Property Rights & Land Titling Project, Lao PDR.

As our Phase 2 draws to a close, plans for various extensions are on the drawing board. Since our last newsletter, LEI has submitted a plan to AusAID for a small restructure of the technical assistance team. This will see all our national adviser positions extended up to the official end of AusAID’s Phase 2, in November 2008. It will also permit some additional international cadastral inputs, to help the TA team to finalise its capacity-building program.

The Project is now in its fifth year of Phase 2 and there are encouraging signs that the host organisation, the National Land Management Authority, is committed to continuing the project into the next decade. Initially they will seek an extension of Phase 2 and then a third phase! This is good news for our technical assistance team, as we are in the last eight months of our inputs. Although the Bank-funded project continues until 30 June 2009, LEI’s contract with AusAID finishes in November 2008.

LEI recently signed a contract extension for the World Bank funded Land Administration and Survey Project in Samoa, part of the WB’s broader Second Infrastructure Asset Management Project (SIAMII). The primary contract was completed in 2006, however supplementary credit has been provided to enable completion of the vertical component of the geodetic network as well as additional assistance in land registration system and land information systems integration.

Philippines-Australia Land Administration and Management Project –Phase II. A Model in Land Transaction Services and Records Management. On the 11 March 2008, AusAID representatives were accompanied by the Team Leader Ian Lloyd to the LAMP II project site in Leyte province. This visit provided the donors with a lasting impression on the commendable achievements of the project in the management and operations of the One-Stop Shop as well as in the field titling operations involving community mobilization, systematic adjudication and land surveys. After a tentative start in 2005 the OSS Management Plan was done defining the OSS vision and mission statements along with its goals, objectives, and strategies.

The Governance in Land Administration Project is in full swing. After an initial presentation of the fundamental concept during the World Bank Land Thematic Group Mini-Retreat, Tony spent a very busy week meeting with Bank staff discussing their ideas and experiences on land administration projects. Not being a typical LEI project, these face to face encounters provided a crucial stage in developing an understanding of the project needs and significantly expanding our coverage of land administration issues in a global context.

The LAMP Phase 2 Project finished the year on a high note with the reaching of the year two target for issuance of land titles, and the continued increase in formal land transactions processed through the Leyte Province One Stop Shop (OSS). In addition, the mass data capture of all land titles in the province Register of Deeds (1/4 million titles) is underway and complements the parallel data capture of all approved survey plans which was commenced earlier.

In previous newsletters we have reported on the major expansion program the TA team is supporting here. It is only ten months before the end of TA inputs for Phase 2 and yet the project is increasing in size – we have just added five provinces, taking us to 14 provinces where systematic adjudication is supported. And of course the Department of Lands must also build capacity within five additional provincial land offices to support the flow of subsequent registrations that are expected after the public education program. But that is not all … we are currently in the middle of the World Bank, AusAID and GTZ assessment of the project, where we expect the go-ahead to be given to the expansion into the remaining three provinces, commencing in a few months!

The White Paper on the Australian Government’s overseas aid program identified the need for a collaborative and demand driven Pacific land mobilisation program. The AusAID Pacific Land Program that is being developed has two objectives; (i) to survey and disseminate innovative land mobilisation practices in the Pacific and (ii) to resource innovations and improvements in land tenure arrangements.

Chris Lunnay has been involved in supporting the Government of Papua New Guinea with the development of a Concept Design Document for their National Land Development Program (NLDP). Chris undertook an initial visit to Port Moresby in early July to assess the GoPNG requirements. There was a need to link the outputs from the concept design activities into the PNG annual budget cycle, which meant that all design activities needed to be completed by early September. A concept design team was put together at very short notice and mobilisation of the team commenced on 5 August. The international team consisted of Chris Lunnay (Team Leader/Land Administration), Kevin Rainsford (IT Policy/Valuation), Norena Kavanagh (Institutional and HRD), Pamela Harris (Community Education and Customer Service) and the nationals were Oswald Tolopa (Legislation and Disputes) and Dr Lawrence Kalinoe (Customary Land).

From Public Relations To Social Mobilization: Tweaking LAMP II IEC To Fit Philippine Social Realities