UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | On March 31, at Protea Hotel, the European Union and the World Bank signed a USh31 billion memorandum to support land administration in Uganda.
During this groundbreaking ceremony, the Head of the European Union delegation to Uganda, Afilio Pacifici, noted that Uganda needs to strengthen its land tenure system in the Northern and Eastern regions.
For that reason, the World Bank and European Union granted USD9.08 million (approximately USh31.8 billion) funds to Uganda to address land administration challenges in these regions.
Pacifici said that the grant would be paid over four years through the World Bank administered Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF). The MDTF, to which the World Bank lends advisory and analytical support, has been active since 2018.
According to Pacifici, the fund raises donor contributions and invests in strategic areas to promote the effective implementation of Uganda’s national development plans and priorities to achieve Vision 2040 which is, ‘a transformed Uganda Society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years.’
He said it would aid both recipient-executed and bank-executed activities in strengthening land administration and management systems hence providing land tenure, security and resolving land disputes.
“The European Union assistance will strengthen land rights security by consolidating the demarcation and documentation of individually and communally owned customary lands while ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable people of both gender,” Ambassador Pacifici said.
The funds will financially support the activities directed toward five key areas;
- Strengthening of public investment
- Promoting green growth
- Developing the private sector
- Job creation, and
- Promoting development effectiveness.
The World Bank Country Manager for Uganda, Mukami Kariuki, says that the funding would complete activities to modernise and scale up the land administration system which is currently supported under the World Bank-funded 200 Million Dollar competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project.
Kariuki also stated that the help of these activities would speed up the provision of land ownership and use documents to Ugandans which allow them to enjoy better land tenure security and leverage the economy and potential of land assets.
The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD) is the central counterpart in implementing the activities under this grant.
The funding will also improve the ministry’s capability to scale up System-Level Applications of Adaptive Computing (SLAAC) by automating procedures for issuing Customary Certificates of Ownership (CCOS). This will be used to process and deliver officially recognised land ownership and use documents to men and women in Northern and Eastern Uganda.
The World Bank will also carry out some critical activities in coordination with the MLHUD.
At the ceremony, on behalf of Judith Nabakooba, the Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja, the State Minister for Lands, said, “Government of Uganda welcomes the extra support from the European Union via the World Bank to support land tenure administration and management systems. Your efforts to support Uganda’s land Development Model sought at among peasants from the informal economy to the market economy using their land to support them.”
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