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| Land reform and poverty alleviation in Mozambique
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| 5.8 Information and land use planning at provincial, district and local level |
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Through support provided by the ZADP, the SPGC in Zambйzia has made considerable progress in developing land information management systems and the mapping of land concession applications and community delimitations. They have also piloted two district level workshops at which mapped information on land concessions and community land delimitations were presented for the first time to district level leadership. The extent to which easily available and accurate information has the potential to improve access and participation from the poor cannot be underestimated. A key challenge for the future is to continue the search for the most effective and appropriate mechanisms for disseminating information at district and sub-district level. It is an unfortunate trend that the approach to the mapping of land concessions by the DINAGECA places more emphasis on issues of technical accuracy, etc. than on the ability to produce cost effective maps for use at these levels.
Spatial information is critical for development planning purposes at a district level. More critically, however, a decision remains to be taken regarding the lead government agency in rural planning processes. Although, in their comments on the PROAGRI Joint Land Mission Report, the Department of Land and Water within INIA disagree with the notion that there are overlapping responsibilities in relation to planning activities, it remains the case that the administration of land rights is being undertaken in isolation from other district level planning processes.
The Ministry of Finance and Planning and the National Directorate of Rural Development have been undertaking pilot district planning projects in parts of Mozambique, with a view to designing processes and methodologies. A key issue for the province of Zambйzia will to be to ensure that any similar initiatives are undertaken in co-ordination with the SPGC and with access to information regarding the land rights situation of an area. The PROAGRI Joint Land Mission recommended "an appropriate institutional set-up for a co-ordinating body at provincial level to guide strategic and land use planning [should be] decided upon and established." More recently the Inter-ministerial Commission on Land has put forward proposals regarding the establishment of a land ‘network’, as part of its statutory brief to develop institutional models for land administration (Tanner, 2002).
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