Addis Ababa — The Land Policy Initiative (LPI), the World Bank, and the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ) agreed to collaborate in launching a five-year project, "Support to Capacity Building for Land Governance in Africa". The agreement was reached at the end of a two-day working session to review, finalize, and integrate components of project proposals developed by the three partnering institutions, and organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The project is designed to support the LPI and African institutions of higher learning and research in order to improve their capacity to train land professionals, and conduct research which is more relevant to Africa's realities with regard to land policy and governance. The project will be guided by a tripartite arrangement between the initiating organizations, and be supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project has an enormous potential to change the nature and depth of policy dialogue on land governance in African Union Member States.
In her opening remarks at the session, Dr. Janet Edeme, Head of the Division of Rural Economy of the African Union Commission, noted that "effective and sustainable capacity building in land policy is about managing change in the land sector."
The project will adopt a multilateral approach, and work at three levels. At regional and continental levels, the project will support the establishment of an African Center of Excellence, to function as an innovation hub to share research and best practices in land governance. At country level, the project will facilitate the exchange of knowledge among African, European, and American universities to improve curricula and training on land governance in Africa. Equally important, the project will support the implementation of a research programme to inform national, regional, and continent-wide land policy processes, including monitoring and evaluation. In this regard, enhancing data and statistics forms an important part of the project, with links to national statistical departments.
The partnering organizations envision the project as a catalyst for operational engagement of a variety of development partners, and for augmented public and private investments. The project will contribute to furthering the AU agenda on land, and support the implementation of the Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, in accordance with the Framework and Guidelines for Land Policy in Africa, as well as the application of the Guiding Principles on Large Scale Land-Based Investments. The project will also contribute to the overall objectives of the German initiative "One world, No hunger", which aims at increasing food security and reducing poverty in partner countries.
