NEPAD's Role in Strengthening National Institutions for Data and Land Policy Analysis: Opportunities to Build on LGAF Estherine Lisinge Fotabong, Rudo Makunike and Mandivamba Rukuni Presentation at the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference 2017, Washington DC, session on Expanding African Capacity for Land Governance

BACKGROUND The way in which land issues are addressed will be critical for Africa’s development especially so in light of AU Agenda 2063. Increasing demand, competition and conflict for land (agriculture, urbanization, mining, protected areas etc) Land policy and governance determine -productivity, investment, efficiency of land use, distribution of benefits.

BACKGROUND In 2006, the AU established the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) Endorsed Framework and Guidelines (F&Gs) for Land Policy in Africa in 2009. Nairobi Action Plan (NAP) 2014 on Large Scale Land Based Investments in Africa (LSLBI) Challenge African Institutions to move from principles to implementation.

PURPOSE OF FRAMEWORK The Framework is application to agriculture as well as other rural and economic sectors. Strengthen the National Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIPs) for implementation of CAADP with respect to investments in land. Development and investment plans for sustainable land management – the Country Strategic Investment Frameworks (CSIFs) under the TerrAfrica partnership. Provide multi-sector framework for application in: Agriculture and livestock systems Natural resources management Extractive industries, and Infrastructure and urban development.

HOW FRAMEWORK WAS DEVELOPED The Framework was crafted by pulling together the NEPAD Agency experiences Lessons from the NEPAD Agency-LPI project to mainstream land governance into CAADP (2014-2015) Findings from NEPAD Agency Land Governance Programme (LGP) pilot 4 country studies: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, and Tanzania; Lessons from the World Bank Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) covering 12 countries in Africa. Review of literature on land governance in Africa and internationally. A draft framework was undergoing reviews and verification processes Framework is premised on the need for countries to self-assess

The framework cont’ The Framework provides a Country Self-Assessment Methodology And Tools For Land Policy And Governance covering 6 dimensions: Land integration in national economic development planning Decision-making structures and processes on land at all levels, all sectors Legal and institutional frameworks, structures and implementation modalities for public, community and private land Review On-going land programs, projects, investments and reforms Land use planning, management, valuation and taxation Public provision of land information including Land governance performance monitoring

THE METHODOLOGY WAS APPLIED ON 4 PILOT COUNTRIES Burkina Faso Cameroon Malawi Tanzania

BURKINA FASO The development of the property market booming The commodification of land in many rural localities Large housing estate transactions Growing expansion of mining activities Government continues to prioritise family farming Establishment of the National Land Observatory

CAMEROON One of the fastest urbanising countries in Africa- pressure on urban land and services Small holdings of family farms dominate, but growth in second generation agriculture of larger farms Land in Southern Cameroon in demand by mining companies prospecting for iron ore, cobalt, nickel, gold and diamonds.  Demand for large long-term forestry concessions Efforts to decentralise land governance and pursuit of more sustainable pastoral systems

MALAWI Land reforms aimed at modernising and commercialising customary tenure Aim to give Government more control over land New legislation transferring land administration from traditional leadership structures to community structures Reforms target emerge a land market

TANZANIA Government priority in securing Village Land for conversion into General Land that can be leased out by Government for large scale commercial investment Kilimo Kwanza is concerned with making Village Land available for commercial and foreign investment. Aim is to amend the Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999 to facilitate “equitable access” to village land for Kilimo Kwanza. Other activities concerned with building capacity of local land administration, fast tracking land delivery and dispute resolution systems, identifying available land for investment

Operationalizing the framework at country level Step 1: Compact With Government Leadership And Stakeholders Step 2: Assessment by independent Local Experts (build on LGAF data) Step 3: Stakeholder review and validation (state and non-state actors) Step 4: Identify Priority Interventions, Plan, Budget & Resource mobilization Step 5: Strengthen Capacity -, Implement, Review

NEPAD’s work in strengthening national institutions NEPAD program on land governance develop and apply, in a set of select countries, instruments and institutional arrangements to: - strengthen awareness on role of land governance for Africa’s social and economic transformation - strengthen analytical capacity to identify priorities, develop evidence combined with performance monitoring to track progress. The analytical instruments and capacity building strategies - will enable countries to put in place a virtual land data repositories strengthening analytical capacity to prepare policy notes and analysis required for national policy dialogue, sector planning and investment plans.

NEPAD’s work in strengthening national institutions Set up land policy help desks & data repositories in selected countries Land policy help desks - located at a university or research institute and will help build a (virtual) land data repository Repositories - to analyze the status of land governance and produce evidence for investment priority setting The virtual land data repository organized by country and brings together key land data and analytical tools to facilitate use by governments and researchers for policy analysis and monitoring progress

Conclusion Competing demand for land (mining, real estate, agriculture, infrastructure, protected areas) Build systemic capacity at all levels for self assessment; collection and management of appropriate data Land issue needs to be looked at from a macro-level (overall role in socio-economic transformation Procedures are as important as regulatory policies relating to land (consultative processes, judiciary processes for recourse in all stages of transformation Land continues to embody elements of social status, power, prestige, wealth and in that regard the need for astute political management cannot be ignored