Attachment_16_-_LRDP_FY18Q4_ANNUAL_REPORT__(1).pdf

OCTOBER 2018

This publication was produced for review by the

United States Agency for International Development.

It was prepared by Tetra Tech.

COLOMBIA LAND AND RURAL

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

ANNUAL REPORT

OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018

Cover photo: Cacao farmers in Tolima construct a low-cost water-harvesting tank that will help them ensure that their crops survive during times of drought. They learned this technique through field schools as part of an LRDP-led public-private partnership.

All photos are the property of USAID unless otherwise specified.

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International

Development by Tetra Tech ARD through the Colombia Land and Rural Development Program

Task Order under the Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights (STARR) Indefinite Quantity

Contract (USAID Contract No. AID-EPP-I-00-06-00008, Task Order No. AID-514-TO-13-00015).

Prepared by: Tetra Tech ARD

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Principal Contacts: Adriana Velez, Chief of Party

Adriana.Velez@ColombiaLRDP.com

Cara Mitchell, Project Manager

Cara.Mitchell@TetraTech.com mailto:Adriana.Velez@ColombiaLRDP.com mailto:Cara.Mitchell@TetraTech.com

COLOMBIA LAND AND

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAM

ANNUAL REPORT

OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018

OCTOBER 2018

DISCLAIMER

The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the

United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) i

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... i

Acronyms and Abbreviations ...................................................................................................... iii

Executive Summary

Introduction and Background

Project Activities

Operations

Annex A: Project Specific Performance Indicators ...................................................................... I

Annex B: Success Story .................................................................................................... XXXVII

Annex C: Project Brief ........................................................................................................ XXXIX

Annex D: Organizational Chart ................................................................................................ XLI

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) iii

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AMEP Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

DAICMA Dirección para la Acción Integral contra Minas Antipersonal (Directorate for

Comprehensive Action Against Antipersonnel Mines)

GAP Good agricultural practices

GOC Government of Colombia

IGAC Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute)

INCODER Instituto Colombiano de Desarrollo Rural (Colombian Institute for Rural

Development)

INCORA Instituto Colombiano para la Reforma Agraria (Colombian National Institute of

Agrarian Reform)

LRDP Land and Rural Development Program

LRU Unidad de Restitución de Tierras (Land Restitution Unit)

MARD Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural

Development)

MinTic Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (Ministry of

Information Technologies and Communications)

PPP Public-private partnership

RTDAF Registro de Tierras Despojadas y Abandonadas Forzosamente (Registry of

Dispossessed and Forcibly Abandoned Lands)

SENA Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Learning Service)

SNR Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro (Superintendence of Notary and

Registry)

STARR Strengthening Tenure and Resource Rights

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USG US government

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 1

Executive Summary

CONTEXT

In June, the Duque administration took office, which has meant a great deal of uncertainty in terms of the direction that land and rural development issues will take in Colombia. Thus far, the administration’s strategy seems to approach land as but one of many public goods within a wider rural development agenda. Indeed, President Duque and his team talk of “stabilization of the countryside” (estabilización de los territorios), which avoids an emphasis on post-conflict and on land issues as a key driver of conflict.

For USAID’s Land and Rural Development Program (LRDP), the government transition has posed challenges because, on the one hand, key positions within our counterpart agencies have yet to be filled and, on the other, those individuals who have taken office seem to have a different vision of rural development priorities. For example, the new minister of agriculture and rural development has focused much of his attention to date on large value chains (such as palm oil and rice) and on trade-related issues, as opposed to the development needs of low-income rural communities. In this regard, we have been liaising with the vice minister of rural development in the hopes of securing a champion for the program’s work who can bring visibility to our results and methodologies and help ensure their uptake by the new administration.

With regard to another main counterpart, the National Land Agency, a new director has been appointed, but many of the key positions within the agency remain unfilled, which is of great concern in terms of our massive formalization pilot in Ovejas (Sucre). With just a few months left before LRDP comes to a close and much to do in Ovejas in order to deliver property titles to residents, we are concerned that the agency’s slow transition will become a significant barrier to maintaining the pilot’s schedule. The success of this pilot depends on the adoption of a massive, or large-scale, approach to titling—and whereas we are embracing such an approach in our field work, the National Land Agency does not seem to be making the necessary preparations (such as hiring bigger teams and using different processing tactics) in order to maintain the same rhythm. This runs the risk of us delivering the required information to the National Land Agency and then having this information stagnate on the desks of agency staff, causing the promise of property titles for Ovejas residents to become a distant dream.

