Mozambique – Land Tenure Services

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) disbursed over 39million USD as part of its Land Tenure Services Project (the “Land Project”) that aimed to improve land policies and regulations, improve the efficiency of land administration services, and expand access to land use, particularly for individuals and communities in selected urban and rural areas.

To address the complex land governance challenges facing Mozambique, the Land Project included three main activities: The Policy Activity, the Capacity Building Activity, and Site-Specific Activities in  urban and rural areas. Apart from national-level activities, the Land Project focused primarily in the four northern districts of Mozambique.

The main objectives of the Land Project were to:
• Improve the efficiency of land administration through the provision of systems and capacity building, thereby reducing the costs associated with acquiring and documenting land rights.
• Increase land tenure security through the issuance of certificates of land rights (DUAT certificates) and cadastral mapping, leading to: a) increased land-based investments, resulting in higher productivity, and increased incomes for rural and urban families; b) reduced conflict as a result of clear evidence of land rights, and c) more active land markets, generating higher land values and improved allocation of land.

PDRI-DevLab collaborated with Social Impact on three separate evaluations of the Land Tenure Services program: (1) Institutional Strengthening, (2) Rural Site-Specific, and (3) Urban Site-Specific. The evaluations seek to understand the impact of the Land Tenure Services program on perceived land tenure security, investment decisions, livelihoods, well-being, and land-use change. Each of these included impact and performance evaluation components through a mixed-methods approach that triangulates findings from multiple quantitative and qualitative sources. This project is supported by a number of PDRI-DevLab Research Fellows.