The Feed the Future Tajikistan Land Market Development Activity (LMDA) promotes market based principles for land tenure and aims to establish a functional agricultural land market that allows for the transferability of land use rights (such as buying, selling, or leasing land use rights), to ensure a simple and transparent land registration process, while promoting gender equality in rights and processes. The project focuses on land policy and legal development, private sector development, simplification of land registration procedures, and expansion of knowledge surrounding land use rights to rural governmental administrations and citizens, especially female landholders.
Highlights during this reporting period include the approval for establishing the IMWG on June 6, 2017, by the Head of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan (EOP), Ms. Ozoda Rahmon. The IMWG works with the project to develop draft regulations related to land policy development; and the Government of Tajikistan’s (GOTJ) approval of the draft amendment to the Law on State Registration, which was developed with project support and includes simplifications to the registration procedure for immovable property, on June 23, 2017, after which it was sent to the Parliament for final approval.
The project’s third quarter focused on engaging and collaborating with the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Land Policy (IMWG) on promotion and facilitation passage of the legal and regulatory framework governing market transactions, LMDA conducted an analysis on current appraisal activities in Tajikistan; promoted the establishment of a Council on Appraising and an Association of Independent Appraisers; simplified land registration procedures through the establishment of single-window principles in SUERIP registration offices in A. Jomi, N. Khisrav, Shahritus, and Khuroson districts, and trained the staff in these offices on simplified procedures for registering immovable property; analyzed the roles and responsibilities of SUERIP and the SLC; and conducted activities to increase beneficiary knowledge of the land market and protection of land use rights.
Under LMDA’s objective to increase the public knowledge and protection of land use rights, the project began work with grantee PO “Network of Tashabbuskors” to provide informational services on land reform to rural populations; grantee PO “Neksigol Mushovir” to prepare and publish the monthly Agroinform TJ newspaper on land reform; and subcontractor LLC “Simoi Mustaqili Tojikiston” to prepare and broadcast television and radio programs on land reform. LMDA also updated and printed informational brochures to distribute to beneficiaries via project partners and conducted a landscape assessment of innovative public outreach approaches – including social media, the Internet, and mobile technologies – that will inform future provision of information on land issues to rural populations. With project support, seven grantee POs also began conducting trainings on the Law on “Dehkan farms” and rights and responsibilities of members of dehkan farms for farmers and local governmental officials in the 12 target districts to increase the knowledge of rural farmers on land-related issues.