Document Type: Project Design and Implementation

This report contains a review of lessons learned by other USAID-funded enterprise development and microfinance projects in Benguela Province, an assessment of enterprise development opportunities related to land tenure in the two USAID-funded Pilot Project Areas of Huambo Province, and an analysis of possible study tours between the pilot sites and successful enterprise development projects in Angola.

Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. These trends influence how donors, policymakers, and international lending institutions approach water management. This brief – which reviews current knowledge of the consequences for gender equity, summarizes how the trends have played out in various locales, and identifies gaps in our understanding – was published by the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the USAID TransLinks Program.

The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) pilot project in the Central African Republic (CAR) was launched in April 2007. In an effort to define the baseline situation in CAR, one of PRADD’s first activities was to undertake reviews of mining policy and of the legislation that regulates property rights to land and natural resources (forests, water) in diamond mining areas. On July 2-3, 2007 PRADD organized a two-day workshop in Bangui to discuss and debate the preliminary results of the policy reviews with a view to facilitating identification by project partners of opportunities and constraints to strengthen the property rights of artisanal miners and improve alluvial diamond chain-of-custody information availability and management.

This report outlines a process for land dispute resolution in support of USAID/Angola’s Land Tenure Strengthening Project (Project), which is being implemented by ARD with support of its partners, DW and RDI. The process will be included in the Land Rights Formalization Process manuals being drafted for the Project’s rural and peri-urban land formalization pilot sites. The land rights formalization process (LRFP) underway in the Huambo province pilot sites requires the inclusion of a land dispute resolution procedure that includes both an appreciation of local practices and is in accordance with the law, as land rights formalization can both aggravate disputes and/or create new ones. The process adopted needs to be relevant to communities, and should be structured, transparent, fair and lawful. The process needs to address dispute prevention as a first step.

This report provides an outline of applicable legal principles for the USAID project, Strengthening Land Tenure and Property Rights in Angola, which ARD is directing with assistance from Development Workshop (“DW”) and the Rural Development Institute (“RDI”).This report lays out the legal framework applicable to the project, beginning with brief overviews of the country and its customary and formal law (Sections II-V), followed by a detailed outline of the key land legislation, the 2004 Land Law and 2006 Proposed Regulations, in Section VI. The report provides an overview of women’s land rights issues (Section VII) and land administration (Section VIII). The paper closes in Section IX with a preliminary identification of areas within the legal framework where opportunities may exist for useful addition (whether by addendum, bylaw, or by further direction through regulations or guidelines at the provincial level) that will assist in the ultimate objective of increasing land tenure security for Angola’s population.

Policy review of the mining sector in the Central African Republic.

The policy review’s purpose is twofold: 1) to provide a concise background summary of mining policy history and current issues as a basis for workshop discussions; and 2) to facilitate identification by workshop participants in CAR of constraints and opportunities to improve alluvial diamond chain-of-custody information availability and management by establishing a reliable information system. The ultimate goal of the sessions focusing on mining policy in CAR was to contribute to achievement of result 1 identified in the PRADD pilot project design document: A system for reliable production and export information for diamonds exists at pilot sites.

This report provides a review of applicable laws in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan impacting on customary land tenure rights with a view to ascertaining their ability to provide real ‘protections’ and outlines a program of legal interventions to assist each state government in developing legislation conducive to protection of customary land rights.

This document provides a framework for analyzing land reform, property rights, and land privatization in Mongolia, examines the current system of property rights and privatization in Mongolia, catalogues donor efforts in the country, and summarizes recommendations for further action.