United Nations Economic Commission for Africa - Land Policy Initiative

Africa's Land governance issues under spotlight in virtual NELGA meeting

Minilik.Demissie — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 07:08:16 +0000

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21 September 2020 – In their quest to help strengthen Africa’s weak land governance and insecure land rights issues which remain major development challenges for the continent, technical experts met in a virtual meeting to discuss these concerns and plan ahead on what is needed to achieve the African Union’s agenda on land.

The meeting was held under the coordination of the African Land Policy Center (ALPC), formerly the Land Policy Initiative (LPI), and brought together experts from the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) and its regional and technical nodes.

They reviewed progress made regarding 2020 work plans; appraised the NELGA secretariat work plan for 2020-2021 and encouraged coordinated efforts to meet the African Union agenda on land.

The ALPC has been mandated to spearhead the implementation of the African Union’s Agenda on Land that aims at improving land policy across the continent.

Although a growing number of countries show political will to realize these initiatives, their implementation at country level remains at an early stage. Many countries lack the human and institutional capacity required to implement sustainable land policies. One of the main reasons for this lack is the insufficient quality of academic programmes at African universities and institutions of higher learning.

The technical planning meeting is part of the continental initiative comprising ALPC, NELGA, and GIZ, and includes land governance technical experts, academics and government stakeholders, tasked to provide academic support and oversight, research, data, reports and policy recommendations to influence sound land governance and reforms in Africa.

The meeting was opened by the Chief of the African Land Policy Centre, Ms.Joan Kagwanja, and she co-chaired the meeting with the GIZ’s Strengthening Advisory Capacities for Land Governance, Head of Program, Ms. Anita Hernig.

In her opening remarks, Dr. Kagwanja stated, "The planning meeting provides additional insight and information which helps NELGA secretariat and ALPC develop actions to advance practical steps towards moving the dial on policy changes in land administration in Africa. Ultimately it needs to get there. Besides the usual focused discussions on what we have done in the different areas of land governance work and exchanges, I am looking forward to building more synergy to meet set goals."

The meeting celebrated the successful establishment of the NELGA secretariat and the onboarding of its multi-nationality pioneer staff recruited in the midst of the crippling COVID-19 crisis.

"It is expected that with the full recruitment of the secretariat team, this will enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration within the network at the continental level," Ms. Kagwanja said.

The NELGA secretariat will improve coordination, knowledge generation and dissemination of the network’s activities jointly with NELGA institutions across the continent through its regional nodes. These activities include training for NELGA students, implementation of the NELGA scholarship programme, advocating and facilitating delivery of trainings for scholars and policy makers in the region; and work with the RECs and other regional/national stakeholders to generate data. Working through the regional nodes, the secretariat will coordinate regional activities involving NELGA member institutions, linking them to other NELGA regional networks for joint activities, knowledge sharing and partnership building.

The meeting provided an opportunity for NELGA to showcase the network’s results through collaborative research, scholarship programs and knowledge exchange; reviewed the comprehensive and harmonized workplans, introduced new partnerships, opportunities and sustainability strategies to meeting the AU's commitment to improving land policies in Africa for 2020-2021.

Participants applauded the network for introducing innovative methods through digital platforms to foster e-learning on land governance in response to COVID-19.

Regional stakeholders from Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa and Germany were among the participants to the virtual meeting.

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NOTE TO EDITORS:

The African Land Policy Centre (ALPC), formerly called the Land Policy Initiative (LPI), is a joint programme of the tripartite consortium consisting of the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) , and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Its purpose is to enable the use of land to lend impetus to the process of African development. The programme is governed by a Steering Committee that meets periodically, while a joint secretariat implements day to day activities.

To strengthen human and institutional capacities for implementing the AU agenda on land, ALPC established the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA). NELGA is a partnership of leading African universities and research institutions with proven leadership in education, training, and research on land governance. Currently, NELGA has more than 50 partner institutions across Africa. NELGA aims to: enhance training opportunities and curricula on land governance in Africa; promote demand driven research on land policy issues; connect scholars and researchers across Africa through academic networks; and create data and information for monitoring and evaluation on land policy reforms.

