The GLTN’s
Urban CSO Cluster of UN-Habitat and Habitat for Humanity’s Solid
Ground campaign are convening a multi-stakeholder regional
Conference on land governance and
management and kindly invite you to attend the upcoming
conference titled Partnership for Action: Improving Land Governance
and Management in Africa. The conference will present the opportunity for
stakeholders from multiple sectors to come together to explore approaches to
land governance towards inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.
The
Conference will be convened in partnership with the Namibia
University of Science and Technology (NUST), the Network of
Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA), Habitat International
Coalition (HIC), Huairou Commission,and Slum/Shack Dwellers International
(SDI).
The
Conference brings together civil society organizations, grassroots leaders,
policy makers, parliamentarians, government officials, practitioners, academics
and land sector specialists.
The
African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa (2010)
recognises the “centrality of land to sustainable socio-economic growth,
development and the security of the social, economic and cultural livelihoods
of people.” The declaration also calls for the prioritisation of land policy
development in the region and the inclusion of civil society and the private
sector in these processes. The declaration calls on all member countries to
establish appropriate frameworks and to provide “activities to facilitate
mutual learning” and policy development.
Land governance
and management approaches are common to both rural and urban contexts.One
of the key trends in Africa is the phenomenon of high rates of
urbanisation and at the same time the declining public provision
of serviced land and housing.The extensive urban poverty in Africa
demands solutions focused on land and housing, and addressing land governance
and security will require partnership across sectors as well as joint action on
policy and programming.
With
an overarching goal of developing greater understanding of the importance of
tenure security and land, we will build broader capacities around
policy-making and implementation strategies relevant to Africa. We
will explore policy-making approaches with country case studies which
will have particular resonance with policy makers and members of the
Pan-African Parliament to ensure best practices, including principles of
participation, evidence, and data driven approaches.The
conference is designed to present opportunities for the
sharing of experiences of implementation of land
governance methodologies and approaches to surface best
practices through open discussion and platforms to explore and
discuss land governance approaches. We will explore the continuum of land
rights, fit for purpose, flexible land tenure policy approaches as well as GLTN
land tools and strategies, in particular, the Social Tenure Domain Model and
Gender Evaluation Criteria.
We
invite you to join us in Pretoria as we continue to address this
issue and build momentum towards partnership-focused strategies that
improve land governance in the region. All official conference activities
will take place at the Farm Inn Country
Hotel. Unless otherwise communicated, participants are responsible
for booking their own accommodations and transportation. We recommend booking
shuttle service from the airport to the conference venue with Destinet Shuttle Service.