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This paper discusses the role of FAO support to the Government of Mozambiques Land Commission since 1995, through three consecutive projects. While each has had a relatively short duration, all have been planned and implemented within a single conceptual framework with a much longer time horizon. This has allowed a difficult and complex issue to be progressively developed and nurtured within a realistic time scale, while building up a strong sense of national ownership of the process.
The paper argues that FAO support has played a pivotal role in opening up debate to new ideas, at a time when thinking about land issues needed a radical stimulus. It was also instrumental in bringing non-agricultural government departments, national and international non-governmental organizations and academic specialists fully into the legislative and implementation programmes. The result of this combined effort is an innovative and progressive policy and legislative framework supported by a wide range of groups that often have conflicting interests when it comes to land access and use.