In this light—and since we have been unable to meet personally with the agency’s new director— we will work to make the pilot a priority within the

Office of the Presidency and the Ministry of

Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) so that they can instruct the agency to do its part to complete the pilot as scheduled. This is to the benefit of the entire government of Colombia

The massive formalization pilot in Ovejas represents one of the Colombian government’s best hopes for achieving the ambitious formalization targets set out in the peace accord.

2 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

(GOC), for completing the pilot as originally planned will allow the National Land Agency and the administration as a whole to claim impressive titling results within just a few months as part of an innovative and first-of-its-kind effort.

In terms of land restitution, a new director of the Land Restitution Unit (LRU) has yet to be appointed, and the country’s restitution policy seems to be in danger. For one, the LRU recently issued a decree indicating that the restitution process is “closing” in certain regions of the country, which prohibits victims in these regions from coming forward in the future with new restitution claims. This goes against the spirit of the Victims Law, which is supposed to make the restitution process available to all until 2021. Second, a draft bill is being prepared for Congress that threatens to make the restitution process more onerous by, among other things, increasing the burden of proof for victims. In this regard, the Swiss Agency for Development and

Cooperation is gathering signatures for a petition that expresses the international community’s disapproval of these new changes, which deprive victims of their rights.

One of our strategies in the face of these challenges is to find ways for national-level entities to recognize the value of our local- and regional-level work, where important advances are being made to improve the livelihoods and well-being of rural families. For example, we have made inroads with the new vice minister of infrastructure with regard to our work on tertiary road studies and inventories, which help ensure that rural residents have more and better access to markets, public services, and other development opportunities. As a result, the ministry has promised to help secure financing for the El Castillo – Lejanías tertiary road whose design we supported in the department of Meta, as well as a tertiary road in Ataco (Tolima) whose construction has been ordered as part of a restitution ruling. Over the remaining months of the program, we will continue to pursue strategies such as these in order to show the new administration the critical headway that mayors’ and governors’ offices are making in responding to their communities’ needs.

KEY ADVANCES

LRDP made notable advances during year 5 to accelerate the land restitution process, enhance the planning and resource capacity of local governments, create information technology systems that improve the speed and efficiency of land-related services, implement the country’s first massive land formalization exercise, and mobilize public-private partnerships (PPPs) that are supported by local governments. These integrated achievements contribute to increased state presence, citizen security, and sustainable livelihoods in conflict-affected regions. Key highlights include the following:

Digitization of property registration files and cadastral files complete. We completed our ambitious digitization activities for the Superintendence of Notary and Registry (SNR) and the

Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC), representing the digitization of 5.4 million paper-based files for these entities. For IGAC, we digitized 2.9 million cadastral files, which not only streamlined restitution and formalization processes but also helped the GOC comply with the first point of the peace accords through the provision of secure land tenure to rural citizens.

For the SNR, we digitized 2.4 million property registration files, which form the backbone of the country’s land-related processes, as they indicate a property’s location, type, and transaction history. By making paper-based files available electronically, we are playing an important role in increasing the transparency and security of land data, as well as supporting

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 3 restitution and formalization processes aimed at fulfilling victims’ and campesinos’ property rights.

Parcel sweep moving ahead in Ovejas formalization pilot. This high-stakes and politically important pilot for the Colombian government faced several unexpected obstacles during the year that we successfully managed to overcome in collaboration with government counterparts. Despite these challenges, we successfully completed the pilot’s preparation, training, and technical-legal diagnosis phases, and then commenced the most substantive portion of the activity, which is the parcel sweep phase; by the end of September, we had completed 4,442 topographic surveys. This pilot represents the government of Colombia’s best hope for meeting one of the goals set in its peace accord, which seeks to title 7 million hectares to rural families, since it promises to offer critical reductions in the cost and time required for land formalization.

Ethnic restitution cases advance to key milestone. Five different restitution claims—three on behalf of the indigenous Yukpa people in Cesar and two on behalf of the indigenous

Sikuani in Meta—that we supported were entered into the Registry of Dispossessed and

Forcibly Abandoned Lands (RTDAF) by the LRU. This is an important step in the restitution process whereby the case files are officially approved by the LRU and then submitted to restitution judges for a final ruling. For indigenous communities in particular, it is a significant milestone indicating the completion of the long and arduous evidence-gathering phase. If ruled in the communities’ favor, the cases stand to return nearly 2,000 hectares of land to indigenous communities, thus ensuring their physical and cultural survival.

Uptake of PPP methodology by Rural Development Agency. The Rural Development

Agency officially adopted our innovative PPP methodology as part of its “Model for the Care and Provision of Services in Support of Commercialization.” This methodology—which we have implemented in the cacao, coffee, milk, and plantain value chains, among others— stands out for its emphasis on public-sector participation (which encourages long-term sustainability), its incorporation of farmers who are victims of the armed conflict, and its linking of producers’ associations to markets. The agency’s uptake of the methodology represents a major achievement for the program in terms of our efforts to strengthen the GOC’s capacity to respond to the rural development needs of conflict-affected communities and to ensure more effective public investments.

