The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC | Lao People's Democratic Republic | IBRD/IDA | Investment Project Financing (IPF) | FY 2022 | Seq No: 7 | Archived on 13-May-2024 | ISR00157 Implementing Agencies: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment 1. OBJECTIVE 1.1 Development Objective Original Development Objective (Approved as part of Approval package on 01-Sep-2021) The objective of the project is to support the Government of Lao PDR in improving tenure security and land administration services in selected areas, and to provide immediate and effective response in case of an eligible crisis or emergency. Has the Development Objective been changed since Board Approval of the Project Objective? Yes Current Development Objective (Approved as part of Restructuring package Seq. 1 on 20-Feb-2024) The objective of the project is to support the Government of Lao PDR in improving tenure security and land administration services in selected areas, and to provide immediate and effective response in case of an eligible crisis or emergency. 2. COMPONENTS Name 1. Systematic Registration of Land Use Rights:(Cost 20,580,000.00) 2. Modernization of Land Administration and Service Delivery:(Cost 6,180,000.00) 3. Implementation, Policy and Legal Framework Development:(Cost 1,000,000.00) 4. Project Management:(Cost 3,610,000.00) 5. Contingent Emergency Response:(Cost 0.00) Refund of Project Preparation Advance:(Cost 2,500,000.00) 3. OVERALL RATINGS May 13, 2024 Page 1 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) Name Previous Current Progress towards achievement of PDO Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Implementation Progress (IP) Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Overall Risk Rating --- Substantial 4. KEY ISSUES & STATUS 4.1 Implementation Status and Key Decisions Systematic Land Registration (SLR) activities are ongoing with 112,212 land parcels surveyed and 50,787 titles issued 5. SYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS RISK-RATING TOOL Rating at Approval Last Approved Rating Risk Category Approval Package - RP Seq. 01 - 20 Feb Proposed Rating 02 Sep 2021 2024 Political and Governance Moderate  Moderate Macroeconomic Substantial  Substantial Sector Strategies and Policies Substantial  Substantial Technical Design of Project or Program Substantial  Substantial Institutional Capacity for Implementation and High  High Sustainability Fiduciary Substantial  Substantial Environment and Social High High High Stakeholders Substantial  Substantial Overall Substantial  Substantial May 13, 2024 Page 2 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) 6. RESULTS 6.1 PDO Indicators by PDO Outcomes Improving tenure security Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0.00 Jul/2021 3,200.00 31-Mar-2023 650,000.00 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator will measure the number of properties and land parcels in Lao PDR that have achieving targets received land title or use certificate. Land titles and use certificates are considered to be Land titles or use certificates issued by the project in issued when they are prepared and printed, regardless if the land holder collects them from selected areas (disaggregated DONRE or not. The disaggregated information will be reported in the progress reports. The by titles/certificates, gender disaggregated information on titles/certificates and gender is available in Lao LandReg, while and ethnicity) (Number) disaggregated information on ethnicity must be collectedhrough other means, such as reports of the mobile units or DONREs. The ethnicity information is not expected to be collected in the first year of project implementation. 0.00 Jul/2021 7,300.00 30-Mar-2023 1,484,517.00 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator shows the coverage of the cadastral index maps prepared in the project. achieving targets Communal land refers to state land for collective use. In the February 2024 restructuring, this Coverage of cadastral index indicator was revised to only include hectares mapped by the Project. Accordingly the endline maps showing all land target was reset to 1,484,517 ha. holdings, including communal lands, prepared At the end of December 2023, 50,356 parcels covered approximately 39,511 hectares by the project in selected mapped. The calculation is based on coverage of cadastral index map for 2023 of 191,286 areas. (Hectare(Ha)) parcels mapped by both ESLRP and the government covering 150,089 hectares. This provides an average of 0.7847 hectares a parcel, which was then multiplied by 50,356 parcels to get 39,511 total hectares mapped. Although