Fact Sheet www.mcc.gov

MCC’s Commitment 

to Property Rights, 

Access to Land, and 

Resource Management

The Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) principle of country 

ownership empowers MCC partner countries, once eligible for an 

MCC compact, to prioritize investments that address their most 

binding constraints to economic growth and poverty reduction. 

Many partner country governments, in consultation with citizens, 

civil society and the private sector, have sought MCC investments 

in property rights and land policy (PRLP) due to the central role 

of land, natural resources and other real property assets in 

economic development. 

Access to a small plot of land for farming can be vital to day-to-day survival of a rural family, providing 

family members with food, household income and potential for lifting themselves out of poverty. Access 

to well-managed grazing areas can support livestock for a large rural community. In urban or peri-urban 

areas, ownership of a small building or other real property asset can provide a poor family with shelter or 

a space for entrepreneurial activities essential to survival and economic growth. A well-functioning PRLP 

system not only helps the poor, but helps investors and companies obtain the land they need to start and 

expand businesses.

Access to land, natural resources and real property assets, however, is not itself sufficient to spur economic development. If rights to these assets are not clear, secure and transferable, people and firms may 

be less likely to make long-term investments in their property. 

Successful PRLP projects can have game-changing effects on economic growth and poverty reduction. 

MCC’s partner countries have used MCC funding to develop and implement new land legislation; form 

new land administration institutions or strengthen the operations of existing institutions; establish new, 

decentralized land tenure services; launch new instruments for recording land rights and land registry 

systems; transform geodetic infrastructure; formalize land rights for thousands of landholders; and pilot 

improved dispute resolution processes. These interventions have been innovative and, in some cases, 

unprecedented in MCC’s partner countries.1

1 Data accurate as of March 31, 2012.

Results to Date 

in Property Rights 

and Land Policy

•	 The porfolio includes investments in 13 of MCC’s 26 

signed compacts and two 

Threshold Programs, for a 

total of over $285 million 

•	 207,623 people educated 

about their property rights

•	 1,480,005 rural 

hectares formalized

•	 19,377 urban 

parcels formalized1
MCC’s Commitment to Property Rights, Access to Land, and Resource Management | May 23, 2012 2

Ensuring access to secure land rights

Legal, regulatory and policy reforms are included in most PRLP projects, allowing for more equitable access to secure rights.

The following five examples are among more than 50 land-related policy reforms that have been adopted 

to date in MCC compacts. Further reforms are expected in coming years in countries with ongoing legal, 

regulatory and policy reform activities, such as Namibia and Mozambique.

In Benin, passage of a rural landholding law in 2007 enacted the principle of recognition of customary 

rights in land as equal to civil law property rights. It established written documents, like a rural 

landholding plan and rural landholding certificate, as recognized instruments for assertion and protection 

of these rights.

In Burkina Faso, a new rural land tenure law includes measures to enhance access to land tenure services by decentralizing aspects of land management to local communities, and provides tools for legal 

recognition of legitimate but previously unrecorded and undocumented rights to land that are rooted in 

traditional tenure systems. 

In Lesotho, a new land act passed in 2010 establishes greater land tenure security for all land occupants, 

helps protect against arbitrary land seizure, enhances gender equity in land ownership and land transactions, and establishes a simplified framework for systematic land registration. In addition, new legislation 

establishes a new professional land administration authority that is autonomous in operations, self-sustaining, and provides efficient and cost-effective land administration services to public and private users. 

In Mongolia, the MCC compact is promoting changes to laws and regulations that will facilitate linkages 

between land mapping and property registration systems and simplify the process by which urban residents can become land owners. 

In Nicaragua, passage of a public registry general law created the necessary legal framework to establish 

an Integrated Cadastre and Registry System, allowing for electronic registration of real estate and reduced 

processing time.

Public outreach campaigns are critical to PRLP investments

Public outreach campaigns inform citizens of their legal property rights and strengthen the capacity of 

local authorities to respect and enforce these rights.

In Liberia, the MCC Threshold Program is designed to increase clarity and public understanding of 

property rights issues, clarifying harmonization of customary land tenure systems with statutory law. A 

multi-media public outreach program will inform the public of the importance of registering deeds and 
MCC’s Commitment to Property Rights, Access to Land, and Resource Management | May 23, 2012 3

methods to avoid fraud and other abuses. The program seeks to rebuild public confidence in the system of 

land administration.

In Namibia and Mongolia, outreach activities support community-based rangeland and livestock 

management programs, helping mitigate problems of over-grazing, degradation of resources, and 

land disputes.

In Burkina Faso, extensive outreach to project beneficiaries and stakeholders supports enhanced understanding of new land legislation, and increases awareness of the project’s rural land governance activities 

and benefits. 

In Mali and Ghana, the compact’s gender integration efforts led to high levels of involvement of women in 

property registration activities. Mali achieved high rates of joint titling of five-hectare farms in the names 

of both husbands and wives.2 In Ghana, over 25 percent of land titles were issued to women, consistent 

with the level of women’s ownership reported in recent studies. These results did not require legal action, 

but rather were achieved through public outreach campaigns that emphasized gender equity. These campaigns were reinforced by gender specialists included in community outreach teams.

