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Russian - Swedish Land Administration Programme 2003-2006
Background
Sweden and Russia have co-operated successfully
since 1992 in the development of the extensive land reform
in Russia. The primary objectives of the Swedish support
have been (i) to strengthen the relevant institutions
taking the lead in this development and (ii) to establish
reliable registers with property information and cadastral
maps. The activities have comprised legal as well as methodological,
managerial, technical and system-related matters. The
support has been aimed at local and regional as well
as federal level. Besides the extensive efforts to establish
sound and well-functioning Land Committees at local and
regional level, activities have been focused on elaborating,
testing and verifying sector-related models and procedures
covering management, system development, information dissemination,
property valuation, land legislation, aerial photography
and satellite imagery, cadastral mapping and satellite
positioning. The results have then been demonstrated at
federal level for acceptance and further dissemination.
Training and transfer of competence have been natural
components of all activities with Novgorod Training Centre
as a hub.
A Federal Target Programme for land administration development
has been adopted by the Government of the RF and is valid
from 2002 to 2007. It is, to a large extent, based on
what has been achieved as a result of Swedish support
and with Roszemcadastre as the main actor. Indeed it will
continue very much along the same lines with the following
two main programme objectives:
- Creation of a unified national property cadastre;
- Establishment of a solid infrastructure and interaction
among the actors involved, i.e. users as well as producers
of property information.
Two additional parallel Federal Target Programmes, under
the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Taxation and
Fees respectively, support co-operation among the actors.
The different programmes together provide a sound base,
politically and financially, for the development of land
information systems for land administration and for co-operation
and interaction between the authorities involved.
Swedish support 2003-2006
The main focus for this three-year continuation programme,
starting from June 2003, is aligned with the Federal Target Programmes
with specific emphasis on the second objective mentioned above. It
concentrates on enabling the actors involved and the public to effectively
utilise the aggregated property information, i.e. the basic information
needed for them to pursue their respective activities. The establishment
of a land information infrastructure, with common standards and exchange
procedures, is thus necessary. It is only by such integration that
the land information captured during the last decade will come into
full circulation and make the necessary contribution to ensure stability,
economic growth and improved social welfare in the RF.
In order to establish a common infrastructure, it is crucial that, besides Roszemcadastre,
other actors also take active part in phase IV. In particular, it is essential
to include the Ministry of Justice, responsible for registration of rights to
properties, and the Ministry of Taxation and Fees, responsible for property taxation.
Both Ministries have been involved in preparing the proposal, especially regarding
organisational co-operation and information exchange. Other core actors in the
programme are for example (i) the municipalities, responsible for land use planning,
municipal engineering and environmental protection and (ii) credit institutes
which grant loans with real properties as collateral.
There are three components within previous projects that have a bearing on what
will be attained in phase IV. First of all, it is the separate ongoing project
in Arkhangelsk which aims at the establishment of an efficient and reliable information
exchange at regional level between the Rights Registration Chamber, the Cadastral
Chamber and the Bureau of Technical Inventory (responsible for the building register).
The second component regards customer services. A reference group has been established
in Kaliningrad, engaging all main actors at regional level in the sector of land
administration and this group has initiated a common vision for these services.
Finally, analysis to identify the prerequisites for the establishment of a functioning
credit market with properties as collateral was carried out in Saratov oblast.
The two latter activities are still in their infancy but will play an important
role in phase IV.
 Development objective
The development programme objective is in compliance with the objectives defined
in the three Federal Programmes, which are currently carried out by each of the
three main beneficiaries. The development objective is therefore defined as:
"Ensure sustainable social and economic development of the nation, based
on the rational use of land and other property, guarantees of property rights
and efficient
taxation"
Programme structure
The programme has a stringent strategy to achieve its aim of efficient land administration.
Based on earlier experience, the programme will include development of methodology
and testing in pilot projects (in Northwest Russia), either at oblast or district
level. The practical results obtained will be demonstrated at federal level for
acceptance and further dissemination. In this way, broad and harmonised attitude
changes and efficient knowledge transfer will be achieved. In addition, compared
to previous projects, more effort will be made at federal level to support the
necessary improvement of inter-organisational co-operation and co-ordination.
