Project Profile: Mozambique
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Project Profile: Mozambique |
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Project Title
: Project to Build Independent Research Capacity and Enhance National Awareness of Land Tenure and Local Governance in MozambiqueTerm: 1991-April 2000 (Completed)
Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Amount: Approximately $5 million
Project contact: Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel, Project Manager (608-262-0097, slastarr@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Participating institutions: Ministry of Agriculture, Inter-Ministerial Land Commission; Eduardo Mondlane University, Núcleo de Estudos da Terra e do Desenvolvimento (Dr. Arlindo Chilundo, Director, arlindo@chilundo.uem.mz)
Summary: Coordinated with USAID/Mozambique and Eduardo Mondlane University, the project has addressed land and natural resource tenure issues through applied research and policy dialogue with the Mozambican government and civil society. The project specifically addressed state farm divestiture, land access for refugees in the post-war period, land conflict and resolution, land law reform, and institution building at national, provincial, and local levels.
Objective: Assist the Mozambican government with policy reform, foster open policy discussions between government, civil society, and donors, and build institutional capacity at Eduardo Mondlane University.
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In 1981, the Government of Mozambique began to liberalize its economic and political policies, adopt a more market-oriented economic program, and restructure the agricultural sector, which was the largest in the state-led economy. These efforts were difficult to sustain in the midst of 13 years of war. In 1992, a peace accord was signed, and in 1994 multiparty elections were held. Economic and social conditions are still difficult for the vast majority of Mozambicans. Nevertheless, the government has implemented further economic and natural resource tenure reforms that have resulted in some economic growth.
In 1991, LTC began to assist the government with understanding land-related problems and policy alternatives in state farm divestiture. LTC provided the Ministry of Agriculture and other institutions with research and analyses on a variety of issues affecting land tenure, access, legislation, and conflict resolution. In 1997, the Mozambican parliament passed a new Land Law and in 1998 the Regulation for its implementation. At the request of the government, LTC evaluated and analyzed the proposed legislation. During the last years of the project, LTC researched the relationships among income, environmental sustainability, and natural resource security.
Coordinated with USAID/Mozambique and Eduardo Mondlane University, the project addresses land and natural resource tenure issues through applied research and policy dialogue with the Mozambican government and civil society. The project specifically addresses state farm divestiture, land access for refugees in the post-war period, land conflict and resolution, land law reform, and institution building at national, provincial, and local levels.
Between 1991 and 1992, LTC extensively studied the state farm sector, made field visits, and sponsored the first ever national land conference in Mozambique, attended by more than 100 delegates from eight provincial capitals. In 1992, following the peace accord, LTC focused on issues concerning land access for those displaced during the war and published a variety of documents on land access, land tenure legislation, and land concessions. In 1993 and 1995, LTC sponsored the second and third national land conferences in Mozambique. During the last few years, work focused on land conflicts, legal reform, and examining how non-governmental organizations can incorporate land and resource considerations into their rehabilitation and development activities.
The initial phase of the project focused on the state farm sector. A large portion of the state agricultural sector's assets were in land, and the central government in Maputo had little information about these farms. Before the LTC project began, the government initiated a debate about which farms should be divested and how best to do so, but the debate was never concluded. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggested that many state farms had closed and had begun to divest their resources and land on their own.
In 1992, LTC conducted an extensive study of the state farm sector. It quickly became clear that divestiture was proceeding largely without direction, transparency or equitable competition for resources. As a result, LTC shifted its focus to include the processes and consequences of divestiture, particularly as they impacted smallholder farmers. The research produced many case studies, reports and publications. The project also hosted a national seminar that focused on the land tenure experiences of other African countries and generated a wide public discussion.
Specifically, research revealed fundamental problems in the statutory land tenure system, including weaknesses in the land laws and their administration. It revealed that most state farms were closed, and the provinces and districts were divesting state assets without the knowledge or approval of the central government. The state recovered little its financial investment in these assets, but the financial drain created by the state operation of the farms was substantially reduced. While many of the objectives of privatization were not achieved, control of much of the land was effectively shifted away from the central government. Research further revealed that the state had limited capacity to administer land or to implement land laws, lacking labor, trained administrators, financial resources, and technical expertise.