Issued by:

Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org

Land Policy Journal paving the way for African scholars

Minilik.Demissie — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 08:06:54 +0000

Nairobi, Kenya, 29 June 2020 (ECA) - On 22nd June 2020, the African Land Policy Center (ALPC) held the first Editorial Board Meeting for the African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences (AJLP&GS). The Editor in Chief of AJLP&GS is Professor Moha El- Ayachi of the IAV Hassan II University in Morocco. The IAV Hassan II is a node in of the Network of Land Governance in Africa (NELGA).

Held virtually due to COVID-19 containment measures, the meeting reviewed the strides made by the Journal since it released the first Issue in May 2018.

In her remarks, Joan Kagwanja, the ALPC Coordinator, emphasized the role of the Journal in advancing the African Union agenda on land on the continent by providing a platform for African academicians to share their knowledge. The Journal is contributing to knowledge generation, documentation and sharing, she said. She called upon African scholars to use the platform to share their research findings and point to new policy and programmatic directions towards the realization of Agenda 2063.

Guest Speaker, Prof. Kimani Njogu, underscored the role of journal in the decolonization of knowledge production on Africa. Saying that Africa is a site of knowledge generation but with limited openings for publishing by scholars on the continent and in the diaspora, he challenged the Editorial Board to use the Journal to articulate perspectives that challenge the view that Africa is only a source of data and not of rigorous theoretical and methodological reflection about land. Knowledge production is tied to power and politics, he emphasized. The Journal can be a space for decolonization of Africanist knowledge and the affirmation of the African voice on land policy and use, informed by community practice.

Speaking from Lafayete University, USA, Professor Rex Ahene, a Member of the Editorial Board, indicated that the Journal will serve upcoming and established academics in the diaspora who have found it hard to publish Africa-centric articles in the North due to what is perceived as ‘legitimate knowledge’ and editorial policies skewed against scholars from the South.

Professor Moha El-Ayachi informed the Editorial Board that the AJLP&GS meets international standards including having an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a list of Editorial Board Members, a well-articulated peer review policy, an established publishing schedule and a clear copyright policy. Indexation with Web of Science and Google Scholar are underway.

The AJLP&GS is a major outlet for high quality articles on land policy development, land administration and land information systems, monitoring and evaluation as well as issues related to youth, women, natural resources, prevention, management and resolution of land related conflicts and urbanization.

The online Journal is found at https://revues.imist.ma/index.php?journal=AJLP-GS&page=issue&op=view&path%5B%5D=1322. It is published under a Creative Commons regime.

Media queries contact:
Sophia Denekew, ECA Media Relations
UN Economic Commission for Africa
Denekews.uneca@un.org

Issued by:

Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org

Now is the time for Africa to digitize land registries, says Joan Kagwanja

eskinder.tsegaye — Fri, 29 May 2020 12:00:09 +0000

Language English

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Land Policy Initiative

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Now is the time for Africa to digitize land registries, says Joan Kagwanja

Africa regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition

eskinder.tsegaye — Fri, 29 May 2020 11:23:16 +0000

Containing the Damage of Economic Slowdowns and Downturns to Food Insecurity in Africa

After a long period of improvement, hunger in Africa - as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment - worsened in 2014-2018. This trend slowed in 2017-2018. Today 256 million Africans, or 20 percent of the population, are undernourished. Of these, 239 million are in subSaharan Africa and 17 million in Northern Africa.
There is significant variation in the levels and trends of hunger in Africa's subregions. The prevalence of undernourishment has for the past 18 years been highest in Eastern Africa and Central Africa, indicating persistent conslraints in terms of availabilily and access to food. However, over the 2014-2018 period, the trend in the prevalence of hunger worsened the most in Western and Central Africa, for the most part due to conflicts, climate extremes and economic slowdowns, sometimes combined.

