The purpose of the Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project is to expand and extend work conducted under previous two USAID/Ethiopia projects: Ethiopia Strengthening Land Tenure and Administration Program (ELTAP) (2005 – 2008) and the Ethiopia Land Administration Program (ELAP) (2008-2012). These projects assisted in the development of land laws and policies, improved land administration capacity at the local, regional and national levels, and developed and piloted cadastral surveying and a process for effective certification of land use rights.
The LAND program will work at the national and regional levels of government to further improve the legal and regulatory framework related to land tenure and property rights in Ethiopia. LAND recognizes that in order to ensure the sustainability of past USG investments there is a need to support further capacity building at all levels of government and so it provides for a variety of activities to strengthen capacity of land administration and land use officials. In addition, the program supports training for dispute resolvers who are handling cases related to land – such cases represent a substantial portion of the formal and informal “case load” in Ethiopia, particularly at the local level. As a complementary activity, the program supports at Ethiopian university to train those government officials and professionals who are needed to support a robust land governance environment while also building capacity at Ethiopian universities to engage in policy analysis of land issues. In addition, the program will work at all levels of government to support needed land use planning.
LAND complements proposed activities under USAID/Ethiopia’s Pastoralists Resiliency Improvement and Market Expansion program (PRIME) by developing a project that will clarify and strengthen communal land rights for pastoralists and agro-pastoral communities in order to improve market linkages between these communities and private investors who may be involved in the livestock value chain or in other agricultural value chains. This effort is designed to empower communities to diversify livelihoods through agricultural production, increase income, diversify assets and promote rural resiliency. This activity will help to improve governance at the local level by providing communities with decision making rights over their natural assets—land, water and other natural resources.
Duration: 2013-2018
Funding: $11,000,000