Land Tenure, Food Security and Sustainable Development

1
Land Tenure, Food Security and Sustainable
Development

• Joan Kagwanja
• SDD/UNECA
• UNDP/Land Coalition Workshop on Land Rights for
  African Development
• Nairobi, Kenya
• 31 October - 3 November, 2005

2
Outline

• Highlights of UNECAs contribution to the land
  debate in Africa
• Issues and challenges
• Land reform debate
• Conclusions

3
Highlights of UNECAs contribution to the land
debate in Africa

• Hosted April 2002 meeting on Sustainable
  Management Policies in the East African Highlands
• 2002/2003 Land tenure systems and their impacts
  on Food Security and Sustainable Development in
  Africa
• 2002/2003 Land tenure systems and sustainable
  development in Southern Africa
• 2004/2005 Sub-regional case studies on land
  reform
• 2004/2005 SDRA-managing land based resources for
  sustainable development
• Oct. 2005 CSD on managing land based resources
• 2005 AU-ADB-ECA consultative meeting on land
  reform in Africa

4
Issues and challenges Land Tenure, agriculture
and food security

• Issues
• Land-based resources are a main input into
  agriculture and ensuring food security
• Land use can pose a threat to food security due
  to competing demand for land, degradation
• Predominance of smallholder agriculture
• Land related challenges
• Land use regulation
• Unequal land distribution
• Insecure land tenure

5
Issues and challenges Common property resource
management

• Issues
• Forests, pasture, wildlife-best managed under
  community property regimes for equity and
  sustainability
• Management of common/pool resources is
  challenging without supportive policies, laws and
  community institutions
• Main Challenge
• Individualize resources through partitioning or
  strengthening mechanisms for community management?

6
Issues and challenges Land tenure, gender
relations and NRM

• Issues/challenges
• Women constitute a large proportion of rural
  population- they are the keepers of the
  environment
• Most women do not control and own land and
  natural resources under most tenure systems

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Issues and challenges Land and natural resource
conflicts

• Issues
• Forms of tenure disputes
• Activity-related (agricultural, pastoral,
  fishing)
• Actor-related (individuals, village communities,
  individuals communities, institutions
• Causes of disputes
• Unsuitable land legislation
• Land administration
• Land grabbing and invasions
• Breakdown in law and order
• Socio-economic needs (land scarcity)
• Challenge
• How to reform land laws, administration
  institutions and support better functioning
  dispute resolution mechanisms

8
Issues and challenges Land and HIV/AIDS
mitigation

• Issues
• HIV/AIDS leads to inability to invest in and use
  land
• Depending on possession and security of land
  rights results include
• Abandoning, renting, selling, forcible removal
  from land
• Under communal property inability to use land can
  have detrimental effects to rights of access and
  control of land and land resources
• Challenges
• How to facilitate viable HIV/AIDS mitigation
  strategies by ensuring
• households maintain their land rights
• households can rent out their land
• Women, orphans are not evicted

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The land reform Debate Reforming land rights

• Exploring the alternatives
• Customary land rights
• Registered customary land rights
• Redistributive land rights
• Land titling
• Redistributive land rights
• Market based land polices
• Subsidized market based reforms

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The land reform Debate A Comprehensive reform
agenda

• Customary rights and local institutions
• Redistributive land rights
• Constraints of market based reforms
• Decentralization of land administration
• Mechanisms for land and natural resource dispute
  resolution

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Conclusions

• Managing Land resource depends on land tenure,
  institutions and regulations governing land
• Addressing land regulation, unequal land
  distribution and insecurity of land -- vital to
  agriculture and food security
• Put mechanisms in place to ensure equity and
  sustainability of common property resources
• Improving womens rights to access, control and
  ownership of resources will improve livelihoods
• Dispute prevention and resolution mechanisms
  would help in managing land related disputes and
  prevent conflicts
• Improved land rental markets, improving land
  rights of women and orphans would facilitate
  HIV/AIDS mitigation
• Examine the potential costs and benefits of
  alternative land rights regimes before embarking
  on reforms
• Comprehensive land reform must include land
  tenure reforms as well as institutional and
  regulatory reforms.