Accra — The Land Policy Initiative (LPI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), will on Thursday hold an inception workshop in Accra, Ghana, to launch the Monitoring and Evaluation of Land in Africa (MELA) project, a pilot study to track progress in the implementation of the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in 12 African countries.

The workshop follows the joint LPI-Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) meeting with African Land Commissions on Securing Community Land Rights that is being attended by representatives from member States, regional economic communities (RECs), development partners and technical experts on land tenure and governance issues on the continent.

LPI Coordinator, Joan Kagwanja, says the pilot project aims to develop a comprehensive baseline database that will form the basis for future tracking of progress in implementing the AU Declaration on land in Africa.

It will also track progress made in policy development and implementation over the past seven years in the selected countries; document and disseminate best practices in policy development and implementation to inform policy processes across the continent and build and sustain the capacity of member States to ensure regular tracking and reporting of progress made in land policy development and implementation.

"Effective policy making and implementation requires information on whether governments are doing things right or not and whether they achieve the intended results or not. So it is important that we are launching this pilot project to see what has been happening on the ground over the past few years and come up with recommendations on how to move things faster in a way that is inclusive and beneficial to all," said Ms. Kagwanja.

The project will draw in other actors, including officials from relevant government departments, RECs, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), farmers' organizations, research and academia, private sector and development partners.

Ms. Kagwanja said the LPI-IFPRI pilot project also aims to contribute to the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa by supporting member States to track progress in land policy formulation and implementation.

This, she says, will help improve processes and outcomes of land reforms on the continent.

The project will specifically aim to enhance knowledge in land policy development and implementation processes and outcomes in Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.