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Swedish support to the land sector in Mozambique
Introduction
Since 1991 a stable peace has prevailed in Mozambique.
Democracy is functioning well and two general elections have
been held (1994 and 1999). The country has embarked on a market
oriented economic policy and the development is quite fast.
During 1999 the GNP growth was about 10 %. The country has a
number of natural resources, many of which have not yet been
used. Mozambique receives a significant amount of foreign aid
every year.
Land policy
In 1995 a Land Policy was adopted by the government.
The main development objective of it is to provide security
of tenure as a stimulus to poverty alleviation and promotion
of sustainable economic development.
Land legislation
To achieve the objective of the Land Policy a revision
of the Land Law and accompanying legislation was made between
1997-2000. Land in Mozambique is owned by the state. Long-term
use rights can be obtained through occupation by communities,
through occupation in good faith for at least 10 years or through
a land allocation procedure, where the state can give use right
title for various kinds of investment projects.
Land administration
In rural areas and most of the urban areas The National
Directory for Geography and Cadastre (Dinageca) is responsible
for implementing the land allocation procedure, controlling
land use and building up and maintaining the national land cadastre
as well as a general public geographical data bank. Dinageca
is also responsible for collecting the annual land use tax ,which
title holders have to pay. In the larger cities these tasks
are handled by the Municipal Councils.
Dinageca has also a supervising role regarding land
allocation and cadastral issues.
Dinageca fulfils its tasks through a head office in
Maputo and regional offices in all of the ten provinces. Dinageca
and its regional offices are within the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (MADER).
Land Management
The government programme for the land sector sets the
milestones for land management. The current programme is for
the period 2000-2005.
Within the urban areas, land management is the responsibility
of the Municipal Councils.
The State, through its governors and district administrators
in each province and through the different sector ministries,
executes land management in other areas. New land use rights
are decided by the governor or, in the case of very large areas,
by the Government.
PROAGRI
PROAGRI is the name of a 5 year programme for MADER for development of the rural
and agriculture sector in Mozambique. It started in 1999. It has different components.
One is the Land Component, which is oriented towards the following basic principles
in order to implement the Land Policy and the government programme for the land
sector:
- Elaboration and implementation of the land legislation
- Protection of land rights
- Participation by the communities in land management
- Information system for land and natural resources
- Institutional development and capacity building including decentralisation of
land management
- Inter-sector co-operation and establishment of an efficient system for monitoring
and evaluation
Dinageca and its regional offices are among those institutions which implement
the PROAGRI program. Another important institution is Machava Technical School
where surveying technicians at medium level are educated. As the land issue is
not only an agricultural and rural matter the inter-sectorial Land Commission
within MADER, with the aim to co-ordinate land issues between all the ministries,
has an important role in development of land policies, land administration and
land management in Mozambique.
Swedesurvey in Mozambique
Swedesurvey has implemented Swedish support to Mozambique within the land sector
since it started in 1991. From the beginning it was directed to capacity building
at Dinageca and Machava Technical School.
A new programme was implemented between 1997 and 2001, National Program for the
Development of DINAGECA, an institutional co-operation between Dinageca and Swedesurvey,
with the aim to support the necessary institutional development and capacity
building of Dinageca and its provincial offices. Special attention was paid to
assist in human resource development, organisational matters and in development
of legislative support and procedures for land allocation and land and property
registration and mapping. Two long term consultants have worked as advisers to
the management of the Mozambican organisations in general and technical matters.
A number of short term consultancies regarding specific tasks have been conducted
as well.
Apart from implementing Swedish support to the land sector Swedesurvey has also
been involved in a specific study regarding the urban land sector. In 1998 and
1999 Swedesurvey made a comparative study of the real and documented land use
and land occupation and the legal support to urban land management. The study
was made for areas in the capital Maputo and was financed by the World Bank.
Sören Lundqvist
Benita Nordin
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