MCC in Action www.mcc.gov

Policy Reforms in Land Administration 

Stimulate Private Sector Investment 

Tens of thousands of people live 

on unregistered land plots in 

unplanned settlements around 

Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. 

These settlements are often 

characterized by lack of access 

to basic services and insecure 

tenure—which can minimize the 

investment people make in their 

property and limit their access to 

mortgage credit. 

The Millennium Challenge 

Corporation’s (MCC) five-year, 

$363 million compact with 

Lesotho is helping reform the 

country’s land sector by registering and surveying urban land 

parcels, which should ultimately 

strengthen the country’s land 

market and stimulate private 

sector investment. The compact’s Private Sector Development Project aims to increase private sector economic activity through land reform, improve access to credit, reduce transaction costs, and increase the 

participation of women in the formal economy. The project is expected to benefit almost 370,000 people 

over 20 years. 

In the past, formal procedures to access land were difficult to navigate, forcing many citizens to occupy 

land or purchase it informally to construct housing. Between 50,000 and 75,000 such households live 

around Maseru, and the compact’s Land Reform Activity is helping the Government of Lesotho regularize 

these land holdings and issue a formal leasehold title to the occupants. Basotho can use this land title as 

collateral to access credit and other services. 

The project gathered information on more than 5,000 plots of land and issued 3,333 leases to occupants 

under a pilot title regularization activity that concluded last year. In April 2012, a contractor began work 

on regularizing and titling 46,000 land plots, which will continue over the next 18 months. The Basotho 

government aims to regularize another 5,000 parcels by September 2012.

Beneficiaries receive leases in Khubetsoana, a village inside of Maseru.
Policy Reforms in Land Administration Stimulate Private Sector Investment  | June 25, 2012 2 2012-002-1107-01

Women’s Land Rights

MCC is supporting the expansion of women’s economic rights through legal reform, including the harmonization of laws (including the new Land Act) with the 2006 Legal Capacity of Married Persons Act, which 

removed the minority status of married women. The compact also provides training and public outreach 

to ensure awareness of these new rights, creating the conditions for joint titling, an important step forward for gender equality and economic development. 

Reforming key policies

To ensure sustainability of the project, MCC is supporting the improvement of the legal and regulatory 

framework for land administration. The Government of Lesotho recently passed a new Land Act and 

implementing regulations to improve tenure security, provide market-value compensation in case of expropriation and establish the legal basis for land regularization and titling of land in informal settlements. 

MCC is supporting the drafting and passage of the Sectional Title Act and regulations for condominiums 

to be legally titled in Lesotho for the first time. 

The compact is also helping improve the performance of the Land Administration Authority, a stateowned body established in August 2011, to implement changes in land laws and to improve procedures 

related to issuing leases, land registration and real estate transactions. Improvements include staff training, equipment, vehicles, and the development of an automated system to prepare and issue leasehold 

titles, register rights to real estate, process transactions, and collect ground rents.