Lantmäteriet Fact Finding Mission to Liberia

Objectives of the intervention: The objective of the project was to enable Lantmäteriet in collaboration with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and other key stakeholders in the land sector in Liberia, including civil society to identify priorities and opportunities for long term technical cooperation between Lantäteriet and its counterpart institution, the LLA.  The fact finding mission funded by the Embassy provided opportunity for the two Authorities to establish relations and jointly discuss the scope and possibilities for cooperation. Examples of the results that have been achieved The project achieved its objective with the presentation by Lantmäteriet of the project 'Capacity Building for Inclusive Land Administration and Management in Liberia' for institutional cooperation and capacity building of the LLA for a five year period with a total cost of SEK 71.3 million.  The main goal of the planned institutional cooperation between the LLA and Lantmäteriet is inclusive, transparent, effective and efficient delivery of land management and administration services in Liberia. In the process of the development of the project proposal, Lantmäteriet's delegation visited Liberia to meet with key stakeholders including the LLA, donors and relevant actors in the land sector of Liberia.  In addition, the project facilitated a visit of a delegation of the LLA to Sweden to increase understanding and provide basis for the long term technical cooperation between the LLA and Lantmäteriet. The LLA delegation visited Land registration (Norrtalje), Building Permit Department, National Archives and Mapping departments within Lantmäteriet. In addition, the LLA delegation received briefing on National Cadastre Services, Customer Services Center, Image and Elevation production, Land registration in Sweden, and Digitalization and IT. Other areas were  Digital of Real Property transactions (Blockchain and innovation at Lantmäteriet), Media work, Uses of GIS information at Gavle.  The LLA team learnt that land and real estate ownership in Sweden comes with obligation to the Government of Sweden in the form of real estate taxation that must be paid on a periodic basis. This forms part of the revenue base of the Swedish economy. Sweden has graduated from the use of traditional cadastre equipment to more modern types, such as drones for mapping. In terms of land-use and management, the existing Swedish regulations and policies on building permits and use of land were respected. In line with the project, a representative from the Civil Society Land Sector Working Group joined the LLA delegation to Sweden. This was important to ensure that civil society were  involved at an early stage in the discussions and their views and reflections were taken into consideration in the elaboration of the details for the insitutional cooperation between LLA and Lantmäteriet given CSOs role as watchdog.