Resource information
The Afghanistan land sector is plagued by a multitude of problems linked to weak governance, corruption and lack of capacity. There are competing claims to land, widespread conflicts, resultant landlessness and poverty. Other issues are limited availability of undisputed farmland, difficulties in accessing grazing lands and many disputes over pasture lands. These issues are exacerbated by conflicting land ownership systems, insecure land tenure and registration, weak land governance environment and uncertain and incomplete legal frameworks. Further, formal and informal dispute resolution mechanisms coexist with inadequate resolution of conflicts over land.
Project Description
The Afghanistan Land Administration Systems Project is being prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development and Land (MUDL) with support from The World Bank. The Development Objective of the project is (a) to support the development of the Afghanistan land administration system; and (b) to provide the population in selected areas with improved land registration services, including issuance of Title Deeds (TD) and Occupancy Certificates (OC).
The Project will comprise three components: (1) Land Policy and Institutional Strengthening; (2) Developing Technological Capacity, Information and Systems for Land Administration; and (3) Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. The project will focus on the critical building blocks required to develop a modern land administration system in the country, while allowing implementing agencies to gain experience in land survey, registration and other related activities in Kabul, Herat and six other cities. Building upon the work led by UN Habitat, the project will also support the issuance of land Occupancy Certificates (OCs) and Title Deeds population in Urban Informal Settlements. The transition from deed to title registration will continue as well as the development of national capacity for land survey and valuation. Subsequently, the Land Information System (LIS) would be made fully interoperable with other relevant information systems in the country, leading in time to the eventual establishment of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
Cadastral surveying and land registration will focus on selected urban districts of Kabul and Herat, with an expected target of 100,000 parcels. Issuance of OCs and TDs in informal settlements will focus on 8 cities – Kabul, Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazhar e Sharif, Nili, Farah and Bamyan, with an expected target of 150,000 parcels.