LEI co-implements Mekong Regional Land Governance Project

On 13 March 2015, the Governments of Switzerland (through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)) and Lao PDR signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement to launch the Mekong Regional Land Governance (MRLG) Project in Lao PDR. This SDC initiative with German co-funding (starting in April 2015 through GIZ), is implemented by Land Equity International and professionals for Fair Development (Gret). The Project will support land tenure security for family farmers, especially women and ethnic groups by progressively improving land and natural resource governance in policy and practice in the Mekong Region.

The collection of land rent represents an important source of revenue for the Government of Vanuatu (GoV). The Vanuatu Land program is assisting the GoV with this task through the creation of valuation rolls for properties in the country’s two urban centres, Port Vila and Luganville.

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.

The Modernisation of Land Services and Institutional Strengthening Project, a component of the 2007 Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Government of Lesotho ‘Compact,’ was executed by LEI over a 40 month period – October 2009 and February 2013. LEI thank all our counterparts who contributed to making this project a success and wish the staff of the LAA all the best for a successful future.

The United Nations 2009 Global Report on Disaster Risk Reduction ranked the Philippines as the third most-disaster-prone country globally, as witnessed during two typhoons in 2009 which caused $1 billion of infrastructure damage in Metro Manila and loss of life.

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.