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We envision a world in which land governance systems, both formal and informal, are effective, accessible, and responsive for all. This is possible when land tenure and property rights are recognized as critical development issues and when the United States Government and its development partners demonstrate consistent attention and a firm commitment to supporting coordinated policies and programs that clarify and strengthen the land tenure and property rights of all members of society, enabling broad-based economic growth, gender equality, reduced incidence of conflicts, enhanced food security, improved resilience to climate change, and effective natural resource management.
Mission Statement
The USAID Land Tenure and Resource Management (LTRM) Office will lead the United States Government to realize international efforts—in accordance with the U.S. Government’s Land Governance Policy—to clarify and strengthen the land tenure and property rights of all members of society—individuals, groups and legal entities, including those individuals and groups that are often marginalized, and the LTRM Office will help ensure that land governance systems are effective, accessible, and responsive. We will achieve this by testing innovative models for securing land tenure and property rights and disseminating best practice as it relates to securing land rights and improving resource governance within the USG and our development partners.
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Displaying 416 - 420 of 440Mobile Application to Secure Tenure: Tanzania
General
Under the Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) project, USAID is piloting a project to crowd-source land rights information at the village level in Tanzania using mobile technology. The Mobile Application to Secure Tenure (MAST) project (formerly the Mobile Technology Pilot) supports identified needs of the Government of Tanzania to improve land governance and lower the cost of land certification programs. The pilot tests a new, participatory approach for capturing land rights information, as well as a lower cost methodology for quickly building a reliable database of land rights claims. MAST may be particularly helpful to the Government of Tanzania as an alternative to more traditional, and more costly, land administration interventions. Formal land administration systems (LAS) in developing countries have generally not met the need for accessible, cost effective, and appropriately nuanced land registration. As a result, large majorities of rural dwellers (and many urban dwellers) live without formalized rights to land and other valuable resources. This lack of documentation may constrain the ability of individuals and communities to leverage their land-based assets for improved economic outcomes, to limit environmental harms, and to engage in collaborative contracting with prospective investors in land that leads to equitable sharing of benefits. Given rising concerns related to inappropriate and potentially harmful transfers of land rights from vulnerable populations to domestic and foreign investors, many tenure experts view the need to document existing rights in a participatory and efficient way as a high priority. Through the Mobile Application to Secure Tenure project, USAID will test the hypothesis that under certain conditions mobile technologies that support crowd-sourced information about a variety of land rights/tenure claims can be linked to databases that government can use to issue formal documentation in a more cost effective and time sensitive manner or serve as an independent registry of claims, thus, increasing land tenure security. The pilot approach combines relatively inexpensive and readily available mobile technologies (e.g., GPS/GNSS-enabled smart phones and tablets) coupled with broadly participatory crowd-sourced data collection methods in rural and underserved settings. The approach will train civil society representatives and/or local community members to use technology developed for this purpose to gather land rights and tenure information. Source code for the MAST Android application is now available on GitHub.
Economic Prosperity Initiative: Georgia
General
USAID’s Economic Prosperity Initiative (EPI) supported a working group to develop the Land Registration Strategy and Action Plan. The draft strategy addresses the need to establish policies that deal effectively with all types of owners who received land as part of the original land privatization process. The action plan defines the program governance structure, sets the implementation timeline and phases, identifies necessary human and technical resources and outlines the overall budget (about $34 million) to complete the land reform/registration. The leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture has already reviewed the drafts. As a next step, the Minister of Agriculture plans to make a presentation of the action plan to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development and Minister of Justice in late September, and then to the Prime Minister for final approval. During the upcoming quarter, EPI will conduct additional outreach with the donor community, where EPI already identified preliminary resources by the World Bank and the EU to contribute toward the land reform initiative. EPI will also support the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct outreach with NGOs.
