Antananarivo — The AU-ECA-AfDB Land Policy Initiative (LPI) in partnership with the government of Madagascar organised a workshop on 31 August 2017 to validate the Country Report and Business Plan on Mainstreaming Land Governance in the National Agricultural Investment Plan of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (NAIP/CAADP).
The project is part of a cross country pilot being implemented by the LPI with support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Union (EU) to facilitate the implementation of the AU Agenda on land and is being executed by the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Agriculture.
In his opening remarks Mr. Randrianaritiana Pierrot Serge, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry under the Presidency in Charge of Agriculture and Livestock, thanked the Land Policy Initiative for considering Madagascar as part of the pilot countries for the projects. "The government is committed to successfully implementation the project including the business plan." He noted that the project has already enhanced the collaboration between the Ministries of Lands and Agriculture, and other stakeholders in the country towards implementing the AU Agenda on Land in Africa.
Ms. Joan Kagwanja, Coordinator, LPI thanked the ministries of agriculture and land for spearheading the implementation of the pilot project for mainstreaming land governance in the CAADP/NAIP.
"Madagascar was selected as one of the countries for this important project because the challenges faced are representative of those of many other countries on the continent. In addition, Madagascar has had longstanding efforts in land reforms, hence it is useful to draw lessons that can benefit other countries."
She further noted that being in the initial stages of the CAADP implementation, Madagascar stands to learn from other countries like Rwanda, Malawi and Tanzania, which are at a more advanced stage in this regard. She thanked IFAD for supporting the LPI since its inception and in this six pilot country project in particular, noting that complementary support would also be drawn from the EU and GIZ grants to support monitoring and evaluation, as well as capacity development.
For her part Ms. Rachel Senn representing IFAD hailed the partnership between LPI and her organization noting that addressing land governance issues to advance food security and transform agriculture is at the core of IFAD. She noted that in Madagascar, IFAD has focused support on several aspects of land governance, including land titling, tenure security and access to land, especially for the youth and women.
"This project came at an appropriate time in Madagascar when we were supporting the development of the CAADP compact. The implementation of the project is indeed strengthening collaboration amongst the various stakeholders in the agriculture and land sector in Madagascar for the benefit of the country."
The validation workshop follows a continental launch in October 2016 in Addis Ababa, and an inception workshop held in January 2017 in Antananarivo. The workshop successfully provided inputs to the study report on mainstreaming land in agriculture in Madagascar and identified the entry points for the ministry of land to address land governance challenges that hamper agricultural transformation in accordance with the 2014 Malabo Declaration. Participants drawn from the land and agricultural ministries, civil society, farmers organisations, private sector and academia also provided inputs to a business plan to facilitate key actions needed to successfully implement recommendations of the report. A land and agricultural committee which was established under the auspices of the pilot project, will continue to oversee the implementation of the actions identified.
