RURAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE - Consulting Services



	Capacity Statement & Expertise Curricula Vitae Experience

Angola: Land Law and Policy Evaluation and Recommendations
In Angola, on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development, RDI is participating in the review of new draft land legislation that has been created on the heels of the April peace accord signed between the MPLA government and UNITA rebel forces. As a part of the needed fact-finding effort, RDI is conducting key informant interviews of government, NGO, and donor representatives in the capital city of Luanda. RDI is also doing rural fieldwork in two provinces, including a visit to a quartering camp where UNITA rebels and their families have been put until their resettlement can be arranged. Primary issues include the legal and policy treatment of common property resources and regimes, reconciliation of land disputes, feasibility of a land registration system and pilot projects, legal education and advocacy, development of related civil society forces, and accommodation of the land needs of internally displaced persons. Ongoing from September 2002.

Uganda: Gender/Family Issues and Land Rights Study
Government of Uganda. An RDI lawyer led a team, composed primarily of Ugandan social sciences researchers, in fieldwork aimed at determining the extent to which recent Ugandan legal land reform has affected women’s and orphan’s rights to land and housing. The fieldwork techniques included rapid rural appraisal interviews, key informant interviews, village focus group meetings, and a household statistical survey. Results showed that traditional customary practices and laws continued to shape the situation on the ground and that many of the formal legal reforms had yet to make a significant impact.

Study recommendations included a tiered menu of interventions, including education of men, training of women in their rights and how to exercise them, creation of local village gender trainers and advocates, a re-ordering of agricultural incentives and extension practices, establishing legal aid centers, and a variety of formal legislative changes (widow and orphan laws, succession laws, land demarcation regulations, social safety net provisions, and formal co-ownership legislation). Selected recommendations are slated for inclusion within the government’s Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture and Land Reform Implementation Plan. The study process included a stakeholders’ workshop where government representatives (local, regional, and national), NGO representatives, and villagers from a variety of locales were pulled together to hear preliminary results and to provide comments and ideas. October 2001 to April 2002.

Uganda: Land Market, Land Consolidation,
and Land Readjustment Study
Government of Uganda. RDI provided oversight of fieldwork, household surveys, and report and recommendation preparation for a land market and tenure study. The team determined how land transactions are carried out, who the participants are, how prices are determined, how transactions are financed and documented, and how existing laws and regulations either support or constrain the market. A land fragmentation, consolidation, and readjustment component focused on the extent to which fragmentation is actually a problem and whether it might have an impact on agricultural production.

Recommendations included simplification of transaction requirements, reconciliation of conflicting claims, facilitation of a variety of market support actions, a concessionary mortgage credit pilot project, and a set of criteria for use in designing a land readjustment pilot project. The study process included a stakeholders’ workshop where government representatives (local, regional, and national), NGO representatives, and villagers from a variety of locales were pulled together to hear preliminary results and to provide comments and ideas. October 2001 to April 2002

Uganda: Common Property Regimes Study
Government of Uganda. An RDI lawyer and several Ugandan team members conducted fieldwork and follow-on report preparation to determine the extent to which recent Ugandan legal land reform has affected the status and viability of common property resources and common property regimes. The effort focused on wetlands and cattle grazing areas, although the literature review and recommendations had a broader scope. Fieldwork included rapid rural appraisal interviews, key informant interviews, and village focus group meetings.

Recommendations included a variety of legal and regulatory revisions, facilitation of pilot Communal Land Associations, a variety of legal literacy measures, and support for schemes that acknowledge and support existing social and cultural frameworks. The study process included a stakeholders’ workshop for government representatives (local, regional, and national), NGO representatives, and villagers from various locales to hear preliminary results and to provide comments and ideas. October 2001 to April 2002.