MLMPUC's presentation on the sub-decree for land management of cities and municipalities

http://www.box.com/s/eocan25ass5banorn2af

S'pore, Cambodia in training tie-up [-Will the training stop Hun Xen's sponsored land-grabbings and evictions?]

08 September 2011
By Ambiga Raju
Channel News Asia (Singapore)

SINGAPORE: Singapore has been conducting a multi-agency training programme for Cambodian government officials in land management, urban planning and building control.

The programme, which began last month in Phnom Penh, is the first such initiative between the two countries and is supported by Temasek Foundation with S$265,000.

It has introduced Singapore's land management and urban planning systems to about 140 Cambodian officials.

They will then share what they have learnt with about 1,000 officials across provinces and municipalities in Cambodia.

The Great Asian Land Grab

How a World Bank program helped displace tens of thousands of urban poor.

MAY 13, 2011
BY MIKE ECKEL
Foreign Policy

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia-The murky waters of Phnom Penh's largest lake were once visible out the back window of Cham Pothisak's tin-roof-and-plywood shack. Today, a manmade sand dune taller than the home itself menaces like an ocean wave, filling up his crawlspace basement with putrid water and his family's life with clouds of mosquitos.

It's squalid shelter at best, but in Cambodia, where 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture, logging, or fishing for their survival, land is wealth, and Cham said he has documents proving ownership to the 60-square-meter plot he bought 11 years ago. But now, along with thousands of others, he faces eviction in what may be the largest forced relocation of Cambodians since 1975, when the Khmer Rouge emptied virtually the entire capital. This time once again, it's the arbitrary power of the state at work: The government turned over some of Phnom Penh's priciest real estate, including Cham's land, to a close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Developers are already moving in, pouring sand into Boeung Kak lake to fill it up, flood out shantytown homes, and prepare the site for construction. "It's like they're coming to kill us. They're taking our lives," Cham said. "We're angry but we can't do anything against them. It's like the Khmer Rouge all over again. We're helpless."

It wasn't supposed to be this way. About a decade ago, the World Bank began a program to codify property rights, with the goal of building system akin to what landowners enjoy in the West. The program was meant to make sure that people like Cham could defend their property from arbitrary expropriation. But the initiative has backfired. Instead of helping landowners, it has in many cases actually contributed to their displacement, forcing out residents who may well have had legitimate, longstanding claims to their lands and homes.

Cambodia and the limits of World Bank accountability

Drowned out in Beoung Kak Lake (Photo: Tin Zakariya, RFA)

5 April 2011
David Pred and Natalie Bugalski
Bertton Woods Project

The World Bank Inspection Panel released an investigation report in March, which found that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to properly design and supervise the Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), contributing to “grave harm” to affected families. The Bank’s Inspection Panel found that the Bank’s failures contributed to the forced eviction of some 20,000 people living around Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake. Residents were wrongly denied the right to register their land ownership under the $28.8 million Bank-financed land titling project shortly before the government leased the area to a private developer and began a campaign of intimidation to force more than 4,000 affected families to sell their property for a fraction of its market value.

The project was established with the stated aim of developing the land market and improving security of tenure for the poor by systematically registering land and issuing titles across the country. However, the Panel found that many poor and vulnerable households have been arbitrarily excluded from the titling process, denying them an opportunity to claim and formalise their land rights. The Panel attributed this failing to non-compliance with the Bank’s operational policies and procedures on project appraisal and supervision.

Botched World Bank project leads to evictions

Mar 22, 2011
By Irwin Loy
Inter Press Services

PHNOM PENH - The World Bank botched the handling of an ambitious multi-million-dollar land-titling project in Cambodia and has done little to protect thousands of people in a lakeside slum from eviction.

That is the finding of the World Bank's inspection panel, the financial institution's main accountability mechanism. Unfortunately the judgement came after local authorities issued final eviction notices to many of the remaining residents of Boeung Kak.

"The claims of the Boeung Kak lake community are serious," Roberto Lenton, the chair of the panel, said in a statement. "The issues raised involve fundamental questions of their land rights and tenure security. the panel found that the evictions took place in violation of the bank policy on involuntary resettlement and resulted in grave harm to the affected families and community."

World Bank says land titling project failures caused "grave harm"

Mar 9, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - The World Bank said Wednesday that a land titling programme it funded in Cambodia has failed thousands of people living in central Phnom Penh.

The bank's mea culpa follows the government's forced eviction of thousands of people from the area around Boeung Kak lake in the capital over the past two years.

The bank said the evictions had caused 'grave harm' to residents.

Thousands more residents are under imminent threat of being evicted with little or no compensation in a controversial development deal of the 133-hectare site that is linked to a prominent ruling party politician.

Few if any of Boeung Kak's residents have been able to get land title documents from the local authorities, despite legal experts saying that many are entitled to them.

World Bank project tied to forced evictions in Cambodia: HRTF Press Release

PRESS RELEASE: World Bank project tied to forced evictions in Cambodia, Housing Rights Task Force, March 8,...

World Bank project tied to forced evictions in Cambodia [-What will the World Bank do next?]

Complainants won their case at the Inspection Panel

8 March 2011
Bank Information Center

The World Bank’s Inspection Panel found that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to properly design and supervise the Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), contributing to the forced eviction of some 4,250 families.

On all counts, the World Bank’s Inspection Panel found that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to properly design and supervise the Cambodia Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP). These failures contributed to the forced eviction of some 4,250 families living around Phnom Penh’s iconic Boeung Kak Lake. Residents were unfairly denied the right to register their land ownership shortly before the government leased the area to a private developer and began a campaign of intimidation and pressure to force families living in the area to leave.

Today, the Bank Board of Executive Directors are meeting to decide what action to take in light of the findings of the Bank’s Inspection Panel that a $28.8 million land titling project in Cambodia flagrantly disregarded Bank policies, leaving more than 20,000 people facing forced eviction from their homes in central Phnom Penh.

The outcome of the Board meeting will signify how the Bank will demonstrate its accountability to some 2,000 families who have already been evicted and forced to accept a fraction of the market values for their property. As the deliberation on the Panel Report and Management Response is happening today, the remaining 10,000 people living around the lake are served with a seven-day deadline to accept the compensation offer or face bulldozers and get nothing.

Investigation Report, Cambodia: Land Management and Administration Project

Cambodia terminates land titling program with World Bank [... more land-grabbing to take place?]

PHNOM PENH, Sep. 7, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Monday his country has terminated the land titling program with World Bank before the original schedule, which was planned to end at late this year.

"They has put more complicated conditions on us over land titling program," Hun Sen said at the ceremony of releasing the final result of 2008 population census at Chak Tuk Mok Theater Hall in Phnom Penh.

He ordered Keat Chhon, deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance, to tell World Bank partner about that termination. He also blamed the World Bank for always wanting "to play the role as big brother on other development projects with partners in Cambodia."

"The World Bank plans to suspend the project, but now we tell them first that we have to terminate that project," He said.

The World Bank has supported Cambodian land titling program, namely Land Management and Administration program (LMAP), with the budget amount of 24.5 million U.S. dollars. It has cooperated with Ministry of Land Management and Urban Planning and Construction and handed over one million land titles for local people so far, according to the World Bank's review.

Hun Sen also said that the project plans to end at late this year, so now "we have to do it with our own budget as we have done it before."

"We have shared the findings of the review with the (Cambodian) government but could not reach an agreement on whether LMAP's social and environmental safeguards should apply in some of the disputed urban areas," Wordl Bank country director Annette Dixon was quoted as saying by local English language newspaper the Cambodia Daily.