4 October 2016: The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Land Policy Initiative (LPI) held an inception workshop to launch a series of pilot projects meant to improve collaboration between African ministries of agriculture and land by mainstreaming land governance into agricultural development strategies and plans. Participating ministers committed to ensuring that land reforms secure land rights, provide equal access to land and promote responsible agricultural investments.

The pilot projects build on past work of the LPI and its partners. These endeavors aimed to deliver evidence of the importance of land governance for sustainable agricultural development, raise awareness, and build capacity among African countries to address key concerns, such as unequal land access for women, insecure land tenure and inadequate mapping and information tools.

The pilot projects will be implemented under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania. They will gather further evidence and draw lessons on the effective targeting of land governance interventions in the context of agricultural strategies and programs. The pilots will identify opportunities to integrate land governance indicators in results and monitoring frameworks to track national agricultural programs and rural transformation processes.

At the workshop, participants developed a common methodology and agreed on timelines, roles and responsibilities of involved actors. They identified specific entry points in the six pilot countries to mainstream land governance in agriculture, and address agricultural issues in land programmes. Organized by LPI in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the workshop was held from 3-4 October 2016, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [UNECA Press Release] [LPI Website] [CAADP Website]