Developing and operationalizing land information systems is often challenging and requires flexibility to be built into program design. The evaluation found that the Sistema de Gestão de Informação sobre a Terra (SIGIT) land information system developed by the project had not proven to be sustainable and was no longer widely in use. The project encountered a number of challenges in implementing SIGIT. In operationalizing a land information system like SIGIT, there are inevitably early challenges that arise during roll out that must be addressed before the system can function effectively over time. However, the Land Tenure Services Project (LTS) encountered significant delays in establishing SIGIT, so that the timeframe within which the project was able to provide support to address these challenges was limited. Moreover, geographic and logistical issues created challenges for delivering the regular trainings to government officials that were necessary for SIGIT to be institutionalized.
The experience of LTS along with some other earlier MCC projects in establishing land information systems highlight the need for building flexibility into program design. In particular, designs should include “offramps” that allow the program to pivot to alternative approaches when unexpected delays or other challenges render the original approach no longer feasible in the time available. These experiences have also informed the design of the MCC Land Records & Transaction Systems Assessment and Design Toolkit, which can help to address in the future many of the challenges LTS and other previous programs have encountered when investing in new land information systems.