A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development of the 21st Century

Delivering Effective Urban Managementoperations to the rest of the country. The Ministry has already established 6 land registries underthe Land Administration project, one in each regional capital in addition to the two already inAccra and Kumasi.Lessons learned:First, the success of any land registration reform is contingent upon a well-designed publicoutreach campaign. Lack of such a programme can only lead to confused applicants andcumbersome transactions.Second, lack of coordination and turf battles among existing government authorities can hamperefforts. Duplication and bottlenecks must be overcome, which often require negotiations.Third, it is crucial to build the capacity to implement reforms. After publishing the Directive inMay 2006, the Ministry of Lands, Forestry, and Mines had to recruit new staff and computerizedatabases in order to allow the registry to deal with the higher workload, thus smoothing thetransition for Ghana’s landowners.24