After signing up to guidelines that would protect vulnerable people from being pushed off their own land, African heads of state need to implement them
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:34:19 +0100
Africa urged to protect its communities by taking control of its land
Students from Langata primary school in Nairobi run past riot police as they protest against a perimeter wall illegally erected by a private developer around their playground in January. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
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.
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.”