LRDP’s innovative methodology for public-private partnerships encourages a high level of public-sector participation and places an emphasis on involving farmers who are victims of the armed conflict.

4 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

Introduction and Background

LRDP began in July 2013 and is a five-year task order under the Strengthening Tenure and

Resource Rights Indefinite Quantity Contract. In March 2018, LRDP was granted an extension for another several months, from July 2018 through March 2019. The program assists the GOC in improving its ability to resolve the many complicated land issues that have plagued the country for years and that must be resolved to achieve a lasting peace.

Our four integrated objectives also form the program’s structural components:

1. Improved capacity of the GOC at the regional and national levels to restitute lands to victims of conflict (Restitution Component).

2. Improved capacity of regional and national GOC institutions to formalize rural property rights and to allocate public lands (baldíos) (Formalization Component).

3. Improved capacity of regional and national government entities to mobilize and execute public resources for rural public goods (Rural Development Component).

4. Improved information available and efficiently used to deliver land rights services (Information

Sharing and Management Component).

After four years of intense negotiations in Havana, Cuba, between the GOC and the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, both parties signed a peace accord in the final months of 2016 with the intent of ending more than 50 years of civil war. Although several controversies swirled around the final terms of the agreement, they did not center on the agreement’s commitments to strengthen land tenure security and rural livelihoods, giving the program significant latitude to continue collaborating with the GOC to facilitate restitution, strengthen smallholder land rights, and mobilize the provision of public goods and services in historically neglected rural areas—and thereby create the conditions for sustaining peace. Our results are achieved through the following approaches:

Adapting to an ever-changing sociopolitical environment to effectively engage new government institutions and new local government authorities.

Defining and promoting the adoption of international best practices for implementing quick, efficient, scalable land formalization activities to ensure that citizens have secure land tenure on paper and in practice.

Developing methods for protecting land from being irregularly acquired and for identifying abandoned, illegally adjudicated, or stolen land, so as to create a reserve of land that can be provided to victims of conflict.

Accelerating the processing of restitution claims, ensuring that the interests of good-faith secondary occupants are protected, and ensuring that local governments are equipped to comply with restitution rulings.

Identifying and tackling constraints to efficiently move national-level government funding into rural areas to increase access of rural communities to public goods, services, and markets.

Identifying and proposing solutions to specific land tenure access problems faced by women and ethnic minorities.

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 5

Partnering across government institutions in the design, establishment, and maintenance of land-related knowledge management systems that will allow all public agencies to share information in real time, reducing the time associated with land-related transactions.

Strengthening coordination among USAID implementing partners in the regions where we work to maximize efficiencies and reduce the duplication of efforts.

In Tolima, an LRDP-supported public-private partnership in the coffee value chain incentivizes farmers to produce high-quality coffee apt for international markets.

6 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

Project Activities

COMPONENT 1: IMPROVED CAPACITY OF THE GOC AT THE

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL LEVELS TO RESTITUTE LAND TO

VICTIMS OF CONFLICT

Ethnic restitution cases in Cesar and Meta. Increasing the number of families benefiting from ethnic restitution cases is an important LRU and LRDP objective. Throughout year 5, we continued to help the LRU prepare “characterization studies” for indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities—a key piece of evidentiary material that must be completed before an ethnic restitution case can proceed to a judge. A well-done study significantly increases the chances that these communities will have their land rights restored.

Guacoche (Cesar). We supported the Guacoche case with the delivery of the final version of the characterization study, as well as a draft of the case’s legal complaint, which will facilitate the legwork required by the LRU to submit the case to restitution judges. The case is expected to be filed after the

LRU organizes a community assembly to address a pending conflict with non-Afro residents in the territory in question (specifically with an indigenous community). If ruled in the Guacoche community’s favor, the case is expected to return 1,432 hectares to 255 families.

Yukpa (Cesar). In June, the LRU entered three ethnic restitution cases pertaining to the indigenous Yukpa people in La Paz into the RTDAF. With this important step, the cases are now ready for review by restitution judges. We supported the preparation of these case files in 2016 through the development of characterization studies and a draft of the legal complaints. If ruled in the communities’ favor, the cases stand to return 1,129 hectares of land to 155 indigenous families.

Sikuani (Meta). In July, two more restitution cases supported by LRDP were entered into the RTDAF. These cases, which center on the Sikuani community from Puerto Gaitán, stand to benefit 692 indigenous families. In a letter thanking

LRDP for its support in this case, LRU’s regional director for Meta noted that the country’s armed conflict “endangered the physical and cultural survival of the Sikuani people, especially in light of their special vulnerability as a semi-nomadic group that depends on the resources of

Meta’s fragile ecosystems,” underscoring the importance of protecting this community’s collective land rights.

