LIFT provides the funding for LAMP. UN-HABITAT Country Programme Manager Mr. Bijay Karmacharya, LAMP Senior Technical Adviser Ian Lloyd and LAMP team provided a briefing to LIFT on 29 September 2015. This included a live demonstration of the new database system for quality control of the land records and for maintaining the land records up to date.

In the morning of 30 September 2015 LIFT Fund Board members, LIFT Director Mr. Andrew Kirkwood and his staff along with UN HABITAT LAMP staff visited Thayarwaddy Township, one of the pilot sites.

Mission team met with farmers and Farmland Administration Body (FAB) at the Ngaphyukalay village. In this village there are two farmland holding maps (Kwin maps) recently completed by LAMP. The maps are currently on public display for comments and for information. Discussions were made on the FAB role, farmers’ difficulties in land and their understanding of the land law 2012, land registration and the process of applying for the Land Use Certificates (LUC).

The farmers commented on the benefits of having the LUC such as lower mortgage rates from the banks (from 18% pa to 5% pa) and the benefit of the LAMP project in the village such as clarity on land parcels and land area. So far there were no disputes. The meeting was also participated by land owned by women.

After lunch the Mission first visited the Department of Agriculture Land Management and Statistics (DALMS) office at Township level. The DALMS Township Staff Officer and staff welcomed the Mission and provided a briefing and demonstration of the operation of the land records conversion process. The staff officer expressed that LAMP project is very useful and benefit to DALMS. The LAMP project is not only known well by DALMS Thayarwaddy Township but was also known to other Townships.

On the way back to Yangon, the mission stopped by at Thakkyi Central Land Record Department Training Center (CLRDTC) and met with the Director and Principle of the CLRDTC. The Director welcomed and kindly showed the mission team the LAMP renovated and equipped training rooms. The training room was established for intensive live-in training of up to 20 persons and training courses started in February 2015. The equipment included GNSS survey equipment, computers, server, map printer, map scanner, document scanners and software such as GIS and RDBMS.

The mission was able to observe the LAMP Land Record Management Systems (LRMS) in operation for identifying and correcting land records and to see demonstrated the operation of the GIS steps for digitizing and processing. In conclusion LIFT mission stated that they look forward to an evaluation of LAMP and to an assessment of its potential for roll-out of the new processes to other Township Offices of DALMS and a continuation of the cooperation of the government on land administration at District/Township and other levels, local authorities, and the beneficiaries for further development of Land Tenure Security in the Country.

The LIFT mission team included:

1. Claudia Antonelli (Fund Board Chair, European Union EU)
2. Andrew Kirkwood (Fund Director UNOPS – LIFT)
3. Catriona Clunas (Fund Board Member, DFID United Kingdom)
4. Karin Eberhardt (Fund Board Member, SDC Switzerland)
5. Joanne Raisin (Fund Board Member, DFID United Kingdom)
6. Henning Nohr (Fund Board Member, Denmark)
7. Steve Dowall ( Lead Technical Officer UNOPS – LIFT)
8. Antoine Deligne (Programme Officer Livelihood and Food Security Specialist UNOPS – LIFT)
9. Anne Coghlan (M&E Officer UNOPS – LIFT)
10. Daw Myit Khet Nyo (National Policy Officer UNOPS – LIFT)
11. Daw Myat Su Win (Programme Officer UNOPS – LIFT)

U Zaw Naing Oo (Programme Officer UNOPS – LIFT)