By Bill W. Cooper
The Liberia Land Authority (LLA) has finally surveyed and deeded the Civil Compound land, a government property situated in Bentol City, Montserrado County.
With support from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) through Lantmätariet-Advance International Training Program (ITP), the Statutory Government Land Deed was presented to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) after the successful completion of the survey, probate, and deed registration processes.
Article 8.1sub-section (a) of the Land Authority Act of 2016 provides the Authority the power to control and manage effectively, impartially, and in the interest of equitable development access to and use of Public and Government Lands.
While Article 8.1 sub-section (g) provides that the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) shall administer public survey and mapping services, and the national cadaster.
But the above-mentioned land was surveyed and deeded as a result of the intervention of the ITP program on Land Governance for Liberia which is focused on strengthening capacity amongst public and private institutions, increase trust for public services and secure land rights for women and vulnerable people.
The program, held every year draws it beneficiaries from broad array of actors in society ranging from central and local government institutions to civil society organizations and key opinion leaders/influencers from local communities.
The selection of participants which is done on merit-based also brought together 16 Liberians and 15 Zimbabweans professionals as the one-year intensive online and in-person-training are held in participants home countries and an exchange visit to Sweden and a selected African Country.
In an exclusive interview with this paper, the Assistant Director for Survey at the LLA, Dr. M. Solomon thanked Sweden Government through SIDA, Lantmätariet, and members of the year two ITP team for the level of work done thus far.
This, he said the success of the project is greatly tied to the Board of Commissioners and technical staff of the LLA headed by its Chairman, Atty. J. Adams Manobah for being instrumental and ensuring the full implementation of the initiative.
Dr. Solomon noted the completion of the project is a milestone achievement for the ITP team, the local authority office in Bentol, the LLA and government, noting that one of the challenges affecting the LLA is the deeding and inventory of all government and public lands as provided in the LLA Act and Land Rights Acts.
“I am glad we have achieved this. It was never easy right from the beginning. Working with ITP participants is rewarding. I am overly joyful, and I hope that the next team will continue what was left and at the end be able to deed government properties in the area (Bentol City).
It is my hope and prayer that more Liberians professionals will benefit from this in the coming year, and that the government and people of Sweden through SIDA and Lantmätariet will continue to keep this going for greater good of building the capacities of Liberians who are desirous of learning and advancing themselves in land governance,” he added.
At the end of the training, participants from the two countries were trained, educated, and informed of land management system, government function and democracy, the concepts of waste management, Swedish and African cultural and social life, and as well as the way of life of the Maisa people in Arusha Tanzania, Arusha city government, public market and land use and management.
Also, as a result of the Change-Project, land administration authorities across the two countries took the needed steps to strengthen land rights for inhabitants in vulnerable communities, improve cooperation with other authorities, civil society, local stakeholders, including the full participation of women in land administration and land-related services.
Meanwhile, the team during the survey collected key data and developed a GIS map which was subsequently submitted to the LLA for the preparation of the Statutory Government Land Deed for the Civil Compound area.
The Bentol Change Project was designed within the scope of the Advance ITP program on land governance with focus to identify, verify, demarcate, and deed government lands specifically in Bentol City, Montserrado County.
The site selected for the implementation of the project was the Civil Compound which host the public and administrative facilities, the seat of Montserrado County local authority. The project team also collected data for the Bentol Youth Camp which was established in the late 70s by the late President William Richards Tolbert for the youth of Liberia as a technical vocational and skill training center.
The LLA and the Government of Sweden came to an understanding where the people of Sweden through their government agreed to train Liberian professionals as ambassadors for change in the field of good land governance and best practice.
