Consultancy and Technical Assistance to the MCA (Mozambique) Land Component

2009 - 2013

Multi-million pound project

Millennium Challenge Account (Mozambique)

800 staff months of expertise in land policy, administration, cadastre and registration, land use; capacity and institution building; training and public awareness

Land administration in Mozambique is seriously under-resourced, and needs new, modern systems in place to be able to deal with the increasing demands being placed upon it. The principal aim of the support to the four provinces is to improve the efficiency of the land rights management and registration system. Analysis and assessment of existing systems within the context of ongoing policy discussions at central level were undertaken. This provided a basis for developing a plan improve this system and provide better access to land-related services for all land users.

The Land Component of the Millennium Challenge Account (Mozambique) Compact comprises three main pillars of support:

1. Support for a National Process of policy review and monitoring, including the development of a long-term strategy for land administration and activities related to public awareness-building and the strengthening of civil society institutions.
2. Capacity Building in land administration institutions, including the development of a permanent educational capacity at national level; training activities for cadastral personnel; and direct support to four provincial offices and twelve district offices of the Department for Natural Resources as well as support to the cadastral offices of eight municipalities.
3. The facilitation of access to land in particular sites within the target provinces, including mass regularisation and titling activities in selected urban, peri-urban and rural areas; the compilation of land use inventories in some areas; the creation of spatial framework data for cadastral purposes and independent support to community groups and others to enable them to register acquired land rights.

• Policy and legal reviews with support to legal drafting and regulatory development.
• Land Administration – regulations and procedural development, service delivery and public outreach (publicity and advisory) programmes.
• Development of an improved land tax system.
• Assessment and improvement of the cadastre in rural, urban and peri-urban settings, including capacity building that will allow the systematic regularisation of land tenure in selected areas and improved, more flexible methods for delimitation and demarcation.
• Assessing the best way to manage and facilitate the transfer of rights between third parties, and the registration of transfers in cadastral records.
• Development of baseline information, including land resources; land use inventory; planning methodologies; and current spatial distribution of tenure and land occupation.
• Development of land use plans as an outcome of improved delimitation and demarcation of existing rights; the identification of areas available for investment; and the effective registration and recording of a wide range of land and related information.
• Facilitating access to land in three priority districts in each province, involving systematic land tenure regularisation; local community rights registration; and improvements to current procedures used for the community-investor consultations.
• Design and implementation of a Land Information Management System (LIMS).
• Capacity building in all of these functions for relevant central, provincial and district institutions, focusing on human resource development; changes in work procedures; reforming and improving the work place and organisational and development issues.