WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-07-30 Time: 18:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Ama Achiaa A. Baafi
Some of the laws that regulate land use management and planning in Ghana are said to be very old and have provisions which have outlived their usefulness. In effect, there is a general lack of proactive legislative mechanism in land use planning which leads to situations where human settlements and development control become an afterthought.
Thus, the need for planning has become greater currently looking at the rapid rate of development-towns and villages are developing and redeveloping countrywide. If this development and redevelopment goes on unplanned, future generations will bear the brunt of the mess and the liability that goes with it.
Already the country is experiencing filthy environment and slums even in the cities. Critics and the citizenry often accuse the various agencies associated with issues of land of being corrupt and that many of the problems associated with land in Ghana are created by them and not ordinary citizens only.
They argue that even people who have not gone through the mill easily document lands with the aid of some unscrupulous personnel of the land agencies. As a result of these lapses in land documentation, government lands are being sold with impunity.
Also, there are complaints about permits that take forever to be issued and the backlog has given way to inefficient practices that allow only the highest bidder to get his/her permits processed early.
Further, planning authorities have been found to be ineffective in planning, enforcing the rules and regulations on town planning and land development, giving enthusiastic developers a field day to build anywhere. The lack of capacity to check compliance to rules and to punish lawbreakers has contributed to the chaotic situation being witnessed now.
This development became the subject of discussion about a decade ago and steps are still being taken to correct the situation.
A World Bank document reveals that Government of Ghana’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies (GPRS-I and II) recognized the considerable role that the land sector plays in the attainment of the country’s development objectives; it describes the sector’s main challenges as:
(i) inadequate policy and legal framework; (ii) fragmented institutional arrangements and weak institutional capacity; (iii) underdeveloped land registration system and inefficient land market; (iv) weak land administration system that excludes land owners and chiefs from major decisions on land administration; and (v) compulsory acquisitions by Government of large tracts of land without payment of compensation.
These challenges have given rise to massive land disputes, as well as a failure of the country’s land resources to fully contribute to rural and urban development.
To address them, the government sought assistance from the World Bank following which the Land Administration Project (LAP) was designed and approved by the World Bank Board of Directors.
“The goal of this project is to undertake land policy and institutional reforms and to develop land administration pilots which will lay the foundation for a sustainable, decentralized land administration system,” said World Bank project leader Charles Frempong. “This will lead to a land sector that is fair, efficient and cost-effective and ensures land tenure security.”
According to the Land Use Planning and Management Project (LUPMP), a component of the Land Administration Project (LAP) is a three-year project with the objective of re-establishing land use planning and management system in Ghana by enhancing the institutional, legal and technological capacity of the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD).
LUPMP is engaging in a number of pilot projects in some communities while training programmes are designed and implemented to build sufficient capacity at the TCPD head office, regional and district offices.
According to the LUPMP, a good land use plan takes care of all community interest and is a legacy for generations yet unborn. It says good laws on land use mean better value for land.
“A well planned community prevents disasters such as flooding and allows for better management of disasters. It promotes good environmental health and attracts investments, business and creates jobs.”
The LAP, primarily aimed at the re-organisation of the legal regime for the land sector of Ghana, has been on-going for the past seven years and has received some form of commendation.
Early this year, it devised a more progressive method of getting land owners to have their parcels of land registered devoid of the frustrations that have characterized the exercise.
Under the name Systematic Land Title Registration, LAP moved the land registration exercise from its offices to the communities. Ahead of the actual exercise LAP embarked on a week-long educative campaign drive to get stakeholders to understand and appreciate the exercise and to address their concerns, if any.
According to LAP, the aim of the exercise was to enable land owners to register their lands in “a simple, fast and cheap manner”. Field teams moved from property to property in systematic manner to capture information for the exercise.
LAP Director, Dr. Odame Larbi observed that the development paradigm worldwide is changing to private capital and that there is the need to set the parameters, while thinking about it in the wider context, in relation to land acquisition.
Participants at a recent land forum in Accra agreed that if the capacities of planning bodies are improved, if better conditions of service are created and if the right logistics and technology are provided, there would be some sanity in the development process.
In their view, if the Land Commission is to become an umbrella for all land agencies in the country under the reform, care must be taken to ensure that all the problems associated with those agencies are solved.
Original date published: 30 July 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201007300848.html?viewall=1