the target was estimated using 2.28 hectares per parcel, the average of 0.7847 hectares per parcel is due largely to initial parcels titled by the May 13, 2024 Page 3 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) project being housing parcels instead of agricultural parcels. Improving land administration services Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 36,780.00 Dec/2019 36,780.00 22-Jun-2022 48,000.00 Jul/2026 Comments on The indicator measures the annual number of subsequent land transactions in Lao PDR. The achieving targets data is disaggregated by transfer, mortgages, leases and inheritance. The disaggregated Number of annual land information will eventually be available directly from Lao LandReg but for now is conducted transactions registered, manually via reviewing logbooks at each of the 18 PONRE offices. The baseline data is based excluding first time on 2019 information from all provinces, except Phongsaly, Luangnamtha, Khammouane and registration (disaggregated Salavan due to lack of data provided to central level. by transfers, mortgages, leases and inheritance; DOL provided the annual transaction data for 2022 and 2023. For the year 2022, there were a disaggregated by gender) total of 35,974 transactions including 22,129 sales, 6,752 mortgages, 4,999 transfers, 2,042 (Number) inheritances and 52 leases. Transactions in the name of females was 43.08% for 2022. For 2023, there were a total of 50,296 subsequent land transactions, including 34,965 sales,11,052 mortgages, 1,845 transfers, 2413 inheritances, and 21 leases out of which 51.95% were in the name of women. 62.00 May/2023 62.00 31-May-2023 74.40 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator measures the percentage of customers satisfied with land administration achieving targets services in selected offices. The indicator was revised in restructuring in February 2024 to Customer satisfaction with calculate the baseline and endline as percentages rather than on a scale of 1 to 5 and include land administration services both primary and subsequent land transactions. in selected offices (disaggregated by gender) The baseline survey found overall 62 percent customer satisfaction in land services (67.5 (Percentage) percent satisfaction for males and 57.3 percent for females), including those carrying out first registration and subsequent transactions. For first time registration, 56 percent of customers were satisfied and 70 percent of the respondents (504/720) were satisfied or very satisfied when conducting secondary transactions. Reporting is expected next at completion. May 13, 2024 Page 4 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) 6.2 Intermediate Results Indicators by Components 1. Systematic Registration of Land Use Rights Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 79.00 Jul/2021 79.00 29-Jun-2023 79.00 Jul/2026 Land titles or use certificates Comments on This indicator measures the percentage of female or jointly received land titles or use issued in name of women or achieving targets certificates issued in Lao PDR. This indicator was revised in the February 2024 restructuring to jointly in Lao PDR set the baseline to 79% using full country data, instead of limited data used and erroneous (disaggregated by methodology used to set the original baseline of 38.43% .Baseline is now based on the titles/certificates) average of 5 years of gender disagggregated data on land title certificates issued and (Percentage) uploaded to Lao LandReg. Target was kept at 79% as the project will be active in rural areas so an increase in percentage of titles in the name of women is not expected. 22.00 Jul/2021 29.00 07-Oct-2022 73.00 Jul/2026 Number of Continuously Comments on This indicator measures the number of CORS in Lao PDR under the mandate of DOL. During Operating Reference Stations achieving targets restructuring the target was updated to 73 (from 77) as this was enough CORSs to cover the (Number) entire country. The expansion has been completed and target achieved. 0.00 Jul/2021 27.20 07-Jul-2023 33.30 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator measures the percentage of beneficiaries participating the project public Beneficiaries who participate achieving targets awareness campaigns out of the total number of households, as well as provides the in public awareness percentage that are ethnic. This indicator was restructured in February 2024. Baseline was set campaigns (disaggregated by to 0 instead of 50% as public awareness campaigns for ESLRP began in 2023. The indicator was ethnicity) (Percentage) revised to 33.3 % instead of 50% to reflect that often only 1 person per extended family (multiple households) attends the public awareness campaigns. By the end of this reporting period, out of a total of 61,789 households across 33 villages, 22,633 attended public awareness campaigns (36.63% of total households in villages reached). Out of the 22,633 May 13, 2024 Page 5 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) people in public awareness campaigns, 6,112 were from ethnic minorities (27% of total participants; 9.89% of households). 