Background

In its post-disaster and reconstruction efforts, the Government of Mozambique is looking towards a sustainable medium- and long-term approach to addressing the needs of urban, semi-urban and rural communities with adequate policies complementing the existing Land Law and the Autarchic (municipality empowerment) Law. Therefore efforts are undergoing to prepare a territorial planning policy and a housing policy addressing national community demands and covering critical human settlements aspects and environmental requirements.

The overall objective of the project is to assist the Government of Mozambique to study and prepare relevant human settlements and environmental policies. The specific objectives are to:

• Understand the land tenure and the land market situation in cities after the land law and the land regulation was approved, especially addressing gender issues and the institutional and resource framework to implement the law;
• Assist in preparing a housing policy addressing specific solutions to poverty and informal settlements in the country;
• Assist in preparing a territorial planning policy addressing integrated solutions linking urban and rural settlements and promoting equitable distribution of resources and urbanization of the country;
• Provide complementary means to facilitate the exchange of information with civil society and stakeholders during the preparation of the territorial and the housing policies.

• Implementation of the study on urban land tenure, with specific reference to gender;
• Collection and analysis of existing policies, laws (including the land law) and regulations relevant to the preparation of the housing policy and the territorial planning policy;
• Consultations at provincial, regional and national level in order to build a stronger base and a larger consensus around the formulation of the policies;
• Preparing and conducting workshops to discuss key issues regarding the policies;
• Preparing a housing policy and a territorial planning policy for discussion and approval;
• Translation and/or publication of relevant documents.

National consultants have been recruited and an agreement of cooperation has been prepared. The territorial planning policy was completed and discussed in different national forums. The land market study is undergoing and the housing policy is close to completion.