2019_africa_regional_overview_of_food_security_and_nutrition.pdf

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Now is the time for Africa to digitize land registries, says Joan Kagwanja

Minilik.Demissie — Fri, 29 May 2020 08:18:15 +0000

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Now is the time for Africa to digitize land registries, says Joan Kagwanja

Minilik.Demissie — Fri, 29 May 2020 08:14:16 +0000

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 28, 2020 (ECA) – The ongoing coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) has added impetus to the need for African nations to create comprehensive, up to date land registries to safeguard ordinary people’s land rights, especially in rural communities, Joan Kagwanja of the African Land Policy Centre said Thursday.

Speaking during a webinar organised by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) to discuss African land rights in the time of the coronavirus, Ms. Kagwanja said COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of millions of rural people across the continent raising the need for more transparency and accountability in land governance across the board.

“This is an opportunity for us to do what we should have done a long time ago. We need to now put in place technologies to be able to deliver land rights to the vulnerable in particular. Now is the time,” she said, adding this would create more transparency and help root out corruption in land governance systems.

Ms. Kagwanja said land rights were becoming even more precarious as more and more people move into the rural areas as the ongoing health crisis continues to bite, affecting economies across the continent.

“What we have noted is that the land rights delivery is not benefiting at the moment because our institutions are not functioning. Land governance has been affected especially for our vulnerable people across the populations,” she said.

Panellists, among them Fatmata Fouard-Kanu of Sierra Leone’s Namati Land Rights Organisation; His Royal Highness Stephen Drani of the Forum for African Traditional Authority; and Bernadus Swartbooi, Namibian lawmaker and leader of the Landless People’s Movement, agreed the crisis needs to be better understood if great responses are to be developed to secure people’s access and rights to land now and beyond the pandemic.

They also agreed that women across the continent were bearing the brunt of COVID-19 as they have been pushed out of agricultural value chains resulting in drastically reduced incomes and domestic violence in the home.

“In Kenya for example, the pandemic has exposed gender inequalities as women have been pushed out of spaces they normally use to earn a living. Women have completely been locked out of agricultural value chains and men have been left in control,” said Bernadette Muyomi of Kenya.

She said COVID-19 has seen more land grabs taking place in rural Kenya.

“This has been happening with the support of the State. With COVID-19, the rich are likely to grab more land as the poor abandon it,” said Ms. Muyomi.

Mr. Swartbooi said this was the time for African governments to address all ills affecting land governance on the continent and move to strengthen small holder farmers to ensure they can lift the continent’s economies by producing enough food for Africa.

Among the evident COVID-19 effects are the halting of programmes to secure tenure, institutional support for land rights and conflict management, and the diversion of State and donor resources towards emergency responses.

Panellists agreed this underscored the importance of resilience and accountability among local institutions - both state and traditional - in land governance.

Digitizing land registries, they agreed, would reduce the expropriation risk for most rural dwellers.

They also agreed that governments should speedily move to regularise customary land tenure to secure and protect the land rights of the rural people.

Note to editors:

About PLAAS and NELGA

PLAAS is a special node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) and convenes a short course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa. This course is funded through the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) and GIZ.

The Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) is a programme of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC), an initiative of the African Union, the United Nations Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank. It is a partnership of more than 50 leading African universities and research institutions, to strengthen the training and curriculum development on land governance in Africa.

The African Land Policy Centre is a joint programme of the tripartite consortium consisting of the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Its purpose is to enable the use of land to lend impetus to the process of African development. https://www.uneca.org/alpc

To access the ECA’s COVID-19 resource page, please click on this link: https://www.uneca.org/eca-covid-19-response

Issued by:

Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org

PLAAS WEBINAR: African land rights in the time of the coronavirus

Minilik.Demissie — Wed, 27 May 2020 18:16:30 +0000

28 May 2020

Online - 13:00

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Now is the time for Africa to digitize land registries, says Joan Kagwanja
Addis Ababa, 28 May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly expanded from a public health to a food and livelihood crisis, exposing the vulnerability of millions of rural people who have limited access to and insecure tenure of land and other natural resources. At the same time, those who have secure land rights may be buffered from livelihood shocks. Limitations on the functioning of state and non-state institutions and the movement of people and goods are expected to remain in place until after infections have peaked and/or until a vaccine is found and made widely available. Meanwhile, gendered inequalities in land access and rights may be underscored or challenged as households shift short-term strategies, as cash incomes from non-farm work shrink or are cut off, and the work of food provisioning takes centre stage. Among the evident outcomes already are the halting of programmes to secure tenure, institutional support for land rights and conflict management, and the diversion of state and donor resources towards emergency responses. This underscores the importance of resilience and accountability among local institutions—both state and traditional – in land governance. The immediate crisis needs to be better understood if we are to develop better responses now and beyond the pandemic.

