I want to use MAST! How do I get started?

In this step, implementers work to understand national, regional, district, and local contexts and engage stakeholders to develop a MAST implementation strategy that is appropriate for the given context.

Examples of MAST assessments include:

• Community Land Administration Analysis assessment for Zambia and Mozambique, conducted by the Integrated Land and Resource Governance (ILRG) project.
• MAST assessment for Liberia conducted by USAID’s Land Technology Solutions project.

Implementers start by designing an implementation strategy that aligns with the priorities of the community and other stakeholders. They then determine the roles and responsibilities of the local government authorities, communities, private sector actors (if appropriate) and partners in executing that strategy. Implementers ensure that all technical and legal prerequisites are complete and train the institutions that will support MAST at the regional, district, or local levels (including training institutions on the technical requirements for using MAST for mapping, processing, and managing data). Examples of mapping preparations and trainings include:

Examples of mapping preparations include:

• This MAST Deployment Guide from the LTS Activity, describing how to set up a MAST server and mobile application instance.
• This Lessons Learned document contains lessons learned from practical implementation of the MAST approach, known as Community Value Land Chain (CaVaTeCo) in Mozambique.

Implementers lead community meetings to explain the land and resource boundary demarcation process and promote awareness about its benefits. Together with local stakeholders, they select and train members of the community to work as para-surveyors. The para-surveyors then conduct the mapping, typically by walking the resource or parcel boundaries with other community members and verifying boundaries, owner(s), ownership type, and other characteristics.

A validation period allows the community to review, comment on, correct and, in some cases, contest community boundaries, land use boundaries and associated rules, parcel boundaries or household information. If the national or sub-national government is involved in the MAST process, and particularly if the MAST process will result in government-issued land documents, then the relevant government entity should verify that the information collected meets and complies with local and national standards, land laws, and regulations.
The implementer then works with community leaders and/or the local government to certify land records and distribute land documents if appropriate.

This phase is not sequential, but rather parallel to the other steps. Throughout the MAST process, implementers work to 1) (1) monitor and evaluate the MAST efforts, and (2) link MAST with programs and organizations that can provide additional technical services or related additive services and benefits. Aligning MAST implementation with local and national land laws, deploying it in tandem with other economic development incentives, and incorporating lessons learned from monitoring and evaluation can help both the immediate and long-term success of the implementation efforts.