Africa urged to protect its communities by taking control of its land
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Version 0 of 1. When a group of Emirati royals approached the Tanzanian government requesting the allocation of a 1,500 sq km wildlife corridor to hunt game, officials agreed even though the plan would mean ousting 40,000 Maasais from their ancestral land. In Kenya last month, police lobbed tear gas at school children protesting the “grabbing” of their playground, triggering a national outcry that forced authorities to abandon plans to sell the plot to a private developer. Related: Battle to feed the world pits small farmers against big agriculture | Mark Anderson Africa is seen by foreign interests as the last great frontier for investment in large-scale, land-based agriculture and tourism ventures. But the appetite for acquisition is pushing vulnerable communities off their land, with authorities often taking the side of investors over local people. A UN-backed group known as the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) is lobbying governments to implement guiding principles that were adopted by African heads of state in November. The guidelines, which are backed by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the African Union (AU), encourage authorities to follow certain steps before entering into agreements with investors seeking the allocation of large swathes of land. The steps include rigorous consultation with local communities before deals are signed, the formulation of harmonised land policy frameworks across Africa, and adequate compensation for individuals and communities that stand to lose their land. The policy document calls for greater transparency in handling these deals. Governments are required to disclose the identities of all parties involved before approving allocations, including identifying the owners of the investment firms, financial intermediaries and backers. The AU has an exceedingly poor record of implementing its own resolutions, but Joan Kagwanja, head of the LPI, says the new policy will be different. The LPI will work with regional government associations and other players to drive through the changes. “Land is obviously a critical resource and the most important factor of production in a continent where the vast majority of people rely on subsistence agriculture,” she said at an event last week in Djibouti, where the LPI was lobbying the 11 countries in the Horn of Africa to embrace the policy framework. “If properly implemented, this set of principles can equip African countries to manage land in a transparent and sustainable manner that takes into account the needs of all parties and protects the rights of vulnerable groups, including women.” There has been a boom in major land investments in Africa over the past two decades, with the continent accounting for 45% of all deals concluded worldwide, according to the UN. About 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa, where foreign investors are increasingly uprooting communities from land they have lived on for centuries. Nor do the consequences stop there. The promotion of biofuels as an alternative source of clean energy, for instance, has led Ghana and other countries to put vast tracts of prime agricultural land under cultivation for biofuel feedstock, but the failure of many such ventures has left land unsuitable for farming. “If there is harmony in the approach taken by authorities across the continent you can avoid a race to the bottom where investors go from country to country looking for the deal that yields maximum advantage to them without regard to the interests of the community,” said Janet Edeme, head of the AU’s rural economy and agriculture division. The guiding principles build on a declaration adopted by the AU in 2009 on a broad framework of land tenure management policies that should be adopted by African governments. Related: Sustainable development goals: changing the world in 17 steps – interactive Among the key provisions are the decentralisation of land administration systems, making them more accessible to communities who often lack the financial clout to agitate for their rights in courts typically located in distant urban centres. States are also asked to respect the rights of women, who are often at a position of great disadvantage in accessing land despite being the key players in the agricultural sector. “Member states should ensure that women and girls’ equal tenure rights and access to land, fisheries and forests are clearly protected in national laws independent of individuals’ civil and marital status,” the policy document demands. Civil society representatives have cautiously welcomed the drive to harmonise African land policy but say the key test will be implementation. “The initiative is laudable and it is a good thing that, for the first time, there has been a continent-wide agreement on a land sector policy framework with endorsement by heads of state,” said Ibrahim Mwathane, head of the Land Development and Governance Institute, a Nairobi-based policy research centre. “But these decisions can only make a difference in people’s lives if implemented at the local level and the LPI should take advantage of the fact governments voluntarily signed on to these principles and work with the private sector, civil society and research institutions to press governments to implement the rules they have signed on to.” |