Ethiopia Land Administration Program
General
Ethiopia Land Administration Program (ELAP) worked to strengthen Ethiopia’s land administration system, promote tenure security, increase public awareness of land rights, and strengthen the capacity of federal and regional land administration agencies. Objectives Improve the legal framework related to land use rights at the national and regional levels. Advance public awareness of land use rights. Promote investments by smallholders, medium and larger-scale investors in productivity enhancing technologies and activities. Strengthening the capacity of federal and regional land administration agencies to deliver secure land use rights and land administration services. Outcomes Helped regional governments in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray select high-potential areas for certifying land use rights of families, individuals and legal entities to facilitate beneficial land transactions. A total of 52,300 parcels of land belonging to 40,880 households were surveyed and registered with PIMs produced and high resolution satellite imagery for cadastral surveying field tested. Supported Somali and Afar regional governments with drafting their Land Use and Administration Policy/Proclamations, with submission to regional cabinet for approval, thereby expanding the legal work under a previous USAID project in Ethiopia’s pastoral regions. Participated in national consultative meetings including: the Ethiopia Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management; and Enhancing Rural Land Use Rights Transactions and Facilitating Access to Rural Land for Commercial Investment. Provided technical assistance to the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture in drafting white papers: Review of Land Administration and Land Use Planning Policy and Programs in Ethiopia; Ethiopia Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management; and a concept note on Ethiopia Land Administration and Land Use Planning Project.
Kenya Transition Initiative
General
Kenya’s National Accord and Reconciliation Act of 2008 provided a framework for ending the cycle of political violence that erupted again after the 2007 elections and sought to address the causes of the crisis with a schedule of political and development reforms. Although USAID’s Office of Transition Iniaitives’ work in Kenya has touched on all the Agenda items, work through the Kenya Transition Initiative (KTI) aligned the most with the political and societal reforms outlined in Agenda Item 4, which involved addressing long-term issues. National Accord Agenda Items: Take immediate action to stop violence and restore fundamental rights and liberties Take immediate measures to address the humanitarian crisis, and promote healing and reconciliation Determine how to overcome the political crisis Address long-term issues, including constitutional and institutional reforms, land reforms, poverty and inequalities, youth unemployment, national cohesion, and transparency and accountability Objectives Research grants to inform KTI and civil society Technical guidance through USAID/Kenya, the US Embassy, and the Development Partners Group on Lands (DPGL) Support to build the capacity of local communities to address local land issues Outcomes Helped Provincial Administrations in the North Rift Valley, South Rift Valley, Central, South Nyanza, Eastern, Upper Eastern and Samburu North provinces to sponsor a series of local Peace Forums in targeted areas to bolster support among professional elites for the new Constitution and to mobilize community involvement in the referendum. Provided the Eldoret Chief Magistrates Court with case management software and training in a new e-registry system, which included indexing of archived files, expanding file storage space and training magistrates in the use of a new transcription system in order to maintain their efficiency gains. The work in the Eldoret Chief Magistrates Court initiated management changes and increased efficiency in the Kapsabet Court in Nandi Improved and modernized land registries in the Nakuru, Kitale, Kilifi, Kajiado, and Thika regions.
Land Administration to Nurture Development: Ethiopia
General
The Ethiopia Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project works at the national and regional levels of government to further improve the legal and regulatory framework related to land tenure and property rights and thereby support the Government of Ethiopia’s and USAID’s goal of increasing economic growth, particularly agricultural sector growth, improving rural resiliency, and improving governance. LAND uses a variety of activities to strengthen capacity of land administration and land use institutions. In addition, LAND supports activities focusing on securing rights to community lands, strengthening capacity of community members to manage their natural resource assets. The LAND project builds on two previous USAID/Ethiopia projects – Ethiopia Strengthening Land Tenure and Administration Program (ELTAP) (2005-2008) and the Ethiopia Land Administration Program (ELAP) (2008-2012) – to improve land governance and land administration and strengthen land tenure rights in Ethiopia and thereby promote economic growth, increase agricultural productivity, reduce conflict and resource degradation and improve women’s rights to control and manage assets. Objectives Support national and regional governments to improve land administration and land use laws based on research findings and public needs Improve Government of Ethiopia’s land administration institutions efficiency in land use rights certification and transactions through trainings provided by higher educational institutions Encourage pastoral regions to introduce certification of communal land use rights and management of natural resources Expected Outcomes Appropriate land laws are prepared and enforced Regions are able to survey, map, register and certify rural parcels Linkages are created between higher education and land administration institutions Communal land use certifications are practiced in pastoral areas