Events

Theme: Land Policy Initiative: Capacity Development on Land Policy in Africa

Text/Description: This workshop is organized to validate the draft Capacity Development Framework on Land Policy in Africa This event will be co-organized by the LPI with UN-Habitat and is part of activities to develop a strategy and enhance capacity in land policy development, implementation and monitoring. The workshop will review and validate the background content and framework, providing inputs to its finalization. In addition, the workshop will develop a roadmap of capacity development and training activities that will advance capacity development in the area of land policy for implementation by the LPI and/or its partners and stakeholders

Press Release

African private sector discusses CAADP implementation for agricultural growth

Lusaka-Zambia, October 7, 2013 –As part of the ongoing Sustaining the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) momentum initiative, the African Union Commission in collaboration with the NEPAD Agency convened a stakeholder meeting for the private sector in Africa.

The aim of the two day meeting is to build consensus on the requirements for strengthening Africa’s domestic private sector to respond to the investment opportunities in sustaining the CAADP momentum.

The meeting falls within the continued CAADP implementation support to public sector institutions and processes in transformative aspects including strengthening capability in planning, policy design as well as monitoring and accountability systems. Consequently, the meeting aims to facilitate the desired support to domestic private sector to strengthen and catalyse the growth of an able, profitable and competitive agro-industry on the continent

Representing the AUC and the NEPAD Agency during the opening of the meeting, Head of CAADP at NEPAD Agency, Mr. Martin Bwalya, assured the participants that the AUC and NEPAD Agency are committed to supporting the private sector in their contribution and involvement in advancing CAADP implementation.
He encouraged the meeting to put forward their proposals on how they would like to engage the AUC and NEPAD Agency based on the last 10 years of CAADP implementation.
At the end of the meeting, a communiqué will be issued showing clearly defined and implementable work streams meant to increase opportunities and to create an enabling environment for the growth of Africa’s agricultural-based domestic private sector.

For further information please contact:
Mr. Komla Bissi
AUC CAADP Advisor
Bissik@africa-union.org

Ms Carol Jilombo
AUC CAADP Communications Officer
Jilomboc@africa-union.org

Theme:Land Policy Initiative: Mainstreaming Land Policy and Governance in Africa’s Developmental Agenda

Text/Description: This workshop is organized to validate the reports on mainstreaming land Policy and Governance in the CAADP national agriculture and food security investment plans (NAFSIPS); and the report on land governance in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). This event will be co-organized by the LPI and the Capacity Development Division of the ECA. The workshop will not only aim to review and validate the findings of the studies but provide inputs to frameworks for tracking progress in the implementation of land governance commitments in the context of the APRM and CAADP. The meeting will further outline actions needed to generate knowledge, promote advocacy and build capacity for regional and country level interventions in Africa.

Theme: Land Policy Initiative: Partnerships and Coordination

Text/Description: This first LPI development partners meeting seeks to implement an LPI steering committee decision to bring together bilateral and multi-lateral donors as well as UN agencies supporting land policy in Africa, who are currently engaging with the LPI. The Stakeholders/implementing partners meeting on the other hand will bring together representatives of major stakeholder category groups who themselves are involved in advancing policy development and implementation in Africa and/or have expressed interest to work with the LPI in advancing the implementation of the AU Declaration on land.

It is envisaged that these meetings will help to identify areas of mutual interest and cooperation in order to enhance synergies and collective impact in land related interventions in Africa. The meetings will further explore modalities for- and nature of such cooperation as well as mechanisms to track progress in implementing these partnerships.

AFRICA DAY: Ministers reconfirm Africa’s commitment to ensure sustainable development through sustainable land management

Windhoek, 25 September 2013- The African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) held the Africa Day high level meeting on, 25 September 2013 in Windhoek, Namibia. Under the theme sustainable land management: Africa on the front line, the high level meeting took place in the framework of the Eleventh Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP11). The event took place at the African Union pavilion.

The objective of the Africa Day was to showcase to the global community what Africa is doing in the domain of sustainable land management. The high level forum discussed issues related to the development of drylands, including sustainable land management (SLM), and drought mitigation from the African perspective within the context of sustainable development.

“Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity are among the greatest challenges to sustainable development especially in developing countries, and in particular in Africa”, said Dr. Khalil Timamy, Head of AUC delegation at COP11 of the UNCCD. He then stressed the urgent need for a strong global partnership to reverse and prevent desertification /land degradation as well as mitigating the effects of drought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.

Ms. Rudo Makunike, Head of NPCA delegation at COP 11 of the UNCCD said in her welcome remarks that “Africa’s progress towards addressing the twin issues of drought and desertification and improving sustainable land management practices has gained considerable support from all stakeholders, particularly African governments and institutions over the last few years”. However, these achievements, according to her, “need to be up scaled-up to realize the full socio-economic and environmental potential to the continent”.

In addition to the support of the secretariat of the TerrAfrica Programme to African Regional Sustainable Land Management initiatives, Ms. Makunike reconfirmed the NPCA’s “full commitment” to supporting African countries’ initiatives aimed at “improving land productivity and combating the scourge of desertification”.

In his opening remarks, H.E Mr. Uahekua Herunga, Minister of Environment and Tourism, Republic of Namibia whose country is President of the COP to the UNCCD until 2015 stated that “there is indeed an African renaissance starting to take place in the drylands” in which Namibia is taking part.

He acknowledged the National Action Programmes under the UNCCD, in which good practice approaches have reversed by 2012 the trends of desertification and land degradation in “some 260,000 hectares all over the country to the benefit of an estimated 230,000 Namibians”.

H.E Mr. Belete Tafere, Minister of Environment Protection and Forestry of Ethiopia, stressed that land degradation and deforestation need to be given prior attention as they constitute of the very serious challenges impeding the economic development of most of the sub Saharan-African countries. In this regard, he revealed that the annual economic loss in Ethiopia due to the land degradation and deforestation is estimated at 3% of the total GDP of the country, whereas agriculture supports more than 83% of the population’s livelihood.

Mr. Michel Tankoano, Coordinator of the Partnership Programme for Sustainable Land Management Project, Burkina Faso, underlined that partnership and coordination are critical for Sustainable Land Management.

In his brief presentation, Mr. Richard Mwendandu, Director of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Ministry of Environment and Water Resources of Kenya spoke about his country’s policies and programmes on sustainable land management and drought mitigation. He mentioned several institutional developments including the alignment of the National Action Plan to the Ten Year Strategy of the UNCCD.

Further information:
Mr. Almami Dampha,
Policy Officer, Forestry and Sustainable Land Management
Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, AU Commission
DamphaA@africa-union.org; www.au.int
Tel: +264-814442349

Mr. Molalet Tsedeke
Directorate of Information and Communication
AU Commission
molalett@africa-union.org
Tel: +264-856340495