The application of the laws was neither uniform nor transparent, allowing well-placed individuals and foreign interests to acquire state farm land at the expense of smallholders and small private Mozambican interests. Tenure security was weak for all agricultural producers and investors, but particularly for smallholders. Research documented the existence of land conflicts at many levels, and it revealed that overlapping rights to land were being granted, causing further confusion and conflict. Based on these research findings, LTC and USAID/Mozambique launched a public discussion on a number of issues surrounding state farm divestiture and land policy, including land tenure reform, management of natural resources, and decentralization of control over natural resources.
In addition to discovering a great deal about state farm divestiture and property rights within the state farm sector, LTC also learned that uncertainties about property rights were affecting land outside the state farm sector, and having an impact on investment, productivity, and social relations throughout the country.
Two studies were undertaken in the peri-urban green zones around Maputo: a legal analysis of land disputes based on case study methods (Boucher, Francisco, Rose, Roth, and Zaqueu 1995); and an economic analysis of land markets, transaction costs, and real estate prices based on a statistical survey of farming households (Roth, Boucher, and Francisco 1995). The studies underscored the profound adverse effects that inadequate land-market institutions were having on economic growth.
Land Access in the Post-War Period
In October 1992, the two major combatants in the civil war agreed to a cease fire and a peace accord. Elections were ultimately held in October 1994. As a result of the movement of thousands of Mozambicans and partial resettlement of the more than six million displaced people during this period, new issues and problems were identified. LTC research focused on questions of land access for refugees, other displaced people, and commercial producers in the post-war period.
Research revealed that local-level political institutions had been changing through a process of resistance and adaptation during the previous twenty years of centrally-planned government, and that local-level customary authorities were reemerging and reasserting control in many areas over local-level social relations and resource allocation. At the same time, in some areas individuals without linkages to either customary or government institutions emerged in positions of authority. The research also suggested that household relations, particularly gender, were having an impact on land access, land tenure security, and production strategies.
The performance of the existing statutory tenure system was further analyzed. Research supported earlier findings that land laws were applied unevenly. This resulted in speculation, unproductive investments, and unnecessary transaction costs, as well as providing opportunities for private enrichment, all of which reduced the value of productive investment. Additional impacts included poor resource use and ecological degradation, as investors sought to secure short-run profits. The work supported earlier hypotheses that a complex patchwork of overlapping and competitive land concessions was leading to numerous, and often acrimonious, land disputes.
In addition to the production of several case studies, reports, and publications, this phase of research produced a second seminar, The Second National Land Conference in Mozambique. This conference drew an even wider audience than the first and generated a more open debate, which was subsequently reported on in the local media. Policy recommendations from the conference were later made directly to the government of Mozambique, USAID, other donors, and NGOs.
In the second half of 1997 the LTC Mozambique Project Project initiated and/or completed the studies listed below. These studies will be integrated into the policy work of the Project and the Land Commission.
Review of Land Concession Situation
This study began in June 1997 in Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Zambezia. Data will be gathered in the remaining provinces soon. This effort will update the concession study that was done in 1994-1995, focusing on concessions granted at the national and provincial levels, as well as those granted by different Ministries and departments, including agriculture, forestry, eco-tourism, hunting and mineral resources. The qualitative study also includes questions relating to land conflicts, problems with processes of land management and concession-granting, and the role of traditional authorities in the distribution and management of natural resources.
Zambezia Land Registration Case Study
With the help of two NGOs, World Vision and Oram, the Project will investigate a specific case of land registration for community smallholders in Zambezia Province. World Vision and Oram have reported numerous land disputes among smallholder farmers and between smallholders and larger commercial interests there. One of the recommended solutions is registration of community lands; however they have encountered bottlenecks that have prevented the success of this effort. The LTC Project will investigate the nature of these problems and make specific recommendations, within the current legal framework, for possible solutions. This case study will explore devolution of control over resources to a local management scheme as a means for securing tenure, increasing community participation, and creating opportunities for commercial linkages between different classes of producers.
Smallholder Production and Tree Tenure Study
Working in partnership with two or more NGOs in two provinces, LTC undertook a study of smallholder production and tree tenure issues. This study endeavored to understand constraints affecting producers of cashews (as well as other tree/forestry crops).
