The Land Policy Initiative (LPI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Government of Niger, will organize a series of events to launch the European Union-Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (EU-SDC) Programme on Land Governance in Africa. The Programme aims to promote the integrated implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (F&G) in 10 countries: Angola, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Swaziland. The Programme will support these countries' efforts to mainstream the VGGT and F&G in their policy, legal and institutional processes through awareness raising, capacity development, technical facilitation, strengthening of partnerships, and monitoring and evaluation. The programme of events will include: the launch of the EU-SDC Programme and multi-stakeholder awareness raising workshop on VGGT and F&G on 24 February; the First capitalization meeting on 25-26 February; and training on VGGT and F&G on 27 February 2015. The events will bring together about 30 participants representing the EU, SDC, FAO, LPI, coordinators of implementing organizations, and representatives of government land agencies from the ten countries.  

dates: 24-27 February 2015  
location: Niamey, Niger  
contact: UNECA  
www: http://www.uneca.org/fstp