0.00 43.50 50.00 Comments on This indicator measures the percentage of females participating in the project public Female beneficiaries achieving targets awareness campaigns. Public awareness campaigns for ESLRP began in 2023. The indicator who participate in was restructured in February 2024 to assist with reporting. Specifically, the indicator tracks public awareness the percentage of females out of the total number of stakeholders trained rather than based campaigns on the total women in the village. (Percentage) For reporting this period, a cumulative total of 22,633 individuals have been reached by public awareness campaigns have been reached out of which 10,780 (47.63%) were female. 25.00 Jul/2021 25.00 09-Nov-2021 17.00 Jul/2026 Average cost of issuance of Comments on This indicator measures the average cost of issuing a new land title. Baseline was set at 25 and new land title achieving targets reporting is required again at MTR (next mission) and project completion. Data will be (Amount(USD)) updated next mission as part of the MTR in September 2024. 0.00 Jul/2021 832.00 07-Oct-2022 780.00 Jul/2026 Individuals within SLR teams Comments on 576 SAT team members were trained as of December 2022. 2023 plus government staff for a trained (Number) achieving targets total of 832 people trained. In 2023, due to staff turnover, an additional 111 new people were trained for a total of 943 people trained 2. Modernization of Land Administration and Service Delivery Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 482,233.00 Jul/2021 1,050,275.00 07-Oct-2022 1,920,000.00 Jul/2026 Comments on The data comes from the Lao LandReg national database; however, not all districts have Titles or use rights in digital achieving targets transferred their data to the provinces and not all provinces have uploaded their provincial land information system (Lao level Lao LandReg data to the national level. This is why the 191,286 titles issued nationwide LandReg) (Number) in 2023 are not showing up in reporting (1,138,654 in December 2022 vs 1,216,130 in March 2024 which reflects data through December 2023). May 13, 2024 Page 6 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) Districts with digital land 26.00 Jul/2021 26.00 20-Jun-2022 100.00 Jul/2026 information system (Lao Comments on Baseline was formed by the districts of Houaphan, Luang Namtha and Xaignabouly which LandReg) operational and in achieving targets regularly update data from the provincial to central level database. Since then, 9 districts in systematic use (Number) VCC have piloted Lao LandReg 7 and are regularly updating data to the central database. 0.00 Jul/2021 0.00 30-Nov-2022 441,000.00 Jul/2026 Number of old paper land Comments on This indicator measures the number of land titles or use certificates that are scanned, linked records scanned, linked to achieving targets to the land parcel in Lao LandReg and archived. During restructuring, the baseline was Lao LandReg and archived. corrected to 0 and targets to 441,000. Although there are old records scanned, they have not (Number) been linked to LaoLandReg. The digitization and scanning contractor will start work in 2024. 0.00 Jul/2021 0.00 20-Jun-2022 32.00 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator measures the number of district land offices (DONREs) rehabilitated or Number of PONREs and achieving targets constructed by the Project. As part of restructuring, this indicator replaced number of pilot DONREs renovated or service centers established, staffed and operational. It improves the measurement of project constructed (Number) support to DONREs. Construction and renovation work has not begun beyond some environmental and social assessments. 55.00 Jul/2021 55.00 29-Jun-2023 40.00 Jul/2026 Comments on The indicator measures the days taken to conduct a land transfer based on Lao LandReg from achieving targets application to approval. This indicator was part of restructuring, replacing the data source Time taken to register a land with Lao LandReg instead of WB’s Doing Business indicator which is no longer being published transaction (Days) and was based on an transfer of an already registered commercial parcel. The baseline was set to 55 days based on the average time to conduct a land transfer over 3 years (2020, 2021 and 2022) according to data available in Lao LandReg. The next update will be provided during September-October 2024 mission. 