Building Resilience to Climate Change

The United Nations 2009 Global Report on Disaster Risk Reduction ranked the Philippines as the third most-disaster-prone country globally, as witnessed during two typhoons in 2009 which caused $1 billion of infrastructure damage in Metro Manila and loss of life.

LEI’s Managing Director recently visited Romania as an adviser on the World Bank Implementation Support Mission of the CESAR Project and it looked more like a holiday destination?! Hidden among the beauty of Saxon fortified churches, treasured villages, and lush green pastures of Romania, lies the CESAR project with cadastral, public awareness and notary public issues hindering the completion of 0.7 million hectares of systematic registration.

There is increasing awareness that land reforms are not gender-neutral interventions. Issues around gender and land are complex. In Vanuatu access to resources is governed by both written and customary laws. In instances when conflicts exist between traditional norms and national laws, as is often the case when women’s’ rights are considered, local norms generally prevail and are enforced by community members. Research in Vanuatu shows that women are largely absent from both the formal and customary processes and women assert to know little about decision-making over land.

The Mama Graon Vanuatu Land Program, led by Program Director Chris Lunnay, made tremendous advances in strengthening customary governance in 2011. Actively working through program partners has been one of the key modalities towards effective progress.

More than 1.5 billion people live in Asian cities and by 2030 at current urban growth rates, an additional 1.2 billion people will be living in cities in the region. The region is facing growing problems of access to safe drinking water, rapid population growth, reduced access to land for growing food, and climate change related problems of natural disasters and rising sea levels.

On the 17th June LEI successfully completed the ‘design phase’ of the Systematic Land Regularisation and Improvement of Rural Land Allocation processes project. This component of the MCA-Lesotho Land Administration Reform Project (LARP) focused on the regularization of urban and peri-urban areas of Maseru, Lesotho’s capital city. On completion of activities the project team regularized over 4000 urban parcels (i.e. final adjudication and cadastral survey of each parcel) and over 5,300 rural land allocation parcels in Maseru and Berea Districts.

After initial preparatory work involving intensive consultation the key Program steering committee has been formed and has established clear functions that will assist with seeing the Program progress. In line with Land Equity International’s commitment to the principles of aid effectiveness our approach to the Program is to maximise local partnerships and encourage national appointments to our adviser team. We strongly believe the Program should be nationally driven and led and as such we are very pleased to announce the recent appointment of Mr Russell Nari to the position of Deputy Program Director/Customary Land Adviser. Mr Nari, a ni-Vanuatu, was previously the Director General of Justice and a previous Director General of Lands. He brings a strong level of national ownership and invaluable cultural and technical understanding to program implementation.

LEI Contributes to FAO Development of Guidelines on Gender-Equitable Governance of Land Tenure. In May, Dr Kate Dalrymple participated in the FAO Workshop on Gender-Equitable Governance of Land Tenure at FAO Headquarters, Rome. This was part of a series of workshops that are contributing to the development of complimentary and practical Technical Guidelines for the broader Voluntary guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources (VG), due out later in 2011. This successful workshop brought together a variety of technicians and professionals from around the globe working in different fields of land governance. Represented by Government agencies, NGOs, private sector, FAO and affiliated organisations, the group compiled through practical experience, innovative gender equitable solutions for tackling the issues of land governance.

LEI are leading Land Governance & Land Program Research in Africa & Europe. LEI are undertaking a comparative review of various land reform activities in Sub-Saharan Africa for FAO and the World Bank. The review considers alternative technologies and evaluates the impact of land reform programs including the impact of land regularization and land use planning. We are specifically looking at land issues involved in informal settlements and initiatives to reverse urban informality.

LEI are involved with land sector activities in Lesotho managing 2 large projects under the MCA-Lesotho Compact, Private Sector Development Land Component (Land Administration Reform Project, LARP).