It is also important to emphasise that the land users are identified as being
the programme’s target group on whom all activities should have a positive
impact.
The basis of the programme is the establishment of a common land information
infrastructure. This infrastructure will consist of core data of common interest
for the three main actors, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Taxation
and Fees and Rozemcadastre and for society at large. The importance of other
actors having access to, and their use of, this integrated land information will
be emphasised in different subprojects.
The programme embraces the following four parallel projects, all of which are
integrated through the common infrastructure.
- Policy and Strategy Development. Included in this project are strategy
and
policy issues within Roszemcadastre, questions of co-operation with Ministries
and other actors and vertical dissemination of information as well as capacity
building (Novgorod Training Centre is included in this project). A number of
studies are planned in order to monitor the influence of the land reform on socio-economic
development, human resource development and regarding gender issues. The studies
will provide inputs to the continued policy development.
- Interaction and information exchange between Roszemcadastre, the Ministry
of Justice and the Ministry of Taxation and Fees. In this project, the common
infrastructure will be developed and agreed upon. This will be carried out by
several interministerial working groups at central level. The ongoing project
in Arkhangelsk will provide an important input. The developed infrastructure
will be tested in two pilot projects at regional level, one of which will be
in Moscow. The infrastructure will include standards, procedures and responsibilities
including components such as legal framework, one-window principle, IT solutions
and selection of core data. An important component is also to analyse and evaluate
needs and requirements of the different categories of clients for the development
of the common infrastructure and to provide the necessary improvements to meet
these. The project will be co-ordinated with activities supported by the Swedish
Ministry of Finance and the Swedish Ministry of Justice regarding taxation and
legal development.
- Interaction between authorities holding real property information and credit
and financial organisations. This project aims at developing methods for the
use of the common infrastructure to support the credit market. The project will
be located in a larger city in Northwest Russia where there is an active property
market and great demand for investments. The current situation will be analysed
in order to highlight the necessary conditions and mechanisms that must be in
place in order to attain a well-functioning credit market and an improved investment
climate. The project will be carried out in close co-operation with the land
information authorities and representatives from the financial and credit sector.
- Spatial data management and information exchange on local level for municipal
management. This project will define the common infrastructure for municipal
management, such as land use planning, municipal engineering and environmental
protection. The project will develop methodologies and a pilot system for the
use of this information in decision-making for activities within the municipalities.
The project will be located in Karelia.
Projects 1 and 2 together compose a core of overall applications in order to
achieve better co-ordination and more efficient utilisation of property information
and at the same time strive to keep the clients in focus. These two projects
are closely related to the activities within the Ministry of Justice, Roszemcadastre
and the Ministry of Taxation and Fees and the co-ordination and co-operation
between them. Projects 3 and 4 consist of more specific applications related
to the credit market sector and municipal responsibilities. They must be considered
as being greatly dependent on the development and co-ordination activities carried
out in the two overall projects. From the respective sector, project 3 and 4
will at the same time put demands on the development of the core projects.
The implementation of all projects starts simultaneously in order to harmonise
the development and avoid purpose-built infrastructures being created with isolated,
incompatible land information "silos".
The application of pilot projects
Change projects in the Russian Administration can seldom
go full-scale. The magnitude of the size and complexity
simply call for limited approaches. Swedesurvey and
Roszemcadastre are in agreement regarding the approach
of using pilot projects in the development efforts,
though selected pilot areas can not fully reflect the
qualities of the whole Russian land administration sector.
The reasons for us to opt for pilot projects are:
- Our combined resources are not, and have never
been, sufficient to work full-scale
- Pilot projects facilitate deeper analyses, trials
and re-trials, and participative approaches
- Quality assurance is easier and more effective
in the pilot scale.
