Mozambique, Beira Land Administrations Systems Project

General objective:

The wider objective of the project was to enhance the municipal organization of Beira (CMB) in order for the city, in particular their role within roll-out and implementation of the Beira Master Plan (BMP).

Specific objective:

The specific objective was to enable the Municipality of Beira to organize and improve their land planning and management systems and performance, in terms of (a) technical capacities as well as (b) organizational performance.

Results:

The results of the project were:

1. The technical processes of indexing, digitization and recordation have been improved (i.e. Focus Areas Technical Interventions & Information Technology).
2. The Focus Area of Strategy & Control continues to function well within the field of land administration.
3. The Focus Area of Organization & Process has been improved within the field of land administration
4. The Focus Area of Planning & Control has been improved within the field of land administration.
5. The Focus Area of People & Culture has been improved within the field of land administration.

During the period March-June 2019, the project contributed to the immediate response and recovery after Cyclone Idai hit the city of Beira. Our expert was the Deputy Team Leader of the Taskforce Rebuild Beira established under the municipality together with representatives of (among others) RVO/NL Min. Foreign Affairs and Arcadis. The taskforce assessed the damages, losses, and needs following the cyclone and produced the Beira Municipal Recovery and Resilience Plan to present to the donor community.

1. Recordation of pilot areas

Activities:

• Finishing compensation procedure for land users of the residential area Maraza
• Monitor fair compensation and livelihood restoration of current land users with an additional educational program for the vulnerable segment amongst them.
• Support to inclusive communication within local communities.
• Evaluation of the followed recordation procedures and process into standardised manuals for future recordation procedures.

Deliverables:

• Pilot areas available for development as residential area and/or industrial purposes.
• In depth overview existing LIS applications and advice for selection of LIS application.
• Institutionalized recordation procedures and processes.

2. Digitalisation of the archive and improvement of land administration.

Activities:

• Developed an application to digitize construction files.
• Scanning and digitizing base map material of Beira into a GIS application.
• Creating a connection between administrative data and maps.
• Improvement of inserted data, i.e. by checking on double dossiers
• The introduction of a sustainable Land Administration (information) System and financing thereof.
• In connection with the LIS develop suiting and improved land administration working processes and procedures.
• Ensuring that the database is functional towards municipal taxation processes.

Deliverables:

• Continuation of scanning and inserting of 37.486 land titles into the data base application.
• 10.226 construction dossiers digitalised
• 4.332 titles connected to digital map, 4.539 land titles connected to buildings
• 3.405 scanned ‘tãtulos de adjudicaãão’
• Keys and attributes integrated in the indexation application.
• Key documents within the dossiers are indexed and digitized.
• Most important elements in the documents will be recorded (by data entry) in a database and are index to the documents.
• Easy search of people attached to the plots and vice versa.
• Physical archive stays in the background to answer difficult questions.
• Sustainable digitized data of high quality in the archive
• An implemented LIS
• Institutionalized procedures and processes.Sustainable accessible archive.

3. Increased performance of the municipal organisation

Activities:

• Moderation, advice and training for change processes within the municipal organization and the creation of ownership for these modernization processes within the CMB. This involves (but is not limited to) working amongst and across departments anti-silo and openness for multi-stakeholder processes (e.g. citizens’ participation).
• Active participation of CMB to execute and steer municipal change processes which the senior technical advisor supports (working groups and steering committee).
• Execute training & coaching program for CMB staff to execute 1 and 2, and institutionalize procedures and processes.

Deliverables:

• Increased performance of municipal staff in the fields of recordation, indexation/digitalisation & civil communication.
• Management trained in project- and change management & leadership with regards to land administration, local taxation and other departments of CMB according to their felt needs.
• Strengthened organization.

4. Improvement of property tax revenues

Activities:
Deepened analysis of the actual situation in Beira related to property tax with a focus on:

•  Legal issues and possibilities;
• Organizational and capacity issues and bottlenecks;
• IT related issues, problems and possibilities;
• Relevant new developments such as using mobile phones, POS (Point of Sales systems)devices, bank payments, results of ongoing projects such as Beira Administration (BLAS) Capacity Development Project etc.

Based on the results of this analysis, assisted CMB to develop a strategic plan to increase revenues from property taxes and develop a business case for property tax.

Deliverables:

• Analysis of current situation of property taxation.
• Strategic plan and business case for improvement and modernization of property tax collection.
• Project proposal for additional support.

5. Follow up activities from Kadaster International project

• Improve skills of CMB to implement quality control mechanism for land administration procedures.
• Improvement of quality and accessibility of data.
• Improve skills of all involved CMB staff on using new procedures and processes.
• Update of relevance of existing related municipal policies.
• Taking care that all processes and processes are thoroughly institutionalized and ownership is garanteed

6. Focal point for other project managers of lots (1 to 7)

Tentative Activities:

• Provide information to project managers of other lots to get them up and running.
• Facilitate to establish contacts between the project managers and necessary contact points within the municipality with the aim to stimulate cooperation between departments (anti-silo).
• In view of recent disaster risk analyses which indicate that Beira is vulnerable for tornado / high tides / inundation; the senior technical advisor contributed to activities to work on climate resilience of CMB.
• Hiring of short-term experts on as-needed basis.
• Contribute to / facilitation of a to be set-up municipal team in CMB to oversee municipal sand deposit.
• Organize regular meetings in which in which project activities of various projects within the masterplan are coordinated.

Deliverables:
Project managers are able to get up-and-running more quickly through the right information and entries at CMB.
Various projects are realised in good connection and coordination .

7. VNG Project management missions to Beira