The Sikuani community in Puerto Gaitán (Meta) seeks to regain access to ancestral territory.

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 7

ELADIO ARIZA UPDATE

This year, restitution judges issued precautionary measures on behalf of the Eladio

Ariza Afro-Colombian community in Bolívar, ordering the National Land Agency to formally delimit the community’s territory to prevent further infringements to their territorial rights.

Shortly thereafter, the National Land Agency took the first step in compliance by conducting an on-site visit to the territory.

This emblematic restitution case stands to recover 1,800 hectares to the Eladio Ariza

Community Council, an Afro-Colombian community from Colombia’s Caribbean coast that lost much of its ancestral territory during the country’s armed conflict. In the early years of the program, we assisted the community and the LRU with substantiating and preparing the community’s restitution claim. After several procedural setbacks, the LRU resubmitted the case to restitution judges in September 2017, where it now awaits a final ruling.

Direct support for restitution. We continued to provide direct assistance to the LRU in moving cases through the restitution process, both through case support during the administrative and judicial phases and by securing legal representation for secondary occupants. In total, we supported 1,574 cases this year. Of these, 283 relate to powers of attorney for secondary occupants.

In this vein, we also concluded our work with the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), whom we had hired to help resolve 35 complex restitution cases in Cesar, Meta, and Montes de

María. This activity laid an important foundation for coordination between the CCJ and the LRU to work together to resolve bottlenecks, such as those relating to secondary occupants and issues in the post-ruling stage. In particular, the

CCJ developed a litigation strategy for restitution cases and offered several recommendations, including the following:

Collective cases (as opposed to individual claims) offer a useful vehicle for saving time in litigation and ensuring a more congruent and comprehensive approach in restitution rulings.

A differentiated approach is necessary to ensure that women become titleholders of the land to which they contribute.

Secondary occupants should continue to be a focus of the restitution process, and it is important to integrate the interests of vulnerable secondary occupants into restitution claims so that their rights can be recognized.

In cases that have third-party opponents (such as mining companies), it is important to respect the right of due process so that the cases are not later declared null by judges. It is also important to accompany victims during conciliation meetings with opponents.

Restitution claims should incorporate human rights and environmental approaches in order to ensure comprehensive reparations for victims, as well as environmental justice. In addition, the presence of environmental impacts on a particular land parcel should not constitute grounds for denying victims their right to restitution. In this regard, it is important to keep in mind that environmental protection measures do not cancel out the right to property but rather merely require that the land in question be used for environmentally suitable activities.

“Decongestion chambers”—temporary judicial chambers established to help resolve lags in the restitution process—should exist for longer periods of time in order to adequately finalize legal proceedings.

8 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

Supporting the post-ruling phase. This year, much of our restitution work focused on supporting the post-ruling phase in order to ensure that restitution beneficiaries can effectively enjoy their rights to land, housing, and sustainable livelihoods, among others.

One aspect of this effort involved the formulation of projects aimed at guaranteeing restitution beneficiaries’ collective enjoyment of their rights. In El Dorado (Meta), we helped the municipality formulate a productive project for coffee cultivation for 11 restituted families. In Ataco (Tolima), we formulated a water-harvesting and hog-raising project for 109 restitution beneficiaries and a project aimed at improving a road that connects 600 restituted families with the urban center of

Ataco. Finally, in San Diego (Cesar), we formulated a proposal for a sheep-raising project supporting 57 women (28 victims of the conflict and 29 beneficiaries of the Toco ruling). These proposals have been submitted to relevant institutions at the national, regional, and municipal level, where they currently await financing. Importantly, in all three regions, we are exploring the possibility, together with the LRU, of linking these restitution beneficiaries with LRDP-supported

PPPs, as well as designing a roadmap that assists the LRU in making such linkages in the future.

Another facet of this effort focused on the development of local-level electronic information systems that facilitate compliance with restitution rulings. Whereas the first two phases of the land restitution process (the administrative phase and the judicial phase) are each led by one actor (the LRU and restitution judges, respectively), the post-ruling phase, which focuses on compliance, involves a host of entities and no clear pathway on how to proceed. In just one ruling, restitution judges can order dozens of actions by just as many entities, from issues regarding health to education to infrastructure. To facilitate the realization of victims’ rights, we developed an electronic information system that assists governors’ and mayors’ offices in interpreting and carrying out the orders of restitution judges. It allows entities to systematize restitution orders according to the department or branch responsible for fulfilling them, to monitor their compliance, and to generate electronic reports on their level of compliance for oversight authorities. Thus far, the system has been rolled out for the departmental governments of Meta and Tolima and the municipal governments of Ataco (Tolima) and Puerto Gaitán (Meta), where it is facilitating compliance with 818 restitution rulings. In the coming months, we plan to install the system in additional municipalities, including El Castillo (Meta) and El Carmen de Bolívar and

Ovejas (Montes de María).

