Land Policy Initiative

Land conference ends with call on Africa to enact policies that will harness youth potential

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 17, 2017 (ECA) – The four-day Conference on Land Policy in Africa ended Friday in Addis Ababa with Economic Commission for Africa’s Chief of Staff, Collen Kelapile, urging Africa to enact policies that will harness the tremendous potential of its youth.

Addressing delegates who attended the conference, Mr. Kelapile said Africa’s youth represent the future and therefore expect their policymakers to clear hurdles that block them from being involved in national development processes. 

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Journalists receive training on writing punchy women’s land rights stories

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, November 16, 2017 (ECA) – Journalists covering the ongoing 2017 conference on land policy in Africa on Thursday were trained on how to write about women’s land rights in a session organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Pulitzer Centre.

Thomson Reuters Property Rights Editor Astryd Zweynert said the training of journalists is important because it shows the scribes new innovative ways of doing in-depth reporting on such crucial issues as land property rights, in particular women’s land rights.

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Sierra Leone’s land challenges to be addressed by reforms

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16 November 2017 (ECA) - The problems surrounding access and ownership of land in Sierra Leone will be solved by the implementation of the National Land Policy, said country representatives at a session on the country’s emerging best practices in land policy and reforms at the ongoing Land Policy Conference in Addis Ababa.

Alphajoh Cham, Sierra Leone’s Deputy Director in the Ministry of Lands, Country Planning and Environment, said the new National Land Policy provides core stability on transparency and accountability of land matters.

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Land and conflict: a complicated relationship that could be avoided

Addis Ababa, 16 November 2016 (ECA) - During heated discussions on land grabbing, the participants at the 2017 Conference on Land Policy underlined the importance of clear laws that govern land in all the countries of the continent.

Estimates say that 90 percent of Africa’s land is still undocumented and this cause frequent land invasions in many parts of the continent and fuel conflicts in many communities.

Evidences show that disputes related to private sector land and natural resource investments in Africa began when communities were forced to leave their lands.

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Agricultural Policy Research in Africa official launched in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15 November 2017 (ECA) - The Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) programme was officially launched at the ongoing land policy conference in Addis Ababa.

APRA is a five-year research programme aiming to analyse pathways to agricultural commercialisation and their differential impacts on empowerment of women and girls, poverty reduction, and food and nutrition security and in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It is run by the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) and funded by the UK Department of International Development (DFID).

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Africa’s youth are a ‘ticking time bomb’

Addis Ababa, 16 November 2017 (ECA) – A representative from Namibia’s Ministry of Land and Resettlement at the 2017 Conference on Land Policy in Africa (CLPA2017) in Addis Ababa, Prisca Mandimika, has urged African governments to ensure that land reforms and acquisition processes favour the youth, stating, “Youths constitute the biggest social group in Africa and are therefore a ticking time bomb if we continue to exclude them from such important matters.”

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The African Land Policy Centre unveiled in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15 November 2017 (ECA) - The Land Policy Centre (ALPC), formerly the Land Policy Initiative, was officially unveiled at the on-going Conference on Land Policy in Africa being held in Addis Ababa.

The transformation of ALPC from LPI results from recommendation by the inaugural Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment in 2015.

“The ALPC will provide leadership, coordination, build partnerships and promote policy advocacy in support of member states,” said Joan Kagwanja, the ALPC Coordinator.

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Bribery levels still high in land sector. A call to trigger the change was made in Land Conference

Addis Ababa, 15 November 2017 (ECA) - study by Transparency International shows that in some parts of Africa, about 70 percent of the citizens have paid a bribe to access a service, at the various stages of the land sector.

According to Mr. Nyassi Tchakounte Lucain of Transparency International, the Chapter of Cameroon, bribery is still rampant despite efforts to reform public institutions.

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Agribusiness could be the next gate to youth employment in Africa

Addis Ababa, 15 November 2017 (ECA) - More than ever, African youth have to overcome a long and hard journey to enter the labour market. Out of 11 million young people entering the job market in Africa every year, only 3 million end up in formal jobs and all do not have quality jobs.

Today, about 420 million African young people are between 15-35 years of age.

According to Edson Mpyisi, Coordinator of Enable Youth Programme at African Development Bank, Agribusiness could provide a remedy to the problem of youth employment.

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