Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire — Africa as a rich continent with vast agricultural and land resources should be able to feed all her people without any problems, Benjamin Laag, Counsellor for Economic Cooperation at the Germany Embassy in Abidjan, said in remarks to the ongoing 2019 Conference on Land Policy in Africa (CLPA2019).
Mr. Laag said due to technological improvements in agriculture, as well as in geospatial sciences and other relevant land sectors, the tools were available to implement policies to ensure fair and sustainable land policies are enacted and implemented in every country on the continent.
"But still there is a big gap in what is proven to work and what is implemented in many countries. One of the main reasons for this gap is corruption on land. Almost every person on the continent has been affected by corruption and very often the distribution and registration of agricultural and urban land is the reason for it," he said.
Mr. Laag emphasized the importance of good land governance as well as effective land administration and sustainable land management for the African continent which spends over US$35 billion annually importing food from the West.
"As the topic is so important to so many areas of everyday life of all people in Africa we are especially grateful, that this year´s theme to the CLPA is Winning the fight against Corruption in the Land Sector: Sustainable Pathway for Africa's Transformation," he said.
The Germany diplomat said his government has for many years now been supporting Africa's efforts to address land corruption in its bilateral and global programs on land and by supporting transparency initiatives such as the Land Matrix and Land Portal as well as financing Transparency International's program on Land and Corruption in Africa.
"Data and research on the linkages between land and corruption is now available and I am personally looking forward to hearing from participants presenting their findings and fruitful discussions. It also shows, that talking about land and corruption is no longer a taboo. Addressing land corruption is an important but sensitive topic and this conference has the courage to talk about it," Mr. Laag added.
He said he was glad the conference was reflecting on other important topics that are crucial for the development of Africa such as land rights of women, rural youth employment, mitigation of land conflicts and climate change.
"We need African solutions to African challenges. And in this regard Germany does appreciate the huge effort that the AU is making through the African Land Policy Center and other AU institutions, to promote and implement the AU agenda on land," said Mr. Laag.
The conference is being attended by over 700 land experts and officials, representatives of civil society, traditional leaders, UN agencies and related organisations.