Assisting the National Land Agency in formalizing land for restitution beneficiaries. We continued to support the National Land Agency with the resolution of formalization orders issued by restitution judges, specifically by designing a methodology to help the agency address restitution-related orders more efficiently. With the implementation of this methodology, the agency was able to issue 82 land titles this year for the beneficiaries of complex restitution cases, including in Montes de María and Tolima. This methodology is important in light of the fact that land titling is the step that triggers fulfillment of other orders from restitution judges, such as those relating to productive projects and housing.

Analysis of gender focus in restitution rulings and implementation. We officially concluded this activity, which consisted of two parts: (1) an analysis of 51 restitution rulings that sought to gauge the presence or absence of a gender focus, as well as the level of implementation of this focus among the GOC entities responsible for fulfilling restitution-related court orders, and (2) the construction of institutional action plans for compliance with restitution measures directed to women, specifically with regard to their rights to housing and psychosocial health.

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 9

This year, we finished the second phase of the analysis. We worked with land subcommittees in

Cesar and Montes de María, as well as with entities responsible for complying with housing- and health-related orders, such as the Victims Unit, Ministry of Housing, and Ministry of Health, to design proposals and action plans for adjusting interinstitutional processes aimed at better complying with court orders from a gender perspective. At the end of the activity, we organized a national-level event to share the results with a wide range of government partners responsible for implementing restitution orders.

We also distributed two educational booklets to key stakeholders (including the National Land

Agency, the LRU, the Rural Women’s Directorate of MARD, and others) that provide easy-to-follow guidance on how to incorporate a gender approach into their work. The materials were well received by the entities.

Evidentiary guide for restitution. This year, we completed a three-part evidentiary guide that the LRU had asked us to develop in order to facilitate the analysis of restitution cases in the administrative phase. This guide adds value to the restitution process by standardizing the elements that must be considered at each step of the administrative phase in order for the LRU to make consistent and evidence-based decisions on the merits of restitution claims (namely, whether to include claims in the RTDAF). After completing the guide, we organized a training for the LRU’s regional-level staff on how to use it.

Communications publication on institutional memory for LRU. With the aim of communicating its main achievements and lessons learned to the Duque administration, the LRU developed a two-volume set consisting of a text publication and a photography book. For the text publication, we helped prepare the chapter on the role of international development organizations, including USAID, in land restitution. We also financed its layout and printing. The

LRU launched the two volumes in July during the International Congress of Land Restitution.

Collaboration with Justice for Sustainable Peace. We facilitated collaboration among the

LRU, the Superior Judicial Council, and the USAID program Justice for Sustainable Peace in order to ensure the sustainability of two electronic information systems previously developed by

LRDP for the Superior Judicial Council. These systems make the restitution process more agile and transparent: the first system assigns restitution cases to judges without revealing who the judge is, which helps prevent bribes and other forms of corruption from interfering in the judicial process, while the second system acts as a clearinghouse for restitution orders by sending alerts directly to the public entities responsible for fulfilling each order. Justice for Sustainable Peace is supporting the training of Superior Judicial Council staff in the use of these systems, as well as in the digitization of orders into the latter system. Facilitating the judicial phase of the restitution process is critical now that the LRU has completed the bulk of the administrative phase and cases are now reaching judges’ desks at an increased rate.

Another area in which we collaborated with Justice for Sustainable Peace relates to cross-checking information on the status of the National Land Agency’s compliance with restitution orders and assisting the agency with fulfilling its compliance where needed.

10 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

COMPONENT 2: IMPROVED CAPACITY OF REGIONAL AND NATIONAL

GOC ENTITIES TO FORMALIZE RURAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND TO

ALLOCATE PUBLIC LANDS (BALDÍOS)

Massive formalization pilot in Ovejas. The Ovejas pilot merges systematic land formalization with the collection of information to inform the creation of the multipurpose cadaster and has had to conform to a new law (Decree 902) governing land titling and laying out rigorous new standards for cadastral updating. This year, we completed the preparation, training, and technical-legal diagnosis phases, and we began the parcel sweep phase.

