Africa Prepares to Launch Single Land Policy Frameworks and Guidelines
ECA Press Release No. 78/2010
Lilongwe, Malawi, 27 October, 2010 (ECA) – African Ministers of Agriculture began arriving here yesterday for a special session of their conference at which the Frameworks and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa will be launched in the Malawian capital tomorrow, Thursday 28 October 2010.
Earlier endorsed by the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit of July 2009, the official launch will pave the way for the implementation of the first ever continent-wide policy document on land in Africa, according to invitation letters from the AU Department of Agriculture and rural Economy.
The launch is being preceded by a series of events to raise awareness of a unique policy instrument that addresses the need for increased agricultural productivity and livelihood sustenance; improved governance of land resources; and espouses shared principles as the basis for securing property rights for all land users in Africa.
The Lilongwe event will conclude 3 years of subregional assessment studies and multi-stakeholder consultations under the auspices of the Land Policy Initiative made up of the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
However, observers say it also ushers in the new and more challenging implementation phase. All the three partners to the initiative seem to be quite aware of the implementation challenges and are already planning for them.
They plan to get Regional Economic Communities to facilitate regional forums and convergence of cross-border land issues following the official launch; while member states will provide political goodwill and budgetary resources for the implementation, and tracking of progress of land policy processes, according to Mr. Josué Dioné, Director of the Food Security and Sustainable Development Division at ECA.
Mr. Dioné points out that the Land Policy Initiative has a full fledged implementation plan with secured funding of about 8 Million Euros.
Implementation should not be a big problem for the AfDB, where the next phase of the Framework and Guidelines will fit into the kind assistance that the Bank currently provides member countries, according to Mr. Massamba Diene, Manager of Operation Strategies and Policies.
Mr. Massamba who is in Lilongwe for the launching ceremony says that AfDB’s New Agricultural Strategy adopted last February takes full account of the principles upheld by the frameworks and guidelines because it prioritises assistance to member- countries.
The significance of Thursday’s event lies in the fact that, for the first time in Africa, governments and development partners have mutually agreed signposts to which references could be made for best practice in land policy reforms, as well as a basis for engaging development partners for the purposes of mobilising resources in favour of building capacities for transformative land policy reforms.
In a continent where the causes of most conflicts are invariably linked to land, the need for a land policy which rationalises, harmonises and clarifies the otherwise uncoordinated approaches and complex interactions between these sector-driven laws and policies, is of utmost importance.
On the eve of the official launch, the mode is festive around the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, site of the ceremony; where a farmers’ side event is in full swing. Expectations run high among farmers and agricultural extension workers who are attending the event. Speculations are also rife as to how the new continental instrument would affect their lives on the ground.
“The Frameworks and Guidelines have come at the right time because they coincide with a new struggle for Africa’s lands; a struggle from within, among family members and between the government and its peoples”, says Mrs. Laurencia Mzamu, irrigation officer in the Malawian Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources.
Across the aisle to the other side of the hotel, where a consultative general assembly meeting for a Pan African Farmers’ Forum is underway, some of their representatives bemoan what they see as attempts by governments and institutions to “love the farmers more than the farmers love themselves”, according to Mamadou Cisskho, member of the West African Farmers’s and Agricultural
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Producers’ Organisations Network.
Mr. Cisskho would like to see greater farmers’ involvement in the implementation phase of the frameworks and guidelines.
The official launch will be followed on tomorrow by a High level Panel Discussion on “Land-Related Foreign Direct Investment in Africa” in the presence of representatives of the Land Policy Initiative Consortium, AU member states, Regional Economic Communities, the private sector, civil society organisations, centres of excellence and development partners.
Issued by:
ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.uneca.org
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