The SPR 2015 provides a management record of sector progress over the financial years 2006/07-2014/15, identifying issues arising, as background for an analysis of main challenges for the sector. The LHUD sector challenges suggest that there is need to focus on adjustment of policy and strategic orientation, institution reforms, planning and implementation, and financial performance.

Madam Speaker and Honorable Members, the vision of my Ministry is “Sustainable Land Use, Land Tenure Security, Affordable, Decent Housing and Organized Urban Development”. The Mission is “To ensure sustainable land management, planned urban and rural development and decent housing for all”. The Mandate is “To ensure rational and sustainable use, effective management of land and orderly development of urban and rural areas as well as safe, planned and adequate housing for socio-economic development”.

The MLHUD Sector Strategic Plan for Statistics (SSPS) is a 5 year (2007/8 – 2011/12) plan which provides a framework for further reform and acceleration of statistical development in the sector statistical system. This Plan is intended to guide the development of an integrated, coordinated and coherent statistical system which ensures harmonized data production processes at all levels of administration. Although the Ministry is relatively new, it strives to obtain quality statistics.

Despite the challenges and constraints faced by my Ministry in the last financial year, we were able to register major achievements which include; commencement of the process of consultation on the development of a National Land Policy; submission of the Mortgage Bill to Parliament, approval of the National Land Use Policy by Cabinet; preparation to launch Global Campaigns on Secure Tenure and Good Governance; piloting Systematic Demarcation in Iganga district where 785 parcels of land were prepared; aerial mapping of selected towns in West Nile region; completion of the first phase of the

Madam Speaker and Honorable Members, the vision of my Ministry is “Sustainable Land Use, Land Tenure Security, Affordable, Decent Housing and Organized Urban Development”.

The Mission is “To ensure sustainable land management, planned urban and rural development and decent housing for all”. The Mandate is “To ensure rational and sustainable use, effective management of land and orderly development of urban and rural areas as well as safe, planned and adequate housing for socio-economic development”.

The Ministerial Policy Statement is split in two main sections; Section A, which provides an overview of performance and plans for the Ministry, Central Votes and local governments and Section B, which provides past performance and future plans for each Vote Function in detail, in addition to Cross Cutting and other Budgetary Issues.

• Section A: Ministry and Vote Overview .

A nation formed just 10 years ago, Timor-Leste struggles to overcome complex challenges of land ownership and use rights that were created under Portuguese and Indonesian rule. Competing land claims between individuals, and between individuals and the state, are quite common and occasionally result in armed conflict and deaths. Complicating the problem is the absence of a property rights legal framework in which to address land matters.

Land restitution carries implicit recognition of some previous claim to ownership, but when are first claims recognized? The concepts of first possession and original acquisition have long been used as entry points to Western concepts of property. For Austronesia, the concept of precedence is used in customary systems to justify and describe land claims and Indigenous authority. Conflict and political change in Timor-Leste have highlighted the co-existence of multiple understandings of land claims and their legitimacy.

Among the main objectives of the Nigerian Land Use Decree of 1978 were:

In a watershed moment for land rights in Liberia and across Africa, President George Weah on Sept. 19 signed into law a land reform bill that extends land rights to millions of rural Liberians.

The Land Rights Act ensures, for the first time, that the land rights of rural Liberians are recognized, protected, and guaranteed by law – an essential ingredient for these communities to achieve secure land rights. Under the previous land tenure system, as much as 80 percent of Liberians lived without legally recognized rights to land.

Mounting exclusionary forces have made the task of achieving equity in urban land delivery more elusive than it has ever been. Statistics show that, in practice, most land for urban development (especially that occupied by the poor) is supplied outside state regulatory frameworks and there is overwhelming evidence of the importance of secure access to land and housing to the livelihood strategies of poor urban households.

Most literature on land tenure in sub-Saharan Africa has presented women as a homogenous group. This study uses evidence from Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe to show that women have differentiated problems, needs, and statuses in their quest for land access and tenure security. It illustrates how women-to-women differences influence women’s access to land. By investigating differentiations in women’s land tenure in the three countries, the study identifies multiple and somewhat interlinked ways in which differentiations exist in women’s land tenure. It achieved some key outcomes.