Parcel sweeps—which were the main focus throughout the year—are an intensive endeavor involving topographic surveys, legal analyses, and social accompaniment; in addition, some cases require the use of alternative conflict resolution mechanisms to help families agree on the ownership of a particular parcel. With this phase in full swing, we are pleased to report that (1) our information systems are working efficiently and we are making the necessary adjustments as required throughout the process; (2) the alternative conflict resolution mechanisms have been successful in helping residents overcome disputes with their neighbors; and (3) the community as a whole appears enthusiastic about the pilot and the promise of secure tenure. Moreover, we strengthened the social component of the parcel sweep in order to foster a greater level of trust among the community. For example, community promoters now have an expanded role in which they actually take part in the parcel sweeps, which was not part of the original design. This enhanced involvement has been key in ensuring the community’s receptivity to the activity.

Table 1 outlines our parcel sweep progress during the year. We are on schedule to complete the parcel sweep phase by the end of October 2018 and to upload all relevant information to the

National Land Agency’s information system by the end of November 2018.

TABLE 1 – PARCEL SWEEP PROGRESS

Town (corregimiento)

Topographic surveys Judicial visits Social accompaniment cases

Cases resolved through alternative conflict resolution mechanisms Populated areas Remote rural areas Populated areas Remote rural areas

Canutalito 315 114 315 87 16 2

Canutal 402 358 403 335 46 4

Flor del Monte 521 292 463 384 38 2

San Rafael 330 248 281 0 40 3

La Peña 334 114 299 0 22 0

El Floral 20 142 167 52 0 0

Chengue 68 30 319 0 0 0

Don Gabriel 311 157 30 0 0 0

Salitral 109 45 19 0 0 0

Pijiguay 184 210 82 0 0 0

Almagra 37 101 51 0 0 0

TOTAL 2,631 1,811 2,429 858 162 11

Significant advances were also made in the nontechnical studies required to determine the area’s safety with regard to land mines. These studies, conducted by Colombia’s marines, became necessary after the Directorate for Comprehensive Action Against Antipersonnel Mines

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 11

(DAICMA) increased Ovejas’s classification to level 2, which indicates an intermediate risk for presence of land mines. We played a key coordination role with the marines in order to ensure that this activity was a priority for them. This year, 33 of Ovejas’s 46 towns were declared mine free; 4 were found to contain land mines; and 9 still need to be assessed (see map 1).

MAP 1 – LAND MINE PRESENCE IN OVEJAS

With a politically important and high-stakes interagency effort such as this one, it is natural for legal and operational obstacles to arise during the course of implementation. This year, we successfully surmounted several such barriers, including the following:

Redesign of the pilot in the face of important legal reforms, namely Decree 902 of 2017 and

Resolution 740 of 2017, both issued by the National Land Agency, which seek to establish a unified procedure for land formalization and to provide operational guidelines for land use management plans, respectively. These reforms required us to rework the pilot’s methodology, personnel, and field work structure.

Lifting of advisory alerts issued by the LRU. Without this action, the National Land Agency would not agree to issue titles for baldíos in Ovejas.

Revamping of pilot’s technical standards (specifically concerning the precision of topographical measurements) in order to meet the objectives laid out by IGAC with regard to the country’s multipurpose cadaster.

Adjustments to the pilot’s product-validation framework, which switched from an independent group of validators to various validation groups within relevant entities (National Land Agency validates legal information; IGAC validates cadastral information; National Planning

Department validates methodological information for multipurpose cadaster).

12 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

Adaptation of pilot’s information-gathering system to LADM Colombia (the Land Administration

Domain Model, as designed to meet the requirements of Colombian law).

Design and implementation of a digital application that records information collected in the field and uploads it to the National Land Agency’s integrated land system, allowing immediate access by agency staff.

Coordination with the mayor’s office of Ovejas and the Ministry of Housing regarding the municipality’s Territorial Management Scheme, to agree on an interpretation of the baldíos in

“populated areas” (centros poblados). The mayor’s office issued a notice with guidelines stating that such baldíos should be treated as rural (as opposed to urban), thus requiring their formalization by the National Land Agency instead of the municipal government.

Implementation of mixed methodology for parcel measurement. In order to guarantee the pilot’s replicability, particularly in terms of cost and efficiency, we proposed a mix of topographical measurements and photo interpretation. This new methodology is being used for restituted parcels, for parcels that are particularly difficult to measure, and for parcels that already have property titles.

These obstacles have offered lessons learned that we have documented in great technical detail and will share with the GOC and other key counterparts as part of our dissemination strategy for the pilot. This strategy will also include an analysis of cost and time reductions. We are organizing a series of workshops for November and

December 2018 with key stakeholders (including the GOC, the international cooperation community, and academia) with the ultimate goal of informing the methodology’s replication in other regions of the country.

