The IGAD Land Governance Project

The IGAD Land Governance Project was launched in 2015 as a joint initiative of the Africa Land Policy Centre and IGAD Secretariat, within the Agriculture and Environment Division. The project has been supported through funding of the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC).

Land governance in IGAD involves integrating sustainability objectives into poverty reduction practices, building internal and external capacities, promoting regional strategies, policies and programs for improving land governance and improving the capacity of IGAD to deliver land related programmes to achieve broader socio-economic and human development goals. To do this the project focuses on implementing the AU Declaration on Land issues and challenges in Africa by -

1. convening periodic regional platforms to facilitate experience sharing, lessons learnt and dissemination of best practices in land policy formulation, implementation and monitoring based on members states experiences;
2. Appropriately capture and address issues of land policies within common agricultural policy frameworks.
3. Undertaking measures for the establishment of mechanisms for progress tracking and periodic reporting by Member States on progress achieved.

Mandate on Land Governance under Agreement establishing IGAD 21 March 1996

Article 13A Member States agree to develop and expand cooperation and undertake to coordinate their effort to:

1. Strengthen land resource monitoring systems.
2. Coordinate their efforts towards the sustainable management and utilization of shared natural resources.
3. Harmonize existing national plans of action for marginal lands and dry lands management and control of land degradation.

Global and Regional Frameworks informing IGAD’S Land Governance Work

While the AU Declaration on land issues and challenges provides the basic framework for IGAD’s work on land governance, recourse is had to global frameworks with specific reference to land:

1. African Union Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, 2010
2. The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Forests and Fisheries (VGGT).
3. AU Agenda 2063.
4. The sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030).
5. The Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods 2014.
6. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).
7. AU Policy Framework for Pastoralism in Africa (2010).
8. Niamey convention - AU Convention on Cross-Border  Cooperation, 2014

IGAD prioritizes the following issues in the implementation of the AU Declaration on land issues and challenges in Africa.

1. Legal Pluralism.
2. Land and natural resources degradation.
3. Land governance and migration.
4. Land tenure insecurity and land administration challenges.
5. Land and conflict.
6. Weak rights to land of youth, women, pastoralists and other vulnerable groups.
7. Food insecurity.
8. Impact of Foreign Direct Investment.

Goal of IGAD Land Governance Project

The project is aimed at helping IGAD and its member states to address the various land policy and governance issues and constraints faced by countries in the East and the Horn of Africa.

Concerted efforts are required in order to deliver land policy and institutional reforms. Concerted efforts aim at:

1. Garnering political will at national and regional levels to address land governance and land related challenges
2. Facilitating peer learning of successes and failures among member states.
3. Facilitating review of progress achieved made in delivering sound policy and institutional reforms
4. Forging strong coordination and partnerships that address existing knowledge, resources and capacity needs
5. Building capacity of the secretariat to be able to engage member states on land policy development and implementation.