Land tenure/A. I. P.

The project will train a cadre of specialists within the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), undertake a field intervention, and organize two colloquia. A U.S. university will assist in implementation. (1) Four MRD staff members will receive a combination of U.S. academic training (including English-language training) and in-country field experience and will form the core of a new policy/action group with the MRD. Their training will encompass legal, applied social science, and resource management perspectives on land tenure, enabling them to: (1) analyze and recommend land tenure policies on a national level; (2) intervene in specific situations to analyze important social, economic, and legal factors; and (3) work as a technical liaison between affected communities and GIRM adjudication authorities to establish mutually acceptable resolutions to land tenure problems consistent with both equity and production needs. (2) For its applied field intervention, the project will analyze and resolve the land tenure problems of an existing, major rural development project. Several USAID/M-supported projects (e.g., Rural Land Reclamation or Renewable Resources Management) have been seen as possible candidates for this activity. However, non-USAID projects will also be considered for assistance. The intervention will be carried out by the cadre being trained and a consultant team from the contracted university. (3) A national and a regional colloquium will be organized, the latter to be conducted in conjunction with the field intervention in order to sensitize regional personnel and integrate them into the resolution process. A series of carefully planned alternations between in-country activities and U.S. studies has been worked out. Funding for training expenses will be continued beyond the 2-year subproject life, in order to allow participants to obtain Master"s degrees.