Pathways for collaboration on land governance in the Mekong

The Mekong Region Land Governance Project, funded by SDC and implemented by LEI and Gret, is in full swing heading into the last quarter of the Inception Phase (Year 1). During the past 9 months our team across the four countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) has been working strategically to bring reform actors from civil society, private sector, government and academia into discussions on developing effective pathways for collaboration on land governance. We are currently reviewing learning and advocacy initiatives that have been developed by multi-stakeholder focus groups in support of the promotion of improve tenure security for small holder farmer, fisheries and forestry. The topics where the demand for support has been most readily requested across the 4 countries include: land dispute mechanisms, private sector engagement, customary and communal rights and recognition, and evidence based research for policy dialogue.

Tony Burns, Kate Fairlie and Brian Garcia (Mekong Region Land Governance project) will all be at this year’s World Bank Land and Poverty Conference from 23rd – 27th March.

It is opportune timing that in 2014 in the ‘International Year of Family Farming’, LEI with our partner GRET, will be commencing in March, a regional program designed and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC): the Mekong Region Land Governance Project. As momentum grows globally on the topic of land tenure and food security for family farmers, there is recognition that land governance in Asia, and the Mekong in particular, requires priority attention. The lands and livelihoods of family farmers in the Mekong are under increasing threat from foreign direct investment, resource scarcity, population growth and weak land governance.

After extensive research, review and consultation, a revised Strategic Plan for the Implementation of Land Laws (SPILL) (2013) as a roadmap for the development of the Land Sector in mainland Tanzania has been developed under the guidance of a team of consultants from LEI. Working closely with the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD), the 2005 strategic plan was reviewed and updated in the light of the commitment of national and land sector leadership to improving land service delivery and transparency.

Tangible progress has been made over the last 12 months on the Vanuatu Land Program, largely as a result of the support provided by the new Minister for Lands. A recent re-focusing of activities means the project can now better support land administration initiatives identified by the Minister of Lands as being critical to the development of Vanuatu. The Program will focus on supporting land administration activities which will also support future infrastructure development around Port Vila and Luganville as well as other economic development initiatives across the country through the provision of improved land administration practice and procedures in the areas of land registration, surveying and valuation.

LEI’s Managing Director recently visited Romania as an adviser on the World Bank Implementation Support Mission of the CESAR Project and it looked more like a holiday destination?! Hidden among the beauty of Saxon fortified churches, treasured villages, and lush green pastures of Romania, lies the CESAR project with cadastral, public awareness and notary public issues hindering the completion of 0.7 million hectares of systematic registration.

LEI are currently working with the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MNRE) in Samoa through World Bank funding to implement the 2009 Unit Titles Act. The Unit Titles Act, the first of its kind in Samoa, was introduced to promote investment in property development in Samoa. LEI are providing a small consultancy team to establish clear and comprehensive administrative mechanisms and regulations to support the enacted legislation.

There is increasing awareness that land reforms are not gender-neutral interventions. Issues around gender and land are complex. In Vanuatu access to resources is governed by both written and customary laws. In instances when conflicts exist between traditional norms and national laws, as is often the case when women’s’ rights are considered, local norms generally prevail and are enforced by community members. Research in Vanuatu shows that women are largely absent from both the formal and customary processes and women assert to know little about decision-making over land.

The Mama Graon Vanuatu Land Program, led by Program Director Chris Lunnay, made tremendous advances in strengthening customary governance in 2011. Actively working through program partners has been one of the key modalities towards effective progress.

On the 17th June LEI successfully completed the ‘design phase’ of the Systematic Land Regularisation and Improvement of Rural Land Allocation processes project. This component of the MCA-Lesotho Land Administration Reform Project (LARP) focused on the regularization of urban and peri-urban areas of Maseru, Lesotho’s capital city. On completion of activities the project team regularized over 4000 urban parcels (i.e. final adjudication and cadastral survey of each parcel) and over 5,300 rural land allocation parcels in Maseru and Berea Districts.