Nonetheless, several additional challenges have emerged in recent months that require attention:

Compliance with pilot’s projected time frame. Once a parcel sweep is completed for a given corregimiento, there are nine remaining steps—as required by Decree

902—that must be completed before residents can receive their land titles. According to the time frame that relevant entities agreed on for this phase of the pilot, these ten steps should be completed within a 44-day span. However, this is currently not the case: LRDP’s pilot team is reaching step 3, which consists of delivering parcel sweep information to the National Land Agency, but the agency has been slow to move forward with the following steps that fall within its realm of responsibility. Meeting this challenge requires the adoption of a “massive” titling approach as opposed to the usual “on-demand” procedures that the National Land Agency has utilized.

This means assigning additional personnel and prioritizing the pilot within the agency’s technical units, among other operational decisions.

Baldíos in gas-exploitation area. Currently, the 480 baldíos of Canutal are non-adjudicable because they fall within the radius of a resource extraction permit held by Hocol, a private gas company. In order to deliver these lands to campesinos, the National Land Agency must

A member of the pilot team in Ovejas takes measurements as part of the parcel sweep process.

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 13 utilize the “use contract” mechanism established in Decree 902. However, to date, the agency has not created the document needed for the basis of this use contract.

Parcels registered under INCORA. Currently, 57 parcels are registered in the name of the

Colombian National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INCORA), a long-defunct agency. In order to become adjudicable, the parcels must be transferred to the National Land Agency.

Completing this task falls within the hands of the National Land Agency.

These obstacles, if not addressed, pose a risk of reducing the pilot’s scope and preventing our pilot team from accompanying the National Land Agency to the end of the titling process. If we follow the schedule recently proposed by the agency, LRDP will be able to accompany only around 1,500 tilting processes by December 21, 2018—approximately 50% of the pilot’s goal. In this light, USAID and LRDP are pursuing high-level discussions with MARD (the oversight authority for the National Land Agency) and are implementing a weekly technical committee with the National Land Agency’s technical director to follow up on the pilot’s schedule in order to ensure that the pilot remains a priority and to encourage the GOC’s swift execution of its commitments. USAID has also addressed these issues during high-level policy dialogues with the GOC and during donor meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Individualization of parcels in Meta. We continued to support the municipal government of

Fuentedeoro in the design and implementation of a methodology to formalize and “individualize” six collectively owned parcels spanning 1,107 hectares. In total, we secured 130 individual property titles following the subdivision of collective properties representing nearly 800 hectares.

As a result, the families living on these lands now have greater legal security over the lands on which they live and work—something they had been seeking for the last 20 years to no avail.

We also finalized and delivered the individualization methodology to the National Land Agency, which expressed interest in incorporating it into its work plan. The methodology offers an important solution to the problems generated by “joint and pro indiviso” adjudications performed by the now-defunct INCORA and Colombian Institute for Rural Development (INCODER). Such adjudications affect an estimated 190,000 hectares throughout Colombia. Finally, we began developing a booklet for mayors’ offices that will provide guidance on how they can help citizens individualize collectively owned parcels.

Pilot in Meta to register baldíos in the name of the nation. This year, we piloted a methodology—based on a set of 334 baldíos in Meta that were identified by the National Land

Agency—to register baldíos in the name of the nation. The final methodology, which we officially delivered to the agency in September, gives the government a valuable tool for protecting these lands from acquisition through irregular processes and for constructing a database of secure and known properties that can be drawn on to supply the Land Fund, a feature of the peace accord that seeks to contribute to a more equitable agrarian structure in Colombia.

As part of the pilot’s implementation, we completed the case files for 243 parcels, after which point the National Land Agency signed resolutions for each parcel.1 These parcels, which will provide 84,922 hectares of land to the Land Fund, draw on detailed legal and cadastral information provided by the SNR and IGAC with our support. With the issuing of these resolutions, the parcels require only a few more procedural steps before they can be titled and registered in the name of the nation.

1 This corresponds to step 7 as outlined in indicator 2.1.1. See Annex A for more information.

14 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018)

For the remaining 84 parcels, information is required from additional sources besides the SNR and IGAC (such as mayors’ offices, national parks, and the Ethnic Directorate of the National

Land Agency). The National Land Agency is now liaising with these entities to encourage the timely delivery of this information in order to proceed with the titling process.

Municipal land offices. Building on our previous success in creating and strengthening municipal land offices in Ovejas (Sucre) and Santander de Quilichao (Cauca)—which have proven instrumental in generating secure land titles to both private and public urban lands and promoting local leadership and empowerment of mayors’ offices in land governance—we supported the rollout of additional offices in several municipalities where strong political will exists to sustain these offices’ work beyond the life of LRDP. Such offices were created with our support in El Castillo and Puerto López (Meta); Ataco (Tolima); and San Jacinto (Bolívar).