0.00 Jul/2021 1.00 20-Jun-2022 4.00 Jul/2026 Number of institutions with Comments on The indicator measures number of institutions with online link to Lao LandReg outside DOL. online link to LaoLandReg achieving targets The connection moved from 1 to 2. Ministry of Finance (2022) and Lao Development Bank (Number) (2023) are now linked to LaoLand Reg. Lao Development Bank replace Commercial Laos Bank (BCL) in 2023. May 13, 2024 Page 7 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) 32,131,000.00 Jul/2021 56,715,639.00 06-Oct-2023 60,481,000.00 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator measures amount of annual income generated to the government by DOL achieving targets through land administration fees excluding first-time registration fees. It was restructured in Income generation to February 2024 from US$ to Kip due to the drastic change in exchange rate (from 9,170 at government through DOL baseline to over 20,000), as well as removing the LAK 747,362,000 out of LAK 779.492,650 (excluding first registration million from the baseline which was capital gains tax and hence not DOL income. Baseline was fees) in Lao Kip (Number) hence reset to LAK32,131,000 to count only DOL income. 2022 income was LAK 56,715, 639 (around $6185 at time of ISR September 2023). 2023 DOL income is reported for March 2024 at 38,896,339 LAK. 3. Implementation, Policy and Legal Framework Development Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year 0.00 Jul/2021 3.00 07-Oct-2022 5.00 Jul/2026 Comments on This indicator measures the cumulative number of official regulations amended or studies achieving targets produced as an outcome of the project Regulations or studies The approved regulations and studies include: amended or produced (Number) • Instruction on Cadastral Surveying and Mapping No. 6377/MONRE (December 2021) • Instruction on Land Title Registration No. 0500/MONRE (February 2022) • Decision on Business Related Land No. 4392/MONRE (August 2022) • Instruction on Land Valuation No. 0040/MONRE (January 2023) • Decree on Condominium No.352/MONRE (November 2023) • Decision on Conversion of Land Types No.3806/MONRE (December 2023) Normative documents (sub- 0.00 Jul/2021 0.00 09-Nov-2021 2.00 Jul/2026 legislation, decrees, Comments on This indicator measures normative documents (sub-legislation, decrees, instructions or instructions or regulations) achieving targets regulations) developed for i) customary tenure registration; and ii) land registration in state on i) customary tenure forestlands. registration; and ii) land registration in state May 13, 2024 Page 8 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) forestlands issued The approved regulations and studies include: (Number) • Instruction on Land Title Registration No. 0500/MONRE 4. Project Management Baseline Actual (Previous) Actual (Current) Closing Period Indicator Name Value Month/Year Value Date Value Date Value Month/Year No Jul/2021 No 22-Jun-2022 Yes Jul/2026 Project Management rated as Comments on This indicator measures the rating of project management Satisfactory (Yes/No) achieving targets March 2024: Project Management was downgraded to Moderately Unsatisfactory. May 13, 2024 Page 9 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) 7. DATA ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 7.1 Cumulative Disbursements 7.2 Disbursements (by loan) Loan/Credit/TF Status Original Revised Cancelled Disbursed Undisbursed % Disbursed IDA-69820 Effective 25.00 25.00 0.00 6.87 16.31 27.48% TF-B6525 Effective 1.70 1.70 0.00 1.41 0.29 83.09% IDA-V2890 Closed 2.50 0.00 2.50 0.00 0.00 0% 7.3 Key Dates (by loan) Loan/Credit/TF Status Approval Signing Effectiveness Orig. Closing Rev. Closing May 13, 2024 Page 10 of 11 The World Bank Implementation Status & Results Report Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project (P169669) IDA-69820 Effective 02-Sep-2021 21-Oct-2021 16-Mar-2022 30-Sep-2026 30-Sep-2026 TF-B6525 Effective 02-Sep-2021 21-Oct-2021 16-Mar-2022 30-Sep-2026 30-Sep-2026 8. KEY DATES Key Events Planned Actual Approval 02-Sep-2021 02-Sep-2021 Effectiveness 25-Oct-2019 25-Oct-2019 Mid-Term Review No. 01 04-Oct-2024 Operation Closing/Cancellation 30-Sep-2026 9. RESTRUCTURING HISTORY Restructuring Level 2 Approved on 20-Dec-2023 10. ASSOCIATED OPERATION(S) There are no associated operations May 13, 2024 Page 11 of 11