300 participants successfully debate land governance at the first Mekong Regional Land Forum

From 21-23 June 2016, Hanoi, Viet Nam hosted the first international land governance event in the Mekong Region: the Regional Land Forum. This highly participatory and regionally representative forum enabled debates and discussions to occur about customary land rights and large scale land concessions in the context of ASEAN Economic Integration. This unique opportunity allowed a real sense of engagement to develop and grow during the event between multi-stakeholder groups of participants. This was largely a result of quality presentations being held and the audience being receptive and responsive throughout the forum.

LEI continues to provide technical assistance to the DeSINLISI project in Uganda. This World Bank-funded project is currently being implemented by IGN FI of France. Our sub-contracting arrangement includes the provision of technical assistance in the areas of land administration and valuation.

In December 2015, LEI finalised contract negotiations to the value of USD4.2m for the second project in a series of sub-activities under the MCA-I Participatory Land Use Planning Activity (PLUP). The PLUP is one of four activities making up the Green Prosperity Project (see http://gp.mca-indonesia.go.id/en/). The PLUP activity focuses on investments in administrative boundary setting, updating and integrating land use inventories and enhancing spatial plans at the district and provincial levels.

LEI has been working in Tanzania since 2005 under various contracts to the World Bank to support land reform activities under the Private Sector Competitiveness Project (PSCP) and, more recently, to support the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania (GoT) to prepare the Strategic Plan for Implementation of Land Laws (SPILL, 2013). Our experiences in Tanzania have exposed us to development pressures on land – particularly in rural areas – resulting from rapid population growth, growing demand for agricultural commodities, and increasing government and private sector demand for access to land for large scale agricultural investment. Most recently, LEI has established a team of advisers to support the major Land Tenure Support Programme (LTSP).

From the first quarter of 2016, LEI will provide technical support to DAI on this project. The project is part of the FTF initiative which sits under a five-year umbrella contract referred to as: Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR).

The delegation was headed by the Hon. Minister Daudi Migereko and Permanent Secretary Musoke Gabindadde who were accompanied by Nadege Orlova of IGN International of France – the company responsible for the World Bank-funded Design Supply and Implementation of a Land Information System project.

Towards the end of 2015, LEI completed the five-year DFAT-funded Vanuatu Land Program. The Program was a long-term commitment by the Government of Vanuatu (GoV) in land sector reform initiatives that aimed to support the Land Sector Framework through improved decision making, making land transactions more transparent, and improving land management procedures and practices (and in doing so, minimise the potential for conflict over land matters).

On 13 March 2015, Vanuatu was hit by severe Cyclone Pam. The Category 5 storm caused considerable damage to infrastructure and livelihoods across the island group – particularly the southern islands. Despite the wide-spread destruction and some delays during the initial clean-up (to clear roads and reinstate services, such as power and telecommunications), the Vanuatu Land Program was able to continue on with its planned activities of:

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.