Addis Ababa — Ministers at the inaugural Conference of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment called for the establishment of an African Land Policy Centre "to provide leadership, coordination, build partnerships and promote policy advocacy in support of member states."
Noting the need to enhance funding to the land sector, the Ministers called for the establishment of a fund to facilitate resource mobilization from member states and development partners to support implementation of land plans, programs, policies and actions by member states and other actors. The Ministers also adopted a monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress on land policy with a view to sharing lessons on the implementation of land policies in Africa.
A meeting of Experts preceded the Ministers' session. The experts held discussions on three thematic lines: Agriculture, rural development, livestock and fisheries; Environment, land, natural resources, climate change, meteorology, disaster risk reduction, water and sanitation; and Institutional arrangements and legal issues related to the STC.
The AUC-ECA-AfDB Land Policy Initiative (LPI) secretariat presented a report to Experts on progress made in the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, outlining the outcomes and recommendations of the study mandated by the AU Heads of States Summit in 2009.
The study, validated through rigorous consultations was successful in defining an institutional and financing mechanism, and monitoring and evaluation framework for the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land.
The report to Experts also highlighted progress made in mainstreaming land governance concerns at continental, regional and national level, noting that with technical support and partnership of the LPI, progress has been made to include land governance issues in programs and plans of core departments within AUC ECA, AfDB and affiliated institutions (e.g. NPCA, IDEP, RCMRD) as well as in the Regional Economic Communities. The report also notes success in national pilots funded by various donors including Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the European Union (EU) other partners that receive technical support from LPI in close partnership with FAO.
Examining the outcomes of Experts deliberations that were based on LPI research findings, Ministers committed to applying the Guiding Principles on Large Scale Land Based Investments in Africa in an effort to promote agricultural investments. They also committed to a target of 30% allocation of land to women, and to secure their land through legislative reforms and other mechanisms.
