Michael Kirk (1996):
Land Tenure Development and Divestiture in Lao P.D.R.

3. Organizational Development within Agencies of Development Cooperation

Agencies of development cooperation have not in every case been optimally prepared for a far-reaching commitment in the area of resource tenure development:

• Overcoming administrative barriers

Resource tenure development as it has been introduced in Laos and must be continued requires approaches which strongly cross over divisional borders (water, forest, agricultural land, cropping, livestock, logging and fisheries activities etc.). It must be tested whether or not technical (and financial) co-operation in Germany has been optimally prepared. Stronger permeability and communication between technical divisions are necessary, as well as work in comprehensive topic areas, co-ordination of the activities of various divisions, which in part undertake identical analyses and implement identical instruments.

• Political embeddedness of primarily technical approaches

The development of land markets, the building up of land titling systems and the nation-wide registration of land in particular have strong political and social implications. Thus it must be more strongly put into people's consciences that technical solutions alone (such as the building up of a cadastre system) can never be put into practice released from the political environment and can be used as a plaything with by the more powerful interest groups (who primarily serves titling, who is (at first) excluded, which land distribution will be cemented, which additional actors, such as speculators and Mafia-like groupings, will appear?)

This is to be taken into account as regards project planning, its execution and final evaluation, for instance in that administration and social scientists or economists alongside land survey engineers are intensively involved in the project cycle. In addition to this, it must be tested each time how far activities can be developed out of assumptions ("land policy remains unchanged") so as to politically buffer projects of technical and financial cooperation locally.

• Joint approaches between technical and financial cooperation

German development cooperation is highly competent in the setting up of cadastres, land use planning, and the financing of titling programmes, etc. But so far it has not been sufficiently represented in financially strong donors consortiums (a positive example is the PGRN in Bénin), which could have a stronger indirect influence on national land policy through policy dialogue. The conditions of success and risks (e.g. dependence on the respective "donor philosophy") for a more active participation in the invitation for tenders of the international financial donors (World Bank, ADB) for taking over the technical execution should be tested; just as well the stronger cooperation between German technical and financial development cooperation in the area of resource tenure development should be tested.