Dschang, Cameroon, November 10, 2020: From November 10 – 13, 2020, land governance experts from various universities and research institutions in Central Africa will meet in Dschang, Cameroon, for a sensitization meeting on the review of existing land governance curricula by adopting the recommendations in the Guidelines for Curricula Development on Land Governance in Africa.

The meeting is convened by the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) in partnership with leading universities in Central Africa under the African Land Policy Center (ALPC) coordination with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the African Union. The Guidelines for the Development of Curricula on Land Governance in Africa were endorsed by the AU Conference of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment IN October 2017. The Guidelines support the implementation of the African Union (AU) Agenda on Land; and responds to the call for AU Member countries to bridge capacity gaps on land policy development and its implementation.

Given the shortfall in Africa’s land sector, particularly in terms of skills and expertise, African Union member states were asked to “develop adequate human, financial and technical capacities to support the development and implementation of land policy in Africa”. Universities and higher education institutions were then recommended to review existing curricula, research, and training to ensure that they are adequate to meet the industry’s needs. Significant gaps have been identified in the content and nature of African universities and other higher education institutions’ training and research programmes.

Speaking about the workshop, Dr. Joan Kagwanja, ALPC Chief, commented, “In producing the Guidelines, ALPC embarked on extensive consultation and documentation, informed by evidence and data processed by the Center through its rigorous regional assessment reports. The process identified capacity development gaps in land administration and curricula to advance land governance in Africa, which influenced the development of the Guidelines. The Guidelines aim to serve as a framework for the development and/or review of African universities’ academic curricula. These guidelines were presented to the relevant AU political body for approval and are now key tools for implementing the AU’s land agenda.

The sensitization workshop is part of the ongoing advocacy and consultation with academics for mainstreaming land governance capacity gaps across Africa. It is expected that participants will respond to the new proposals and ideas emerging from the Guidelines.”

Prof. Paul Tchawa, the NELGA Central Africa Node Coordinator, explained, “The main objective of this workshop is to raise awareness and equip the leaders of Cameroonian and Central Africa universities who want to engage in the review of their curricula to bring them to speed with the African Union’s guidelines in this area.  We welcome the opportunity to close capacity gaps in the land governance curricula as it ensures that as academic institutions, we continue to meet our students’ needs and fulfill the African Union’s mandate.”

At the end of this workshop, participants from partner universities will be made aware of the guidelines for the revision of curricula on land governance in Africa and their contribution to implementing the land policy designed by the AU. They will also understand the procedures to be followed in the review of curricula and design an action plan for the review and design of curricula in their various universities.”

Commending the initiative, Professor Roger Tsafack Nanfosso, Rector of Dschang University, said, “Given the dense and diverse profiles of experts from diverse backgrounds at this workshop, there is no doubt that the workshop will lead to fruitful results and realistic recommendations that can redirect our training offerings towards specific development goals. The reconfiguration of land governance curricula is essential to make land a real lever for economic growth in our continent.”

Participating universities include Universite de Yaounde, Universite de Banqui, Universite Marien Ngouabi, Universite de N’Djamena, Universite Omar Bongo, and Universite de Kinshasha. Universities of Dschang, Douala, Yaounde,Cameroon, and Omar Bongo in Gabon have signified interest to begin revising the content of courses on land after the workshop.

Find below the report and presentations made at the workshop:

The African Land Policy Centre (ALPC), formerly called the Land Policy Initiative (LPI), is a joint programme of the tripartite consortium consisting of the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) , and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Its purpose is to enable the use of land to lend impetus to the process of African development. The programme is governed by a Steering Committee that meets periodically, while a joint secretariat implements day to day activities.

To strengthen human and institutional capacities for implementing the AU agenda on land, ALPC established the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA). NELGA is a partnership of leading African universities and research institutions with proven leadership in education, training, and research on land governance. Currently, NELGA has more than 50 partner institutions across Africa. NELGA aims to: enhance training opportunities and curricula on land governance in Africa; promote demand driven research on land policy issues; connect scholars and researchers across Africa through academic networks; and create data and information for monitoring and evaluation on land policy reforms.

In partnership with Nazi-Boni University, NELGA participates in a Curricula Review Workshop in Burkina Faso from November 3 to 6, 2020, intending to establish a master’s degree in land governance.

The workshop brings together experts and leading professors in the region to meet the African Union land agenda, which places research and the implementation of appropriate academic studies and training to bridge capacity gaps on land governance in African universities. NELGA’s participation is under the coordination of the African Land Policy Center (ALPC) with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the African Union.

Universite Gaston Berget in Senegal and Université des sciences juridiques et politiques in Mali held similar exercises with NELGA support. Nazi-Boni University hopes that at the end of the workshop, they will emerge with a training model on land tenure, taking into account the orientations and recommendations in the AU framework and guidelines on land tenure policies.