- Pilot project are useful for demonstration of new
approaches and, through information dissemination,
for change of
attitudes
Pilot projects require carefully prepared dissemination
strategies. When experience from one area is to be transferred
to another it frequently meets with the “not-invented-here” set
of objections. We try to offset this by working transparently
throughout the pilot projects. Prospective users are
invited to observe and assess the work at three or more
occasions during the project period: (i) at inception
seminars treating respective problem analysis and ways
chosen to address the problems, (ii) at one or more
status reporting meetings, (iii) at final seminars presenting
results and (iv) through documentation disseminated
from pilot projects to federal level.
Gender aspects
Inequality regarding ownership and land use rights is
said to be a hindrance for desirable family policies.
The project cannot change ownership but it can improve
and speed up the issue of certificates and thereby help
clarify ownership and land use rights.
The staffs of Russian agencies involved in the project
are normally well balanced in terms of gender. There
are cases of imbalance at top levels with women being
under-represented. The project's efforts on staff development
try to counterbalance this.
A separate gender study is included in the Policy and
Strategy project in order to (i) analyse the current
situation on property ownership distribution between
men and women and (ii) to demonstrate the roles and
responsibilities among men and women at Roszemcadastre
and its regional and local offices.
Risk assessment
 Realisation of the programme will require close co-operation
between the three main actors and interaction between
different levels of administration. The three main actors
have participated in the development of the programme
design and are committed to making contributions. The
basis for the necessary co-operation can thus be assumed
to be assured.
External risk factors in Russia are closely connected to political and economical
development in the country. These risks are considered to be less than in previous
phases since the situation in general has stabilised in Russia, particularly
regarding legislation. The administration reform currently under investigation
will most probably emphasise the importance of reliable and easily accessible
land information and the need for interaction between the main responsible organisations.
The programme will include measures to support the administrative reform.
The maturity of certain land related activities, for instance the credit market,
has sometimes been questioned. However, there is a great demand for investments
and a mortgage system needs to be developed. There are already credit institutes
using real property as collateral and a federal mortgage agency has recently
been formed in order to support the development of the credit system. This agency
will also take an active part in the credit project.
Sustainability
By achieving the stipulated objectives and results, the programme will have a
major impact on forming the prerequisites necessary for a sustainable and efficient
land market in Russia. The introduction of mechanisms for making land administration
and information access procedures easier and for improving customer services,
will obviously also have catalytic effects on the land market development and,
thus, also on the general economy and social welfare as such. However, general
experience from East and Central Europe show an overestimation regarding the
pace in which the land markets are developed.
Maintenance of land administration systems is to a large extent financed through
different user fees. The amount of collected user fees is dependent on the accessibility
to the aggregated information delivered by the systems and also on the external
demand for this information. The demand of digital land information depends,
in turn, on the general computer maturity in the country and to what extent other
actors - like banks, municipalities and real estate agents - are using computer
systems in order to run their activities more efficient. Russia is regarded comparatively
well-advanced in this respect.
Modern land administration systems are characterised by comprising large amount
of data, shared by several actors and used in aggregated form for various societal
purposes. The today’s well advanced IT technology has proved to be an extremely
important tool in order to establish such complex systems and, hence, substantial
parts of the programme’s activities include IT and system development.
This will (i) support the improvement of customer services, (ii) facilitate the
information communication, both within the organisation (vertically) and among
the organisations (horizontally), and (iii) structure and secure the extensive
amount of data. If this development is not harmonised as proposed in the programme,
a vast number of isolated single systems will continue to be developed. This
will not only become more costly to implement but also render unacceptable running
costs and time delays due to data exchange complexities as well as it will raise
instead of demolish barriers between the organisations. Technical components
per se normally have a lifetime which is comparatively low. However, the way
IT is introduced in the programme, it will be of major importance for the creation
of a sustainable land administration sector in Russia.
Budget
The total budget for the Swedish contribution is 30 340 000 SEK.
The Russian input in terms of manpower is expected to exceed twice the Swedish
input and the total expenditures will at least correspond to the level of Swedish
financial input.
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