Western Cape, South Africa, 26 July 2024 (ECA) - The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) have concluded a five day short course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa.
“The aim of this short course was to equip leaders to resolve the land challenges facing the continent because the majority of both rural and urban residents have insecure tenure rights, either in law or in practice,” said Joan Kagwanja, ALPC Coordinator.
“Land challenges in Africa can only be addressed by building a highly skilled cohort of land professionals and land policy makers,” added Ms. Kagwanja.
ALPC is an initiative of the African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank, focused on
A range of stakeholders, experts on land reforms and governance were trained on various themes and concepts that include pre-colonial and colonial histories of customary and statutory land tenure in Africa; introduction to the political economy of land in Africa; and reform law, policy and governance in Africa; women’s land rights in Africa; natural resource access and management in Africa; political economy of extractive industries and land rights; commodification of the commons in the transition to neo-liberalism; urban and rural land administration in Africa; large-scale land acquisitions in Africa; African and global land policy and policy guidelines; and climate crisis and land governance
Making a presentation on Food Systems and Land Governance in Africa, Mamadou Goita Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives in Development, Mali said land reform is instrumental to this production system.
“We need more diverse and resilient food systems to better withstand shocks, urgent debt relief for poorer countries and we must learn from countries that have eradicated hunger - through social protection schemes,” said Goita.
On the subject, Pre-Colonial & Colonial Histories of Customary & Statutory Land Tenure in Africa, Kojo Amanor University of Ghana highlighted that land reform processes under economic reform stresses administrative reform rather than land redistributive reform.
The recent resurgence of the customary land tenure, he said, hinders a critical historical assessment, freezes African society within traditional identities, and obstructs policies that promote social redistribution, justice, and agricultural modernization.
According to Ruth Hall from PLAAS, political economy is a perspective which aims to denaturalise the distribution of power and resources. It is an analytical perspective that draws attention to the historical process of the creation of regimes of property and the distinction between who holds the land, how capital is accumulated, and who controls labour.
Phillan Zamchiya University of the Western Cape – Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) noted that Market-led land reforms are painfully slow, prompting calls for stronger interventions to support smallholder producers. Land restitution has been particularly messy in South Africa, highlighting that context matters. “This problem won't be solved without strong social movements from below. The challenge is to rethink what works best for communities and to understand land reform within broader agrarian reform.”
Patricia Kameri-Mbote for her part emphasised the need to prioritise vulnerable communities, particularly with regard to climate issues, calling for participatory governance.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same - land continues to be a very important resource, and it has many implications for local, national, sub-regional, regional, and also global development,” she said
Emmanuel Sulle - Aga Khan University, presented key tools and instruments to address issues of women’s land rights and quantify and monitor the performance of different countries. This revealed that overall in Africa, the implementation and protection of women’s land rights are weak. “We must be optimistic that we can be the seeds of change and transformation. We can implement reforms that are people-led and emphasize local agency,” he said.
On Rural and Urban Land Administration in Africa, Andries du Toit, University of the Western Cape - School of Government said there is a need for flexible land tenure systems that accommodate local needs. Moreover, the effectiveness of such systems depends on the government overseeing them, creating a tension between the desire to centralize and the need for locally responsive systems, calling for a balance between centralization and decentralization.
Speaking on the commodification of the commons in the transition to neoliberalism, Issa Shivji School of Law, University of Dar es Salaam said we must shift our internalized concept of individual ownership and rethink ownership itself.
“Embracing new ideas will face resistance, reflecting the bifurcation in our society, where social groups and classes have developed but large masses remain untouched,” he said, adding that reclaiming the commons will resonate with the masses but less so with smaller groups, leading to a class struggle.
Note to Editors:
About the ALPC: 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.
Establishment of NELGA: 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.
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