From September 9th to 10th, 2020, the Government of Cameroon, with the support of FAO and other partners, convened a multi-sectoral workshop to review, validate, and appropriate the Rural Sectarian Development Strategy and the National Agricultural Investment Plan (SDSR/PNIA) for 2020-2030, in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Since 2019, Cameroon has committed to making the rural sector one of the critical sectors contributing to its development. The SDSR/PNIA serves as the benchmark and framework for developing and investing in Cameroon’s rural areas. The policy documents play an integral part in the country’s commitment to the Malabo Declaration.

The meeting heard opening remarks from  FAO Representative on behalf of the Technical and Financial Partners (PTFs) for the development of the rural sector; a representative of the African Union (AU);  and a keynote address by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development that was followed by a brief presentation of the SDSR/PNIA 2020-2030 by the Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat of the SDSR/PNIA.

The SDSR/PNIA strategic directions consist of four main axes: 1) sustainable growth in production in the plant and forestry sectors, animal and fishing; 2) improving the collective infrastructure environment and access to factors of production; 3) strengthening the resilience of production systems, sustainable management of natural resources and food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations in the face of climate change; 4) Improving governance and human capital in the sector.

GIZ, through the Strengthening Advisory Capacities for Land Governance in Africa Program, carried out a study on the evaluation of land governance in Cameroon to make a significant contribution to the revision process of the SDSR/PNIA.

The Results of this study were submitted to the Technical Secretariat in charge of coordinating the review process. During the validation workshop, it was observed with great satisfaction that most of the actions and recommendations concerning land tenure were considered in the revised version of the SDRS/PNIA document.

These main actions and recommendations are the following:

• Involve decentralized local authorities, local communities, and indigenous peoples in the review process and implementation of the new PNIA.
• Finalize the implementation of land reforms that consider women’s rights, young people and indigenous people to land,  and the adoption of relevant compensation systems.  
• Finalize the implementation of forest reform, taking into account the guidelines of land reforms on securing rights, improving regulations on the sustainability of exploitation in the DFNP (Non-permanent forest estate), taking into account emerging factors such as climate change and other unpredictable social phenomena, internal displacement, and others.
• Finalize the implementation of  the pastoral code with consideration for the sustainability of operating systems, securing rights and arbitration of conflicts;
• The Law Framework on Environmental Management should be updated with allowances made for the sustainability of production systems, the vulnerability related to unpredictable social or natural phenomena, and international commitments to sustainable management sectors.
• Promoting the implementation of community consultation platforms for all initiatives.
• Institutionalization of independent land observation that will serve as collective vigilance.
• Digitization of the land registry and sharing information /communication on land operations.
• Monitoring and evaluating land governance issues by the Rural Sector Monitoring Committee (COS) and Strengthening COS in monitoring land governance issues.
• Support for mapping communities and promoting innovative approaches to community security (participatory mapping, mapping of community land rights, etc.).
• Awareness and information on land operations and the implementation of major development projects.
• Protection of watercourses and watersheds.
• Sensitization and accompaniment of women, youth and IPs in accessing land for agriculture.

Participants at the workshop include representatives from technical committees on SDSR, rural departmental programs, and ministries, civil society space, National Youth Council, the Chamber of Agriculture, Fisheries, Livestock and Forestry, including some regional representatives; the private sector, universities, other public administrative institutions,  consumer unions, and SDSR/PNIA Technical Secretariat. The applauded the use of the multi-sector approach for policy reviews and recommended that such actions be strengthened for ongoing sector policy development and review processes.

Following this meeting, the validated document will be shared with AUDA-NEPAD for an independent external technical journal. Subsequently, a bilingual edition of the SDSR/PNIA 2020-2030 document will be publicized and a business meeting scheduled to discuss stakeholders’ financial commitments towards implementing the SDSR/PNIA 2020-2030 plan.

Click the link below to read the full report of the study on evaluation of land governance in Cameroon.

From October 6^th – 8^th, 2020, the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa Southern Africa hub at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) will hold a virtual workshop to present its final draft of the Research and Capacity Development Strategy for Land Governance Innovation in Southern Africa. When adopted, the strategy serves as the basis for future research and capacity building in land governance innovation within the Southern African region.

The strategy document stems from the regional hub’s research on land governance in Southern Africa, which covers the description and assessment of Land Governance in the region. The countries covered include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  The eight-country assessment results were presented at the NUST-NELGA Hub for Southern Africa at a 2-day Symposium in 2019. The Symposium identified regional land policy implications and the key land challenges facing Southern African countries. The key challenges and opportunities were published in a Synthesis Report in 2020. The eight country case studies and the synthesis report will form the basis for future research, capacity development, and policy innovation in the region.

Ensuring that recommendations published in the Synthesis Report are carried out systematically, NUST-NELGA Hub developed the “Research and Capacity Development Strategy for Land Governance Innovation in Southern Africa” for the period 2020 to 2025.

