1 Sibabrata Choudhury The World Bank Land and Poverty Conference March 24, 2014 Improving Land Governance through Community Participation in Odisha, India

Landesa’s Work Founded in 1967 by Roy Prosterman Landesa works to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people Partner with developing country governments to design and implement laws, policies, and programmes concerning land that provide opportunity, further economic growth, and promote social justice Worked in more than 50 countries and helped 400 million people obtain secure land rights Offices in the U.S., China and India 2

3 Land Governance Issues in Odisha Households have title without possession and possession without title In Odisha, ceiling surplus and government wasteland have been distributed since mid-1970s –Land allotted but title not issued –Allotted land cultivated by previous owner –Land quality: not suitable for cultivation Less than 50% are cultivating land that has been allotted No state or district wide data available on extent of possession of land

4 Interventions by Government Regulation to prevent transfer of land to non-tribals Land restoring campaign (Mo Jami Mo Diha) in 2007 Enumeration of landless in : – : 249,000 homesteadless and 445,000 landless households identified in the state –Vasundhara scheme launched in to provide homestead land up to 4 cents (now 10) to homesteadless families – 275,000 families allotted homestead land between and –2011: Circular for re-enumeration, 236,000 families enlisted as homesteadless

Assessment of Land Allocation Programme Implementation challenges (assessment study done by Landesa in 88 villages across 10 districts during ) –Patta without identification, demarcation and possession –Allotted land far from habitation –About 40% of households did not have secure rights over homestead land –People did not receive patta to current house sites, unwilling to relocate, allotted house sites are not identified or demarcated –Capacity gaps at different levels 5

Additional capacity to help government officials to accurately identify landlessness households Village youth (Community Resource Person or CRP) identify families not tracked by government system CRPs identify landless families including single women who were “invisible” Community Resource Persons to Address Land Rights 6

7 CRP Model for Land Rights and Livelihoods Improvement Village youth (Community Resource Person) to help steer land allocation –Identify homesteadless and landless households including women-headed households and single women –Facilitate settlement process including field verification, camp court and patta distribution Accurate identification of landless Productive use of local youth for village development Participatory land allocation and settlement

CRP Model Addressed Program Shortcomings Shortcomings in earlier practice Lack of staff capacity to carry out the program – proper identification of landless remained an issue Rural villagers had very little contact with government offices How does CRP model address the shortcomings? Land allocation becomes locally driven, participatory and transparent Complete enumeration in a village to identify all landless including single women 8

Community Involvement in Identification of Landless Enumeration of landless including single women –Transparency in identification –Increased ownership of programme –Reduced level of discretion –Multiple levels of cross verification 9

Sustainability and Accountability Creation of a sustainable village resource –Village youth trained to support programme delivery through accurate and reliable information –Demand generation for rights and entitlements –Critical link between community and government –Effective programme delivery and improved outreach 10

Community Ownership and Improved Governance Revenue officer selects CRP in consultation with community members Proactive engagement by community –Community members validate list of landless household –Community members involved in and participate in land allocation processes Land records accessible to community 11

Secure Land Rights Enable Communities Community driven exercise –Community ownership in the process –Confidence in Government to deliver –Transparency in process –Outreach to difficult to reach areas 12

13 Thanks for your attention