ACCESS TO LAND, WATER, AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Evaluation covers the period 9/79-10/80 and is based on visits to sites and interviews with project personnel. Overall progress of the project during the first year has been excellent. The Land Tenure Center (LTC) of the University of Michigan has assisted Missions in providing consulting services to 17 countries in three of A.I.D."s four regions. Consultation has been in such areas as agrarian reform, land titling, and pastoral tenure policies. LTC, along with LDC professionals, has initiated indepth applied research in Botswana and Nicaragua on land reform. Additional indepth research is planned in Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Mauritania. LTC has completed a draft of a Land Market Interventions State of the Art Paper (SOAP) and is preparing two more SOAP"s on Group Farming and Land Tenure Aspects of Pastoralism. LTC is also considering collaborating with the Institute of Philippine Culture to edit and compile a collection of studies on Philippine Agrarian Reform. A conference was conducted in Managua, Nicaragua on land reform experiences in several different countries. This helped the Government of Nicaragua to review land reform problems they had encountered. A roster was compiled of 160 consultants experienced in improved access of the rural poor to productive assets. The project taught that much effort is required to establish indepth relationships with LDC"s and mutually beneficial agreements between USAID and LDC"s.