IGAD in Support of Member States for Enhanced Land Governance with a new Business Plan

30-07-2018, Arta (Djibouti): The Director of Agriculture and Environment Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Mr. Mohamed Moussa, today presided over the Validation Workshop of the Land Governance Business Plan in Arta, Djibouti.

On the basis of the existing IGAD Land Governance Strategy, the Mainstreaming Land Governance in projects and programs in the IGAD region Strategy, and the Land Policy Convergence Framework, an IGAD business plan with a clear and succinct theory of change for land governance highlighting the delivery mechanisms, a logical framework and a costed five-year work plan has been developed.

 This one-day validation meeting gathered IGAD Member States officials in charge of land governance with the overall objective of considering and approving this Business Plan and Resource Mobilization Strategy leading to increased financing for programmes and projects on land governance within the framework of Phase 2 of the Land Governance Project.

 In his opening remarks, Mr. Moussa, synthesized the achievements by the IGAD Land Governance Project during its initial two years into four main points; the Project contributed to:

• mainstreaming Land in the development programs of IGAD and its Member States;
• ensuring land policy convergence among IGAD member states;
• enhancing capacity to generate and disseminate knowledge in land policy formulation and implementation in the region;
• establishing/strengthening partnership and coordination mechanisms as well as mobilizing resources.

Mr. Moussa highlighted that the key intention of the business plan was to “support Member States in developing bankable projects that will enable them undertake the much desired land reform in-country:”.

 The Land Policy Initiative (LPI) was established in 2006 as a joint initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The LPI and IGAD, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), developed a three-year project titled “Improving Land Governance in the IGAD Region.” The project’s main objective is to enhance the capacity of the LPI and the IGAD Secretariat to facilitate and monitor the implementation of the AU Declaration on Land in the region.