Addis Ababa — Land issues should no longer be considered as too politically sensitive, to the extent that States remain inert and miss out on opportunities to use the indispensable factor of production for the benefit of their people, a landmark policy conference concluded today.
At the close of the four-day encounter on Land Policy in Africa, the close to 400 delegates from Government, civil society, the private sector, academia and local leaders on the continent, said bold new steps must be taken by Governments in conjunction with civil society and the private sector to make the use of land profitable to both the state, investors and disadvantaged groups such as indigenous people, women and youths.
Jointly organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (A f DB) under their joint Land Policy Initiative, the conference examined a huge gamut of dynamics that surround access to and the use of land and came up with clear recommendations tabled by technical and development partners, policy makers, civil society, the private sector and the world of research and academia.
From their reflections, it emerged that for the next one decade, African countries need to put in place land zoning plans for the use of land, institutional frameworks and ensure capacity building for proper land reforms and policies as well as proactive budgeting for land and development issues. In connection with budgeting, while both public and private actors were called upon to inject monetary and human resources into land research, the African Union was called upon to propose a minimum land policy and research spending threshold for governments across the continent.
The participants praise d the efforts of several Governments in Africa at addressing land issues and enshrining social rights to land in their legal frameworks, while ascertaining the challenges to be grappled with. These includeland auditing and rezoning for special use, documenting land rights, dealing with corruption, negotiating the difficult nexus between customary and state regimes, optimal use of modern technology for land policy issues and the lack of translation of policy into law, where such policies already exist.
That is why attendees stressed the need for inclusive dialogue between state and non-state actors and an outward looking attitude of copying from the myriad examples documented during the conference, and, most especially, the several prescriptions of the AUC-ECA-AfDB Land Policy Initiative.
To Mr Stephen Karingi, who spoke on behalf of the Executive Secretary of ECA, at the close of the conference, The evidence and the best practices which have been shared from across the world, should be future anchors of stakeholders' work on land in Africa" adding that ECA will continue to lend its unreserved support to the AU Agenda on Land, and that the recommendations and priorities raised at the conference will inform ECA's future interventions on land matters.
"This conference is a blessing for all African governments,"opined Mr James Opio-Omondi, LPI's focal Person at the AfDB. Insisting on the need to reinforce advocacy for inclusive land policies in Africa, Mr Opio-Omondi challenged civil society, members of parliament, traditional leaders to go back to their respective countries and push for land put at the centre of our national development strategies. "Once we have the land issues in our national development strategies,"he said, "it would attract AfDB financing."
A similar message of commitment was echoed by Ms Janet Edeme - LPI Focal Person at the African Union Commission who spoke on behalf H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture. "We would need longer term engagement in addressing the land challenges of our continent," she remarked, and added that the African Union would go ahead and push for the mainstreaming of land issues in development planning across member states, while increasing its own resources on land policy issues in other to respond to the recommendations of the conference.
A major point of the Inaugural Conference of Land Policy in Africa was the launch of the LPI's Guidelines on Large Scale Land Based Investments in Africa. It is a policy and process template to help African Governments strike a balance between the interests of big business on land development, the state, communities and the environment.
