Project description

Title: Land management / cadastre
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Kosovo
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Environment, Ministry for Community Development
Overall term: 2008 to 2013

Context

The Republic of Kosovo has been an independent state since 2008. One of the most important tasks it still faces is to establish democratic and effective administrative structures. This process was initiated at municipal administration level in 2000. The main aim is to decentralise public administration services and to promote the active participation of ethnic minorities.

The property cadastre and land registry are consolidated under a single administrative body. However, as the central cadastre authority and the municipal cadastral offices are accountable to different ministries, it has been difficult to set up and operate the cadastre and land registry system. In particular, transparency and legal security, which are the basis of the cadastre and land registry system’s credibility, cannot be guaranteed.

Objective

Improved work processes and data quality in line with the corresponding EU standards increase legal security for land and property ownership.

Approach

The project provides supplementary advisory services at national, municipal and urban district levels. At national level, the advisory services focus primarily on legal and institutional issues, while at municipal level, they centre around improving methodological and technical skills. In addition, organisational consulting services will be extended in order to make work processes more efficient and transparent. At municipal level, corruption in cadastral offices will be tackled by introducing parallel structures in front and back offices.

Establishing theme-based and task related working groups involving all relevant actors provides the project with essential structure. Given the insufficient quality of the data in the cadastres and land registries, advisory services will also address quality management systems.

For political reasons, cooperation with municipal administrations was not immediately possible at the beginning of the project. From 2011 to 2013, pilot measures will be implemented at four municipal cadastral offices. Emphasis will be placed on capacity development, i.e. developing competences, resources and productivity in the offices. The aim of the next phase of the project will be to transfer this experience from the four pilot offices to the rest of the country.

The Kosovar government chose the pilot offices with the aim of involving the capital Pristina as well as municipalities inhabited predominately by Serbs. When developing new procedures, attention is paid to ensuring that equal benefit is enjoyed by both sexes and by members of ethnic minorities, and that no group is discriminated against.

The project also promotes the exchange of lessons learned between Kosovar municipalities, as well as with municipalities and municipal institutions in other transformation countries in the region or with EU Member States. Employees in the project also take part in supraregional working groups. Cooperation with individual German federal states will intensify the exchange of lessons learned between Germany and the Republic of Kosovo.

Results achieved so far

Initially, the project focused mainly on the quality analysis and quality management of the cadastre data. Instructions for controlling and improving the quality of the land and property cadastres were drawn up within the project and introduced as mandatory across the country. In order for the required local surveying work to be carried out quickly and more cost effectively, the project prepared a study with the aim of introducing the Kosovo Positioning System (KOPOS) into the country. The system is used for GPS surveying and is already standard in all neighbouring countries. The system will be installed in 2011 in collaboration with a World Bank project.

The project also promotes the private sector through the moves to set up a professional association of licensed surveying firms. The association is to be founded in 2011.