Importantly, the offices of El Castillo and San Jacinto were established alongside complementary municipal legislation promoting women’s land rights. These legal instruments— designed with LRDP’s support and tailored to the unique needs of each municipality in accordance with its development plan—outline gender-focused measures to eradicate discrimination and ensure land rights for women, including by recognizing women’s role in the “care economy” as a basis for land ownership.

Santander de Quilichao (Cauca), where we supported the creation of a municipal land office in 2017, was the first LRDP municipality to issue such a decree, which it enacted in December. Thus, in total, three LRDP-supported municipal land offices draw on an explicit legal framework promoting a gender-based approach to formalization.

Meanwhile, municipal land offices that were created in previous years continued to make progress in urban land titling. This year, the land office of Ovejas issued 128 land titles, and the office of Santander de Quilichao issued two titles.2 To date, LRDP-supported municipal land offices have issued 429 titles.

Building local capacity in land formalization. Together with the National Land Agency, we launched a guidebook and a series of workshops on the formalization of land parcels for local administrators. The National Land Agency provided the teachers to lead the sessions, which sought to improve mayors’ and other public servants’ understanding of formalization processes for public lands and the steps to preparing and submitting correct documentation to the National

Land Agency. We held one workshop per region (Cauca, Cesar, Meta, Montes de María, and

Tolima) that included staff from the mayors’ offices of all 57 of our target municipalities.

Titling of parcels where public entities operate. Across our regions, we are supporting the

National Land Agency and mayors’ offices in formalizing parcels where public entities (such as

2 It is important to point out that we no longer work in Cauca, meaning that these 56 land titles do not contribute to our indicators.

At the same time, these titles are evidence of the sustainability of LRDP’s interventions.

The municipal land office of Ovejas (Sucre) is making important headway in titling urban properties for residents.

LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) 15 schools and health clinics) currently operate. (If these entities are located on rural baldíos, they must be titled by the National Land Agency, whereas if they are located on urban baldíos or private parcels, they are titled by municipal governments.) Titling and registering these properties allows municipal administrations to mobilize public resources in order to make improvements in infrastructure and the quality of service provision. This year, we supported the issuing of 159 titles for such parcels (81 by the National Land Agency and 78 by municipal governments) in the program’s five regions, bringing our life-of-project total to 349 such parcels.

Formalization of private parcels in Chaparral (Tolima). We have been supporting the National

Land Agency in meeting its goal of formalizing 300 private land parcels in the village of Calarma

(in the municipality of Chaparral). Depending on their legal origin, these parcels must go through either a notarial process or a judicial process in order to be formalized. Unlike the traditional demand-driven method, this formalization approach is promoted and facilitated by the government, and it provides a cost analysis for the formalization of private parcels in Southern

Tolima. This year, we supported the formalization of 35 parcels, of which 21 include a woman titleholder. Many of the titleholders of these parcels are also linked to our coffee PPP in Tolima.

Activities with IGAC. In December, USAID signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IGAC outlining the delivery of key land information, including satellite imagery, for our 57 target municipalities. In return, IGAC has committed to partnering with local governments to use the information to improve municipal work plans and land use policies. In addition, we formally handed over to IGAC the Continuously Operating Reference Station purchased by the program and located in Ovejas. Managed by the National Geodetic Survey, this station is the most modern of its kind in Colombia and is anticipated to have a major impact on the country’s topographic survey capabilities well beyond Ovejas.

COMPONENT 3: IMPROVED CAPACITY OF REGIONAL AND NATIONAL

GOVERNMENT ENTITIES TO MOBILIZE AND EXECUTE PUBLIC

RESOURCES FOR RURAL PUBLIC GOODS THAT MEET COMMUNITY

NEEDS AND MARKET

REQUIREMENTS

Uptake of PPP methodology by Rural

Development Agency. Since May, we have been working with the Rural Development Agency to facilitate the entity’s official adoption of our innovative

PPP methodology. This methodology—which we have implemented in the cacao, coffee, milk, and plantain value chains, among others—stands out for its emphasis on public-sector participation (which encourages long-term sustainability), its incorporation of farmers who are victims of the armed conflict, and its linking of producers’ associations to markets. The agency will implement this methodology as part of its

“Model for the Care and Provision of Services in

Support of Commercialization,” representing a major achievement for the program in terms of our efforts to strengthen the GOC’s capacity to respond to the rural

Colombia’s Rural Development Agency, headed by Juan Pablo Díaz Granados (pictured here) has officially adopted LRDP’s innovative methodology for public-private partnerships.

16 LAND AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: ANNUAL REPORT (OCTOBER 2017 – SEPTEMBER 2018) development needs of conflict-affected communities and to ensure more effective public investments.

As part of this effort, we helped the Rural Development Agency design an…