DSC_0230The Food and Agricultural Organisation has donated equipment comprising tablets, a camera and projector to the School of the Built Environment

The equipment will be used to aid students who are training Area Land Committee members in Kasese and other districts about land matters. The project, funded by FAO is aimed at facilitating the process of adjudication and demarcation of customary land hence providing tenure security for the majority of land owners.

FAO is working with the Ministry of Lands and Makerere University to secure land for citizens in a project called “Implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure Governance in Uganda”.

The project is also aimed at enabling government to clearly assess the cost and time involved in the issuance of Customary Certificates of Ownership (CCOs) to plan for future replication and up scaling.

DSC_0223FAO has been supporting the CCO process in Kasese since January 2015. In this 3rd phase of their support, 2400 new CCOs are to be issued during which careful monitoring the resources and identifying the time required for the process of issuance of CCOs will also be conducted.

Specific activities in this period will involve: Analysing existing CCO applications, developing selection criteria for new applications, development of implementation plan for the new CCOs, capacity development for district land office staff and ALCs, and running awareness raising events

Ms Maria Guglielma Da Passano, the FAO representative, said that the organisation and the government are interested in making sure that customary land owners have land security. “It is important to secure land for agriculture and sustainability. People cannot invest on land if they don’t feel secure,” she added.