World Bank approves funding for DAR project

Construction workers work on top of a building in Makati on June 28, 2020.

THE World Bank has approved $370-million funding for a government program that seeks to accelerate the subdivision of collective certificates of land ownership award and generate individual titles on lands awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

In a statement over the weekend, the World Bank said the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling Project of the Department of Agrarian Reforms will support the government’s ongoing efforts for parcelization and individual titling through the adoption of improved technologies and digital platforms, improvements in regulations, streamlining of procedures in the titling process, and enhanced consultations with beneficiaries.

About 750,000 people are expected to gain improved land tenure security and stable property rights through the program.

“M a ny f a r m e r s w h o we r e granted lands under the country’s agrarian reform program have been waiting for individual titles, sometimes for decades,” said Achim Fock, World Bank acting country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

“This project will provide them the opportunity, on a voluntary basis, to get legal proof and the security of individual land rights. We expect that this will encourage them to invest in their property and adopt better technologies for greater productivity and higher incomes,” added Fock.

Fock said improved land tenure security would contribute to poverty reduction and rural economic growth, and strengthen farmers’ resilience against impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

“Due to the economic slowdown, subsistence farmers are at a significant risk of falling deeper into poverty,” Fock said.

“Many of them lack social security, savings and access to formal financing. With individual land titles, beneficiaries will have greater access to credit and financing, as well as government assistance,” Fock added.

The World Bank said that over the past three decades, CARP already distributed 4.8 million hectares to almost 3 million beneficiaries.

However, only approximately 53 percent of land was distributed in the form of individual titles.