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Improving tenure security for the poor in Africa – Mozambique
Legal Empowerment of the Poor Working Paper #5
by Simon Norfolk
and Christopher Tanner
Ever since Mozambican independence in 1975, property in land has been vested in the state. Despite the political and economic shift to a multiparty system and market economy since the 1990 Constitution, this underlying principle has remained in place, and no land may be sold, mortgaged, or otherwise encumbered or alienated.
Local traditional land management systems meanwhile have retained a robust role as the de facto land management system of Mozambique. These systems – and the rights they attribute to rural people – were formally recognized in the 1995 National Land Policy and subsequent 1997 Land Law.
While the new law had to respect basic constitutional principles, the legislators also had to develop a law appropriate for a market economy. The land policy therefore seeks to protect existing rights, while also promoting private investment and, to this end, seeks to provide secure land rights for investors as an essential condition for this. The legal framework established by the Constitution and the 1997 Land Law contains several innovative approaches to achieving these goals.
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