In 2012, the State Governments of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh by way of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, have requested the World Bank to support the undertaking of an independent land governance assessment using the LGAF approach. In each of the participating states, a well-reputed local institution was selected to undertake the State-level Coordination of the LGAF. This institution selected a State coordinator and a team of State experts to undertake the assessment in consultation with a nodal officer assigned by the State government. LGAF implementation is in a number of discrete steps that are overseen by the State coordinator.

The six State institutions and LGAF teams are supported by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), a highly qualified and capable team of nationally recognized experts each covering one of the LGAF thematic areas. The TAG provides backstopping and quality assurance for the entire LGAF exercise, from manual adaptation to the Indian context, State level implementation to national level consolidation of the State reports. The LGAF process and TAG are coordinated by the TAG secretariat, hosted by CSD, the Center for Sustainable Development in Delhi. CSD coordinated also the work with DoLR and The World bank that has provided financial support and methodological guidance on the use of the LGAF instrument, which is applied in over 30 countries globally.

In Odisha, KIIT School of Rural Management, KIIT University hosted the implementation of LGAF in coordination with Revenue and Disaster Management Department of the State who appointed a nodal officer. The team consisted of a State Coordinator, seven Expert Investigators and three Research Associates and 60 people participated in two rounds of panel deliberations (retired Government officers (22%), serving Government officers (18%), retired judges (4%), legal experts (16%), NGO representatives (12%), Academicians (12%), corporate (8%), media (4%) and independent consultants (4%)).

Besides Policy Matrix suggested for LGAF implementation in Odisha, the report makes overall recommendations in terms “three quick wins”:

1. Development of an equitable and sustainable State Land Use Policy

  •  Land Use Vision Plan 2050 with triple bottom line through integration of stakeholders’ concern and IT-GIS to address Investment, conservation and development concerns

 

2. Assist state in inclusive, transparent and participatory land governance through support of a multi-stakeholder knowledge platform by drawing experts from LGAF panels

  • NLRMP: Syncing of Textual, Spatial and Actual; Monitoring of land entitlement schemes for gender and equity (viz. tribal)
  • Hi Tech Survey implementation: Complete survey of above 10 degree slope in Schedule Area with participation of community and Gram Panchayat

 

3. Launching a Flexible Pilot project with Revenue Department

  •  Inclusive Governance with involvement non-state think-tank (e.g. LGAF Panel +)
  • Institutional Reform and Synchronization, infrastructure Development and HRD
  • Implementation with Hi-Tech Survey as Field Activity and Land Use Vision Planning as Policy Initiative