Overall Objective

The Conference on Land Policy in Africa will be a policy and learning event. Its overall objective will be to deepen capacity for land policy in Africa through improved access to knowledge and information, in support of evidence-based land policymaking and implementation. The Conference will adopt a scientific approach. It will capture a broad range of emerging knowledge, and generate interest in current land policy themes from a wide range of African policy actors - within academia and beyond.

The inaugural Conference on Land Policy in Africa will focus on the following sub-themes: 

  • Inclusive agricultural growth (agricultural investment,  productivity experiences securing land rights in the context of large scale investments)
  • Land governance frameworks – experiences in implementing frameworks and coherence at country level (specific land governance frameworks, implications for land management and land rights)
  • Women’s land rights – impact of land reforms and addressing persisting policy bottlenecks
  • Securing land rights under different tenure regimes
  • Experiences and emerging best practices in developing and implementing land policies (rural and urban)
  • Land administration

It is expected that the Conference will attract some 400 participants, representing African Union Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), farmers’ and civil society organizations, research institutions and academia, the private sector, land practitioners (surveyors, mapping companies, administrators), and donors.

The inaugural Conference on Land Policy in Africa is organized by the LPI in collaboration with the European Union (EU), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UN-Habitat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Forum on Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), under the guidance of a Steering Committee comprising AUC, AfDB, ECA, the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and a few leading African academic institutions. The organizers have the close collaboration of United Nations agencies, development partners, the private sector, civil society, RECs, natural resources stakeholders, NGOs, and agencies with an established track record of engagement with land policy issues.