Modernization of Land Services and Institutional Strengthening

Project Narrative

The project objective was to establish a modern land administration organisation that could process transactions more rapidly, in part, by streamlining processes and strategically applying technology for land administration in Lesotho. It aimed to establish a system capable of capturing complete and reliable land tenure rights throughout Lesotho, starting in the urban and peri-urban areas.

LEI supported the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship to establish a new Land Administration Authority (LAA) to unify cadastral and legal registry records. The core responsibility of LAA was registration of tenure rights and related land registration and (boundary) mapping. The LAA was to operate as an autonomous and financially self-sustainable organisation – oriented to customer service.

LEI helped train staff in land registry daily operations and applied international best practice (in the field of land administration) to this training. LEI assisted the LAA to implement the Land Bill 2009, which was before parliament at the time this project was running. We recommended processes to streamline land registration processes and contributed to the drafting of strata title law [sectional titles].

Key project services

LEI assisted the Government of Lesotho (GoL) to create a blueprint for the new LAA. This involved:

• Developing an Information Communications Technology (ICT) policy and a subsequent automation and communication plan for the LAA
• Assessing the technical and human resources available to the LAA from the GoL and within Lesotho (ie from the private sector)
• Examining the interrelationship between the LAA and other GoL bodies
• Designing new procedures for integrated LAA operations
• Developing a staffing, hiring and retention plan
• Developing job descriptions based on competencies
• Undertaking a detailed training needs analysis and preparing a training plan
• Preparing a preliminary budget for the LAA
• Developing a self-sustainability plan, identifying potential revenue sources and strategies for becoming self-sustaining, and
• Developing explanatory material for the public outreach program.