Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
11 June 2009
Maputo — Communities in central and northern Mozambique will see their land demarcated and their land tenure rights guaranteed by 2010.
To that end, the United States largest aid programme, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), signed in Maputo, on Wednesday, a contract with the consultancy company KPMG to manage community land in Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa provinces.
The contract, worth 4.5 million US dollars, was signed between Paulo Fumane, MCA executive director for Mozambique, and Julio Garrido, representing KPMG.
According to Fumane, the project, to be carried out in 51 months, is to concentrate on demarcating community land, and individual plots, and formalizing land tenure. Fumane believes that the work, to start soon, will help prevent land conflicts among communities and other parties.
"MCA has identified weaknesses in the land management system of the National Land and Forests Directorate (DNTF), particularly concerning computerized land records", he said. "The beneficiary communities in these provinces will be selected at district level".
MCA believes that this project will create conditions for improving the criteria of demarcation, registration, and the granting of new concessions, in an exercise where communities are the main actors.
For his part, Garrido gave guarantees that work will start in the field within the next few weeks, with the sending of technicians and the necessary equipment. KPMG intends to produce its first report within the next three months.
According to DNTF national director Raimundo Cossa, access and land tenure guarantee in Mozambique is a matter of concern, particularly due to the large demand.
"People must have guarantee of access to land that meets their needs", he said. "Most of the land is occupied by communities, but most of them do not yet have formal tenure. Legally, the communities have the right to occupation of land by customary law and we must consolidate the process of demarcating and formalizing the rights of the communities".
KPMG was selected through a public tender launched in November last year, in which five companies competed.
The 4.5 million dollars are part of a package of 506.9 million dollars granted by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation in its compact with Mozambique, which covers water supply, sanitation, roads, land tenure and agriculture, mostly in the north of the country.
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