In Indonesia, lack of clarity regarding licensing of land use rights and other natural resources, as well 

as disputed village boundaries, contribute to uncertainty that significantly hinders government land use 

planners and service agencies from effectively managing critical natural resources. This, in turn, deters 

sustainable investments. The Indonesia Compact involves a participatory land use planning activity 

that will invest in administrative boundary setting, updating and integration of land use inventories, and 

enhancing spatial plans at the district and provincial levels.

Improving capacity and efficiency

Local and national land administration agencies have benefited from upgrading records management systems, geodetic infrastructure development, and training agency officials in efficient registration processes. 

In Madagascar, new decentralized land offices were opened in municipalities in targeted areas of the 

country. These offices gave municipal governments the tools and human resources to issue land certificates providing legal recognition of traditionally-held rights, in a manner more accessible to the population than traditional land titles. At the same time, regional land administration offices were rehabilitated 

or constructed and a major document conservation and archiving initiative was undertaken, improving 

the ability of the existing regional land administration institutions to perform land titlingrelated functions.3

In Mozambique, the compact supports capacity building for cadastral services in four northern provinces 

and a reconfiguration of the national Land Information Management System. MCC funds provide equipment and technology for cadastral offices; training of provincial, district and municipal cadastral employees; and technical assistance to cadastral offices to implement new technology and 

streamlined procedures. 

2 The MCC Board of Directors voted in May 2012 to terminate the Mali Compact due to an undemocratic change in government.

3 The Madagascar Compact was terminated in May 2009 due to an undemocratic change in government.
MCC’s Commitment to Property Rights, Access to Land, and Resource Management | May 23, 2012 4

In Mali, the MCC compact funded establishment of a new branch of the local property registration office 

near the Alatona Irrigation Project site to prepare and issue titles to the newly irrigated land. 

In Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Lesotho and Mongolia, newly installed continuously operating reference 

stations collect and record GPS data in an automated manner, allowing for data to be easily accessible and 

for surveyors to work more quickly and precisely. 

In Senegal, the Land Tenure Security Activity will strengthen capacity of the local institutions responsible 

for land administration in the zone targeted by the compact’s Irrigation and Water Resource Management 

Project. Reinforced local capacity will improve land administration and mitigate risk of conflict arising 

from increased demand for irrigated land. At the same time, the activity will lay the foundation for transparent, fair and effective procedures for allocation of land rights in the Senegal River Valley. 

In Zambia, the MCC Threshold Program enacted a series of measures that streamlined and improved 

the transparency of the land registration process, reducing the median length of time to process a saletransfer of commercial property from 70 days to less than 30 days. To achieve this increased efficiency, the 

project reorganized the Lands and Deeds office, installed modern scanning and indexing equipment, and 

computerized portions of the cadastral index mapping.

In Cape Verde, the second compact will digitize and index core documents at the Ministry of Justice 

registry to enable faster search of property records, and will link these files to municipal-level information 

about properties. In addition, the project will develop computerized information systems to link tasks 

and information across separate institutions, prioritizing functions fundamental to increasing clarity and 

reducing time and cost of procedures.

Land mapping and registration

Large-scale land mapping and registration campaigns allow citizens to formalize their property rights, 

often for the first time.

In Benin, the MCC compact funded mapping and surveying of citizens’ agricultural fields, and written 

descriptions of customary rights. This work resulted in village landholding plans that formalize land rights 

and give each citizen the right to receive an official certificate, so that customary rights may be recognized 

and protected in courts of law and used in contractual dealings with third parties.

In Ghana, the compact included a pilot project to map and survey more than 2,500 hectares of land on 

which inhabitants did not have formal land rights. Neighboring communities observed the success of the 

project and have requested similar formalization of their land parcels, jump-starting work in an area that 

was at a standstill for years. The government is now better trained and equipped to carry out new formalization efforts.

In Lesotho, rapid growth and uncontrolled expansion of informal housing in urban areas have caused 

large numbers of residents to lack defined property rights. The MCC project is providing legal title to the 
MCC’s Commitment to Property Rights, Access to Land, and Resource Management | May 23, 2012 5

occupants of these parcels at minimal or no cost and bringing them into the formal sector. The occupants 

will become the proprietors of an asset whose value is expected to appreciate substantially with formalization, and will have new incentives to invest in their homes.

Summary of MCC’s land portfolio, in USD millions

Stand-Alone PRLP Projects PRLP Activities that 

Support Larger Projects

PRLP Projects in Threshold Programs

Benin $32.2 Ghana $4 Liberia $7.1

Burkina Faso $59.9 Indonesia $25 Zambia $3.6

Cape Verde II $17.3 Lesotho $20.1

Madagascar $29.5 Mali $1.5

Mongolia $27.2 Namibia $8.1

Mozambique $39.1 Senegal $3.8

Nicaragua $7.2

Total: $212.4 $62.5 $10.7

2011-002-0148-04

For More Information

Please visit www.mcc.gov/land.