1.
MALAWI COUNTRY UPDATE
EU Land Governance Programme
7th Capitalization Meeting
June 26 – 29, 2018, Rome, Italy

2.
Project Title: Promoting Responsible Land
Governance for Sustainable Agriculture in
Malawi
Institution/Organization: Ministry of Lands,
Housing, and Urban Development assisted
by Oxfam CSO Consortium

3.
BACKGROUND
• Ten land related laws were enacted in 2016
• The Customary Land Act 2016 allows the
creation of Customary Estates
 Allows smallholder farmers to get legal title to
their land
 The Registered Land (Amendment) Act 2016
provides for the legal registration of Customary
Estates.

4.
Background……
• The project is funded by the European Union
• It aims at supporting the Ministry of Lands,
Housing and Urban Development to pilot
implementation of the new laws

5.
Background …..
• The objective of the project:
• To improve the livelihoods of the population,
particularly in the rural areas of the country, through
sustainable agricultural development in Malawi.
• The purpose :
• To contribute to an improved land governance
framework and its implementation in Malawi in line
with the VGGT, with particular emphasis on gender
sensitive compliance regarding land tenure rights

6.
Background…
 The expected project results are:
 Institutional framework and capacity
strengthened at all levels for an
efficient and effective land reform
programme
 Smallholder farmers’ land rights
improved, in particular women, due to
responsible land governance at local
level guided

7.
Implementation arrangement
• A consortium of three Civil Society
Organizations led by Oxfam is supporting the
Ministry to run three pilots in one Traditional
Land Management Area (TLMA) in each of
three regions of the country
• It is expected that this will inform the national
roll out of creating Customary Estates.

8.
PROGRESS
• Since the last capitalization meeting in November
2017 the progress has been made in a number of
areas.
• However, it was slow due to delays in having the
Customary Land Act, 2016 effective and delays in
developing and gazetting the Customary Land
Regulations
• Some of the planned activities for the DAI team
also slowed in preference of attending to some
priorities of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and
Urban Development.e.g. support to development
of subsidiary legislation
• Now there is speed to implementation since
bottlenecks are dealt with

9.
Progress Cont….
• The following are some of the activities
implemented during the period:
 Finalization of the development of Gender Strategy for
the project
 Reviewing the draft Operation Manual for the Piloting
the Systematic Adjudication of Customary Estates
produced with World Bank support
 Pushing for coming into force of the Customary Land
Act,2016
 Drafting of the Customary Land Regulations and pushing
for their publication. They are now gazzeted.
 Review of Land Survey Regulations
 Facilitating a validation workshop on reviewed Land
Survey Regulations

10.
Progress Cont….
 Finalization of the development of the Land Reform
Implementation Plan
 Reviewing the budget and work plan for the CSO consortium
for the preparation of an Addendum to include important
activities and equipment not in the original plans
 Field testing of the satellite imagery obtained from the
National Statistical Office for the adjudication and
demarcation of land parcels
 Continued sensitization on the new land laws in the pilot
sites
 Communication and Visibility consultancy
 Transversal Support project supervision mission to Malawi
country project
 Establishment of an independent and dedicated unit; the Land
Reform Implementation Unit to spearhead the reform process

11.
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
• Development of training modules for field staff
on land parcel adjudication, demarcation and
data processing has also been done
• Training of the communities in the use of
satellite imagery for land parcel adjudication
and demarcation has been done as can be
seen below:

12.
CHALLENGES
 The continued absence of a full project management structure had caused
problems. This will be over very soon as the Steering Committee will start
meeting on the same from next month
 Slow pace of legal reforms and structures to facilitate implementation, i.e.
delayed promulgation of the customary land regulations, no land clerks/
districts land registrars in place
 Resistance in some quarters on low cost approaches to customary land
registration and titling
 Some pockets resistance in one of the pilot sites to implement the
Customary Land Act due to some deep rooted cultural briefs against
women land ownership
 Slow preparation to start field work in the first pilot in Phalombe
threatening the completion of the three pilots (Phalombe, Kasungu and
Mzimba) by the end of the project in August 2019. This is being addressed
by Oxfam
 Inadequate human and financial resources to facilitate the proper
functioning of the newly established Land Reform Implementation Unit.

13.
LESSONS LEARNED
 Registering customary land rights using enabling
legal framework is a way to go
 Capacity building is an integral part of this
process
 Continuous engagement with policy holders and
other key stakeholders by the CSO consortium is
very important to ensure successful
implementation of such kind of project
 There is always a need to be flexible by
implementing partners along the way due to
emerging issues

14.
RECOMMENDATIONS
 CSO Consortium has to deal with speed,
completion of procurement of office and field
equipment for customary land adjudication and
demarcation to the timely training of field staff
and starting of the pilot activities.
 To continue joint planning of pilot activities (CSOs,
DAI and Government) is key to the smooth
implementation of the pilot

15.
Recommendations cont..
 Need for additional resources with new time
lines to ensure that the pilot project lessons
and approaches is up scaled before
communities lose momentum
 To continue with sensitizations throughout the
country
 To accelerate implementation to catch up with
time

16.
NEXT STEPS
 Finalize establishment of the Steering Committee and Working
Groups to enhance wider stakeholder engagement
 Continue drafting of Subsidiary Regulations for the remaining land
related laws
 Advise on the development of pilot project procurement plan,
recruitment & training for field work
 Actual piloting of customary land adjudication and demarcation
starting with Phalombe District by the CSO Consortium
 Monitor and advise on pilot project field work and office data
processing in the first pilot in Phalombe District
 Documentation of the process and impacts of piloting to inform
national roll out
 Provide support to the newly established Land Reform
Implementation Unit

17.
Thank you