UPDATE
Four significant land reform initiatives have emerged since the last CG meeting.
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The establishment of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction as a one-stop-shop for land management and land administration.
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The creation of national, provincial and district administrative institutions (Land Dispute Settlement Commissions) to attempt to conciliate the plague of land disputes besetting the whole country.
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Ongoing consultations between government, civil society and the private sector about a revised land law have made significant progress to the extent that a draft land law is set to go to the National Assembly before the middle of 2000.
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The World Bank has offered to "captain the ship" of donor' support for land reform.
THE WAY FORWARD
Since the last CG meeting, there has also been intense discussion and increasing sensitisation, within government, amongst donors and in civil society about the need for a comprehensive program of land reform. Expectations about pace and scale have been generated by this discourse. These expectations need to be very carefully managed. The scope of the required reforms-institutional strengthening and legislative action, market reform and redistribution will require leadership, coordination and careful planning. The RGC must determine how and who will drive this reform forward. Donors, NGOs and the private sector will have to rally round this leadership. Coordination of support for land reform needs to be swiftly institutionalised to avoid duplication, overlap and waste. The remit of this coordinating group should be to build consensus about a road map for reform. Plans for tackling long range challenges such as formal titling and redistribution need to be developed and agreed upon without delay but at the same time urgent problems, such as diffusing land disputes need to addressed now.
PRIORITISATION
Broadly land reform should focus on land distribution, land management and land administration. Strategic interventions such as the development of a national land policy integrated with other key natural resource policies, improved management of the national land stock, particularly public land; commencement of systematic land titling; tax reform, and construction of a legal framework to enforce property rights, have already been identified as the core of a land reform program for Cambodia. Donor funded technical support to the RGC will be required to flesh out these strategies on the basis of international experience and national priorities. A modest program of action by bilateral agencies and NGOs in concert with the RGC, to deal with the current crisis arising from the low priority previously given to land issues in Cambodia is already on foot. Research aimed at targeted development to mitigate landlessness, finalisation of a revised land law that protects current occupiers, trials of systematic land registration and support for institutional land dispute settlement processes all need additional resources to become full blown national programs. Identification of potential sources of increasing the supply of land to meet the needs of the poor by establishing a register of public land and institutional strengthening also need to be bought forward as a matter of urgency.
PREREQUISITES
A land reform agenda of this scope is not easy, cheap or fast. The governance required to achieve the necessary changes is some way off in the future in Cambodia. A good start has been made by opening up the process of revision of property law to allow for public participation by the emerging elements of civil society. Some tough policy development challenges lie ahead for the government. International support in the form of loans and technical assistance will be needed initially to establish a cadastral based titling system and the institutional support to run it, but in the longer term these reforms can be self-financing.
A Proposal Land Reform Agenda
Land distribution, management and administration
LAND
DISTRIBUTIONS |
Problem statement |
Strategic
interventions |
Action |
1. Eight in ten Cambodian live in
rural areas but one family in six has never had any
land or recently lost their land.
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Identification
and investment in development that mitigates
landlessness |
Poverty reduction
should focus on mitigating landlessness e.g. lower
the cost of health care, improve access to common
property resources and markets |
2. The poorest half of Cambodia's population shares less than a quarter of the cultivated land
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Formulation of a national land policy that is complimentary with other key natural resource policies
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Supply of land to the poor needs to be increased by
redistributing public land not required for public benefit
l Provincial capacity to redistribute land needs to be strengthened
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LAND MANAGEMENT
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3. RGC still owns 80 percent of the country but there has been no demarcation, mapping, registration or management of public land
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Demarcation of public property
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The demarcation of state property utilizing full community consultations should be a precondition of future investments in
sect oral reform e.g. demobilization and forestry
|
4. Land speculation in cities and along the main roads is rife leading to under utilization of productive farmland by absentee
speculators
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Land must be utilized more efficiently.
l Warehousing of land for speculative purposes needs to be discouraged through tax reform
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Decentralized land use planning should be built into
commune administrative reforms
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5. Valuable State property is being sold for private
gain
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Designation of a single authority
responsible for sale of public
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A register of State property should be maintained
and protected by the legislature
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LAND
ADMINISTRATION
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6. Property rights to <15 percent of Cambodia are formally registered or protected by law
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Cheap, transparent and systematic land registration
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Long term investment in training and capital equipment is required to set up a national canister.
l Cultivation of private sector participation in land registration to increase titling
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7. One rural family in thirty is involved in land disputes mostly involving the military and public officials
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Revision of the land law
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Provide de jure land rights to occupiers and cultivators
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8. The courts are unable to adjudicate land disputes and provincial authorities also have low administrative capacity to conciliate or prevent land disputes
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Institutional strengthening
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The independence and quality of the provincial and superior judiciary needs to be improved
Training in land law, human rights and conciliation and
provision of operating budgets for land dispute
settlements
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Initiatives that are current at pilot or partial scales
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