The inaugural Conference on Land Policy in
Africa is being held at the African Union (AU) Conference Centre here in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia and it runs from the 11th to the 14th of
November 2014. The conference is organized by the Land Policy Initiative, a
joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB),
under the theme “The next decade of land policy in Africa: ensuring agricultural
development and inclusive growth”.
The overall goal of the conference is to
strengthen advocacy for comprehensive land policy, and to deepen the capacity
for land policy in Africa through improved access to knowledge and information.
It will then support land policy making initiatives and implementation, based
on empirical experiences, as well as showcasing emerging and promising
practices and facilitating networking among land experts and land professionals
in Africa. The conference adopts a scientific approach to capture a broad range
of emerging knowledge, and generate interest in current land policy themes from
a wide range of African policy actors within the academia, governments, private
sector players, civil society, development partners and beyond with established
track record of engagement with land policy issues are attending the four day
deliberations.. The theme of the conference is in support of the 2014
declaration by the AU as a “Year of Agriculture and Food Security in Africa”.
The proceedings are focusing on related specific sub themes that include:
inclusive agricultural growth, development and implementation of land
governance frameworks, women’s land rights, securing land rights under
different tenure regimes, emerging best practices in developing and
implementing land policies, and land administration.
In his inauguration speech, the Head of the
European Union to the African Union pointed out that ensuring equitable land
access is crucial for ensuring security of tenure on land. He pointed out that
in this era of food price hikes, large scale land based investments and climate
change; solid land investment policies are crucial for African countries…. ;
and the EU is committed to support land policy initiatives in Africa. He highlighted
that the EU has been supporting land tenure issues in six African countries and
the area of collaboration on the EU-Africa Strategy is land. Since 2008 there
has been increasing pressure on large scale land based investments (LSLBI), and
now is the time to take stock, make decisions to move forward and protect small
scale land holders from speculative land acquisition.
Civil society representatives argued that this
is the platform to demand transparency in land acquisition and it gives an
opportunity to exchange on issues relating to land policy in Africa, share best
practices and come up with urgent solutions to land problems in Africa. In her
speech the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO),
representative pointed that land policies are complex but very crucial for
agricultural development. She further elaborated that land policies have
political, social, economic and cultural connotations which affect many areas
of people’s lives. Women and youths were cited in her speech, as facing many
challenges in accessing land and these are some of the issues that need to be
discussed at the conference.
In his speech, the Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Development of the Federation Republic of Ethiopia who was the guest of
honor, pointed out that the future of African development is heavily depended
on agriculture and there is need to come up with strong policies that guide
agricultural investments and protect small scale land holders. On women’s land
rights, Hubert Quedraogo of the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) lamented that in
practice women land rights remain low and argued that the exclusion of women
from the control of land is undemocratic and anti-economy. The first day also
saw the discussion on the lessons learnt from the Voluntary Guidelines (VGs) on
Responsible Agricultural Investments (RAIs). It was concluded that the
implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of
Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests VGGT is not simple and therefore it
requires political will and all stakeholders must develop their own approach
towards the implementation of the guidelines. However, observation is that a
wide range of stakeholders that include, private sector, civil society,
development partners and some governments are already committed on the
voluntary guidelines.
The conference also saw the launch of the AU “Guiding
Principles on Large Scale Land Based Investments in Africa” which were endorsed
by the AU Heads of State in April 2014 and are an outcome of the desire by
African Union Member States to ensure that investments in land benefit Member
States and key stakeholders. They were prepared through a collaborative and
participatory process and was made possible by engagement and support provided
for by the LPI consortium, the AUC, ECA and the AfDB. The AU Guiding Principles
on LSLBI serve to facilitate the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land
Issues and Challenges in Africa and the Comprehensive Africa Development
Program (CAADP) and the Nairobi Plan of Action (NPA) by providing policy
direction and guidance to inform LSLBI in African Agriculture. The guidelines
form the basis for commitment, solidarity and collective responsibility by
governments, other stakeholders and investors to improve governance of large
scale land based investments in Africa.
In conclusion,
the conference provides a platform of exchange of relevant
practices on land policy in Africa and a platform for dialogue between
government representatives, the academia, researchers and land practitioners
across the African continent. Land
policy is crucial for development since African countries are dependent of
agriculture. Small holder farmers who are major contributors to food in Africa
need to be protected from speculative land acquisition that usually benefit the
investors at the expense of local communities. Therefore the deliberations at
the conference are so important to Africa that they should be handled with
utmost respect and importance.
Clemence T. Nhliziyo
12 November 2014
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
