on all four reform Bills in the Congress especially the RESA valuation professionalization Bill and the Free Patent Amendment to the Public Land Act. Speaker of the House, Hon. Prospero Nograles at the opening of the second regular session on 28 July stated that the Free Patent Bill is being fast tracked “to convert more of our land resources to productive capital”. The amendments would allow urban lands to be titled at low cost and suitable for mass titling. A major policy proposal for a revision of the land related taxes was completed and the Department of Finance created a inter office committee to study the report and make recommendations.

Since our last newsletter, AusAID has approved the restructure of the technical assistance team, which will see all our national adviser positions extended up to the official end of AusAID’s Phase 2, in November 2008. It also permits some additional international cadastral inputs, to help the TA team to finalise its capacity-building program. AusAID has also approved the proposal for an extension of technical assistance to June 2009, to correspond with the official end of the World Bank Phase 2. This will permit in additional infusion of TA resources to help NLMA and the Department of Lands continue the expansion of land titling into the final three provinces and to plan for the expanded use of computer applications in systematic adjudication teams and land offices. In this regard, a significant recent development is the establishment of a Land Records Management Technical Working Group, which will review the 10- year computerisation plan and ensure a rational computerisation strategy across the departments of NLMA.

LEI is supporting the US company ARD in implementing a USAID-funded project aimed at addressing property rights and land tenure issues in Timor Leste. Land tenure has experienced a rather tenuous history in Timor-Leste. Formerly known as East Timor, the country was occupied as a colony of Portugal for some 450 years, experienced three years of Japanese occupation during WW2, some twenty five years of Indonesian occupation following its first attempts at independence late 1975, through to formal acceptance of independence in May 2002. During each of these occupations, some property rights were granted. However, since independence, no property rights have been issued and no former rights are recognised, as no land law under the new Government yet exist.

For the last two and a half years I have been based in Leyte with the LAMP2 operations as the International Adviser for Systematic Adjudication. Over these years there has been some tremendous achievements made.

As our Phase 2 draws to a close, plans for various extensions are on the drawing board. Since our last newsletter, LEI has submitted a plan to AusAID for a small restructure of the technical assistance team. This will see all our national adviser positions extended up to the official end of AusAID’s Phase 2, in November 2008. It will also permit some additional international cadastral inputs, to help the TA team to finalise its capacity-building program.

The Project is now in its fifth year of Phase 2 and there are encouraging signs that the host organisation, the National Land Management Authority, is committed to continuing the project into the next decade. Initially they will seek an extension of Phase 2 and then a third phase! This is good news for our technical assistance team, as we are in the last eight months of our inputs. Although the Bank-funded project continues until 30 June 2009, LEI’s contract with AusAID finishes in November 2008.

LEI recently signed a contract extension for the World Bank funded Land Administration and Survey Project in Samoa, part of the WB’s broader Second Infrastructure Asset Management Project (SIAMII). The primary contract was completed in 2006, however supplementary credit has been provided to enable completion of the vertical component of the geodetic network as well as additional assistance in land registration system and land information systems integration.