Support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reform

The Government of Colombia aims to consolidate security gains by returning illegally seized land, improving land use, and providing access to land for landless farmers. This initiative seeks to discourage illicit crops, improve the livelihoods of farmers and rural inhabitants, and strengthen Colombia's agricultural sector and foster economic growth. To achieve these objectives, the Santos Administration is promoting four separate bills. The Victims Law establishes the legal conditions for reparations to victims of the conflict and the recovery and return of violently seized land. The law shifts the burden of proof from victims to the current occupants, who must prove they purchased the property freely and without coercion and have legitimate titles or leasing agreements. An Administrative Unit with ample budgetary and technical autonomy will process land claims, investigate land ownership, and produce evidence to support land claims in the judicial system. The General Land Law or Law on Rural Development establishes a new regulatory framework to improve land use in Colombia, improve access to land for landless farmers, and discourage the unplanned expansion of the agricultural frontier into forests and other biodiversity-rich protected land. The bill is being developed by the GOC with the assistance of the USAID Public Policy Program and will be presented to Congress in March 2011. The Ley de Facultades Extraordinarias allows the President to enact administrative reforms to restructure GOC Ministries and other GOC agencies without going through Congress, within the six months following the passing of the law. The Procedures Code is being reformed to facilitate the evidence-gathering processes needed for judicial decisions on land titling and restitution, through the use of new information technologies. The USAID Public Policy Program is supporting the Ministry of Interior and Justice in the drafting of the law. The reforms aim to improve the efficiency of the land titling and restitution process. The National Development Plan, to be submitted to Congress on February 7th, includes contributions and recommendations from the USAID PPP on sensitive agricultural policy issues, National Consolidation Plan, IDPs, and Red Juntos, and environment policy among others. The Program has been providing input into the design of the General Land and Rural Development Law for reforming INCODER. The law seeks to strengthen INCODER, expands its functions, and makes it the primary implementer of Colombia's rural development programs. The bill also gives INCODER the responsibility to coordinate all GOC funding for housing, tertiary roads, training, and education to promote value chains and economic development. The "Plan de Choque" is the Government of Colombia's emergency plan to address the restitution and formalization of land for Colombians who were forcibly displaced. Its main objective is to target "low-hanging fruit," resolving land titling processes that have few complications and no judicial implications, in order to build public confidence in the GOC's land titling program and the reform of INCODER. The Plan de Choque has met close to 40% of the Plan's objectives, with USAID funding the majority of the staff implementing the program.