GCCA Sector Budget Support for Environment and Natural Resources in Rwanda comes to an end

In Rwanda, GCCA funding has supported the implementation of an ambitious land reform programme, on the premise that if people have clear ownership and security of tenure, they are more likely to invest in sustainable land management. This, in turn, will improve resilience to climate change.

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The EU is one of several development partners that has supported the Government of Rwanda’s ‘Strategic Road Map for Land Reform’. Guided by the National Land Policy of 2004 and the Organic Land Law of 2005, Rwanda embarked on this challenging programme of land reform to formally register all land ownership.  As of May 2013, some 10.3 million parcels of land had been registered and mapped with leases issued for the majority of land parcels.  The Land Tenure Regularisation (LTR) programme, involved national awareness raising, capacity development and information management together with a transparent dispute resolution process to clarify complex and contended customary land ownership claims.

In April 2013, Technical Expert with the GCCA Global Support Facility, Peter Brinn met stakeholders and discussed the GCCA contribution, which has been in the form of sector budget support.  The stakeholders that he consulted, he said, agreed that the way in which the support had operated provided a good example of this approach.

“The programme wa

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s absolutely aligned to the Government of Rwanda’s programme for land reform, with a single indicator for the release of the variable tranche, which was taken directly from the planning document of the government,” he explained. 

Peter also spoke with a number of beneficiaries, who reported that an important advantage of having their land registered was improved access to loans. These, they said, allowed them to send their children to school, and to develop their land’s productivity.

“We are going to see the results in the longer term, of course,” said Peter.“The planting of trees and investment in land management is projected to increase as a result of having the security of tenure over a long term.” 

Visit this page on www.gcca.eu for full details on this project, and lessons learned.