Join this webinar to hear and debate:

What impact is the pandemic having on rural communities who depend on land-based livelihoods—and how are they responding?
In what ways is the pandemic exposing gender inequalities?
What can and must be done to secure people’s access and rights to land both now and beyond the immediate crisis?

The speakers for this webinar are:

• Dr Joan Kagwanja, Kenya/Ethiopia
African Land Policy Centre, African Union/UN Economic Commission for Africa/African Development Bank

• Fatmata Fouard-Kanu, Sierra Leone
Namati Land Rights Organisation

• HRH Stephen Drani, Uganda
Forum for African Traditional Authority

• Bernadus Swartbooi, MP, Namibia
Leader, Landless People’s Movement and former deputy minister of Lands and Resettlement

PLAAS is a special node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) and convenes a short course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa. The three speakers from West, East and Southern Africa are all alumni of this course, and are key thinkers, activists and leaders on land governance in their respective countries.

Sensitization Workshop on the Guidelines for Curricula Development on Land Governance in Africa

eskinder.tsegaye — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 05:49:35 +0000

3 March 2020 to 6 March 2020

Nairobi, Kenya

The sensitization workshop on the Guidelines for Curricula Development on Land Governance in Africa brings together a team of expert on land governance and related fields competitively selected to support Universities in Africa to mainstream the Guidelines for Curricula Development on Land Governance in Africa. The Workshop is meant to take the team of experts through the content and process of Mainstreaming the Guidelines. The Workshop will be delivered through lectures on the various themes of the Guidelines by some renowned experts on land governance in Africa. The team will further be joined by other NELGA partners including the NELGA Nodes representatives; staff of the ALPC and GIZ. To discuss the status of Curricula development in African Universities, challenges and the significance of building capacities for Curricula development in Africa, the Vice Chancellor Kimathi University in Nyeri Kenya will honour the meeting as a Guest speaker.

The objective of the meeting is to sensitize the team of experts on the content and process of mainstreaming the Guidelines for Curricula Development on land governance in Africa

The expected Outcome is to ensure that the team supporting the Universities in this process is equipped with the necessary knowledge to undertake the task.

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Concept Note

Curricula Development workshop on Land Governance in Africa underway in Nairobi

eskinder.tsegaye — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 05:41:53 +0000

Language English

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Land Policy Initiative

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Curricula Development workshop on Land Governance in Africa underway in Nairobi

eskinder.tsegaye — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 05:41:06 +0000

Nairobi, Kenya, 3 March 2020 - A team of experts have gathered in Nairobi for a sensitization workshop from 3-6 March to develop guidelines for curricula development on land governance in Africa. The objective of the meeting is to sensitize the team of experts on the content and process of mainstreaming the Guidelines for Curricula Development on land governance in Africa

According to the African Land Policy Centre – ALPIC, the experts attending the workshop have been competitively selected to support Universities in Africa to mainstream the Guidelines for Curricula Development on Land Governance in Africa. The workshop aims to equip the team supporting the Universities in this process with the necessary knowledge to undertake the task.

The Workshop is being delivered through lectures on the various themes of the Guidelines by some renowned experts on land governance in Africa. The team will further be joined by other NELGA partners including the NELGA Nodes representatives; staff of the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) and GIZ. To discuss the status of Curricula development in African Universities, challenges and the significance of building capacities for Curricula development in Africa, the Vice Chancellor Kimathi University in Nyeri Kenya, will honour the meeting as a Guest speaker.

Issued by:

Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org