The strategic initiatives outlined in the Research and Capacity Development Strategy for Land Governance Innovation in southern Africa are closely aligned with the prominent African and International Initiatives. The strategy supports and draws inspiration from the African Land Policy Initiative and the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa as well as the African Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGTs) and the World Bank Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF).

The meeting will have in attendance, civil society actors, policymakers, academics, and researchers from the region and across the continent.

For inquiries, contact nelga@nust.na

NELGA is pleased to announce that its periodical, the African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences (AJLP&GS), is now approved for inclusion in the European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS), one of the most prominent authority lists in Europe for academic Journals.

ERIH Plus’s key objective is it improves the global visibility of hg-quality academic research, and It is expected that with this inclusion, it will increase the visibility, searchability, and availability of the AJLP&GS to wider stakeholders.

This inclusion reflects the high quality of the academic research found in the AGJLP&GS, and will significantly expand land governance experts’ access to vital studies for further research and case studies.

AJLP & GS is a journal specialized in publishing research activities carried out in geospatial sciences and land governance. It aims to encourage innovation, promote the exchange of knowledge and scientific outcomes related to its themes. The Journal’s target community is made up of researchers, professors, and professionals working in the newspaper field. The Journal also aims to promote scientific articles and productions at the African, regional, and global levels.

The inclusion speaks to the rigorous standards met by the researchers, editorial team, and peer reviews to be accepted into the EEIH SPSS.

You can find the listing here: https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/periodical/info?id=499477

This is one in many other accrued successes by the Journal, which includes adding an ICDS score of 3.3 for 2020 from the University of Barcelona as one of the best references for scientists and researchers:  http://miar.ub.edu/issn/2657-2664. The  AgEcon Search added the Journal to its repository as one of the best concerns for scientists and researchers:   https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/search?ln=en&cc=2367&p=&f=&action_search=Search. The UNIVERSITÄT LEIPZIG also included the Journal in its database: https://www.ub.uni-leipzig.de/en/research/electronic-journals/ezb-detail-view/?libconnect%5Bjourid%5D=461537, and also integrated into the ZDB Germain union catalog: https://zdb-katalog.de/list.xhtml?t=zdb%3D3002625-8&key=cql

To access the journal, click here.

From September 3 to 9, 2020, the NELGA Central Africa team completed a mission trip to the University of Douala, Cameroon, to discuss opportunities for partnership between the school and the network. The team held several meetings and interviews with faculty, staff, and students from the land-themed departments. These interviews serve as a follow-up exercise to ascertain the university’s interest in becoming a member of the African Network, allowing the team to gather information and final evaluation.

Both school administrators and faculty staff complimented the professionalism and level of engagement of the NELGA CA team. They applauded their passion for closing capacity gaps around land reforms and governance through engaging the academic sector. The school was enthusiastic and supportive of the scholarship plans, networking opportunities and proffered new areas for research and curricula development on land themed issues, such as a land dispute, gender and access to land, and land tenure in Cameroon. The school expressed its willingness to partner with NELGA.

NELGA CA is currently exploring new collaboration and partnerships with state universities in Cameroon to increases its footprint in the region.   The NELGA Douala mission was coordinated by Prof. Paul Tchawa and implemented by Mme Rosette Mbenda and Dr. Tende Renz.

In Benin, the issue of land tenure insecurity and the instability of land rights in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas draws its source from the increasing pressure exercised by different categories of land stakeholders in their search for space for the development of their economic, social and cultural activities.

Consequently, the exercise of land rights remains low and does not stimulate appropriate enthusiasm by land stakeholders to turn land into productive investments for sustainable development and economic growth. Added to this situation is the virtual control exercised by families and communities on the agricultural land considered (rightly or wrongly) as goods inherited from their ancestors and, therefore, belonging to them. Often this preeminence of customary rights ancestral constitutes a brake on the implementation of agricultural development policies. While traditional rights include a variant of the rural land issue not negligible, it remains that the lack of supervision and better regulations annihilate the efforts made by the public authorities in reviving the agricultural sector.

This report from NELGA Francophone West Africa node, provides a case study for Benin republic with provisions for land reforms for land tenure security.

Click here to view the report.

The Africa Land Forum is a continental event organised annually by the International Land Coalition (ILC) Africa and its partners to reflect on, and recommend solutions to, burning land governance issues and challenges in the continent. It provides a platform for policymakers, community representatives, development practitioners and partners to devise novel ways of making land governance people-centred. ILC draws from its rich and diverse membership and partners to mobilise integrated stakeholders to join the Land Forum.

The 2020 Land Forum is organised in partnership with IGAD’s Land Governance Unit, and the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) of the African Union Commission. This event, taking place at a time when every sector is shaken by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, offers a golden opportunity to reflect and highlight the pertinent role of land governance in building resilience and protecting Africans from the negative impact of similar pandemics in the future. It also offers an occasion to push the frontiers of thought around the role of land governance in fostering socio-economic development and enabling the attainment of the 2063 aspirations.

Click here for more information and registration.