Nicaragua - Property Rights Strengthening Project (English)

Ratings of Property Rights Strengthening Project for Nicaragua were as follows: outcome was highly satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was high. Some of the lessons learned include: the project, as the last phase of Land Administration Program (PRODEP), corroborates the importance of maintaining sustained, programmatic support to a major development challenge such as the strengthening of land tenure rights and land governance; in addition to enhancing ownership and sustainability, the government's direct execution approach helped mitigate cost overruns and coordination problems often associated with outsourcing; along with the programmatic support and direct implementation of activities, capacity building can be strengthened by mainstreaming project activities and ensuring sufficient technical capacity is maintained within the key institutions; the combination of an effective grievance redress mechanism and culturally and gender-sensitive conflict mediation can foster the participation of beneficiaries and a culture of dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution; the success of Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) implementation was helped by the focus on immediate recovery needs and flexible design responsive to the affected population's needs and evolving circumstances; and a crucial lesson learned from PRODEP is the impact of securing women's land rights on effecting real normative changes in society.