Land rights formalization and associated laws, procedures and institutional arrangement reforms must take into account the role of the customary system. The evaluation found that in addition to the formal system, landholders continue to rely on customary authorities and systems of land governance to resolve disputes and protect their land rights. Upon reflection, the Land Tenure Services Project design, which was based on Government of Mozambique’s existing approach, may not have adequately contended with the legitimacy of the customary system and its persistence in parallel to the formal system. This is a complex issue that arises in other contexts in which customary land governance systems are strong, and warrants further attention in future government reform project design, such as by incorporating customary authorities into the governance structures of formal property systems.
Lesson Learned