Legal Compatibility Study
With the help of local lawyers, the Project conducted an assessment of the legal compatibility of important laws and draft legislation, including the Land Law, the Environment Law, and their accompanying regulations, to determine if these two important pieces of legislation are compatible and if not, how they might be made so. In addition, the study identified opportunities that these (draft) laws create as the government moves forward with development of regulations and implementing procedures.
LTC Project research, the Project-sponsored conferences, and the LTC-facilitated policy debate have had a dramatic impact on government discussion and helped to coordinate donor activities in Mozambique. At a donor conference in Paris in 1995, the US delegation raised land tenure reform as one of the major concerns to be addressed by the Government of Mozambique. Following these meetings the government showed greater resolve in tackling land reform issues.
LTC's work contributed to the reformation of the Inter-Ministerial Land Commission within the Ministry of Agriculture by presenting a detailed proposal to reform land law and implement a new land policy program for the period 1995-1996. The Commission, funded by FAO, USAID (through LTC), the World Bank, and other donors, held a number of public seminars leading to the creation of a land policy statement (Politica de Terra), which was adopted by the Council of Ministers in 1996. Although not a law, this statement set the tone and structure for subsequent legislation and, with input from LTC, made several substantial reforms to the previous land policy. Notably it (1) recognizes customary land rights, (2) grants greater leasehold security to smallholder and commercial interests, and (3) opens possibilities for the recognition of land use markets. While the land policy statement does not denationalize land (that is, land remains under the control of the state), it leaves open the possibility of future reform. LTC supported the work of the Land Commission in two important ways. First, LTC's research focused on conflict resolution and litigation of customary disputes, with the objective of inserting new land law mechanisms that would strengthen smallholders' chances to defend their rights in the face of growing competition from commercial interests for scarce resources. This would strengthen tenure rights and encourage greater investment by smallholders. Second, LTC worked closely with the Lawyers' Working Group, a subgroup of the Land Commission, to review and amend both the land law and land regulations.
It is clear from recent discussions with government officials and the most recent Party Congress that the government now recognizes the importance of resource tenure security, including access and tenure security for smallholders. This represents an important policy advance that has taken place over the past six years. The debate is now focusing on the type of rights that will be granted and the process by which this will be done. It is evident that the government is presently unwilling to denationalize or privatize land, but it is willing to consider land transactions, including the sale of government-granted leaseholds. In addition, the role that local communities will play in resource management is still undetermined. Will they be willing players in negotiation with government and private interests over the use and disposition of their resources? Or will they be objects of development with only their parcels demarcated by government? Government and civil society need to continue discussions, focusing on the economic and political implications of devolving control of some resources to local communities and the extent or limits of their powers to make transactions.
The Project is engaged in active discussions with the ministries of environment, agriculture and state administration, particularly the respective commissions within these institutions that are focused on legal reform. The Project supplies technical assistance to these commissions in the form of field data and comparative analyses, and provides input based upon LTC's understanding of the issues in Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa.
A Resident Director and a network of LTC-trained experts are in Maputo to address a variety of natural resource tenure issues and conduct applied research studies, data synthesis, report preparation, and rapid and participatory rural appraisal.
An important Project activity is its work with the Núcleo de Estudos da Terra (NET) at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. The goal of this project component is to build independent research capacity and expand the role of the university in discussions with government and civil society regarding policy reform. NET has participated with LTC in its activities, as well as developing its own research agenda. To facilitate this cooperation, the LTC Project has expanded its library and database, while making them more accessible to the university community.
Publications Available from Other Sources:
International Conference on Land Policy in Africa (1992 : Maputo, Mozambique). 1992. "A Questão de Terras: Trabalhos apresentados no Seminário Internacional de Políticas de Terras em Africa." Extra: Revista para o Desenvolvimento Rural Integrado e Extensão Rural em Moçambique, edição especial.
Myers, Gregory W. 1995. Land Tenure Development in Mozambique: Implications for Economic Transformation. [Eschborn, Germany?]: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit.
Myers, Gregory W. 1994. "Competitive Rights, Competitive Claims: Land Access in Post-war Mozambique." Journal of Southern African Studies, 20(4): 603-632.
Myers, Gregory W., and Harry G. West. 1996. "A Piece of Land in a Land of Peace? State Farm Divestiture in Mozambique." Journal of Modern African Studies, 34(1): 27-51.
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