| Grant amount: | US$28.5 million | | Implementation period: | August 2005 – June 2008 | | Partner Agency: | The World Bank | | Implementing Agency: | National Land Agency | | Funding Recipient: | BRR* (for on-budget funding to BPN**) |
Background In much of Aceh, the tsunami and debris obliterated all traces of property boundaries, so it is very unsafe to start building houses because people might come forward and claim rightful ownership of land on which someone else has built a house. Also, reestablishing land ownership is a major precondition for rebuilding settlements. At the household level, secure tenure provides access to credit and other benefits. 
| Water buffaloes in marshes of grass and water -- on what used to be land. |
The Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System (RALAS) project seeks to restore property rights using participatory processes. A number of civil society organizations (big international groups as well as Aceh-based ones) have been trained by this World Bank-administered program to conduct Community Mapping and Community Driven Adjudication processes. The survivors of the community are brought together as a "human archive" to discuss and agree whose property was where, the shape of the property boundaries, and so forth. Then a map is drawn up and all survivors and community leaders sign the map - to say that this is indeed the record of the village. This is then posted for a defined period in a prominent place so that anyone who has a counter claim can lodge it. If they do, there is adjudication by the whole community but eventually the record is agreed to be true. The Land Administration Agency, much of which was destroyed, then comes in and draws up highly detailed maps and marks out the property boundaries as the community indicated with surveyors poles. The next step is to give over legal title to that land, which is very important because most of these people, especially the poorest, have never had title deeds to their lands. Even before the tsunami, only at most 25 percent of land ownership had been registered. Project Objectives  To identify land ownership through a community-based adjudication process and issue land titles to up to 600,000 land owners. Community mapping conducted as an initial step for the adjudication process is an important prerequisite for the reconstruction of settlements. This process, facilitated by NGOs according to the official project manual, enables communities to jointly map out their future settlement.
Project Design The project includes supporting community-driven adjudication processes that establish ownership rights, land boundaries and protect inheritance rights according to established guidelines; surveying, mapping and registration of rights and issuing title certificates free of charge; and reconstruction of land administration offices and establishment of a database for land titles and cadastre documents. Results to Date - Over 650 titles have been distributed; Gampong Baro residents received 130 titles so far..
- 5,226 titles ready for distribution to beneficiaries, 5,500 more ready to be signed
- More than 17,000 parcels have been posted for public review
- More than 38,500 parcels have been officially surveyed by BPN (land agency).
The US$28.5 million RALAS is a community-driven process and links up with the housing program which fully engages future house owners. Typically, as in Gampong Baru, block grants from the Urban Poverty Project have contributed to the reconstruction of settlement infrastructure. More information:
 Project Documents
BRR =Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency
BPN = National Land Administration Agency
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