20-05-2019, DJIBOUTI (Djibouti): The Director of Agriculture and Environment Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Mr. Mohamed Moussa, this morning inaugurated the Strategy Meeting on Youth and Land Governance in Djibouti.

Eighteen participants drawn from IGAD Member States are participating in this meeting whose main objective is to develop the IGAD Youth and Land Governance Project strategy.

More specifically, the strategy meeting is a venue for youth from the IGAD region to brainstorm on land governance issues and possible opportunities for the resolution of those through a strategy and propose concrete actions for a Youth and Land Governance implementation plan. Participants will also draw a road map for the Youth and Land Governance Project (or programme) for the IGAD region.

Considering youth as beneficiaries and active stakeholders at present and in the near future, the consideration and inclusion of their needs and interests in land governance programmes is indispensable. It is hence of great importance to include young people in land governance programmes in order to capitalise and enhance on their capabilities to ensure the representation of their needs and interests.

The IGAD Land Governance Project was launched in 2015 as a joint initiative of the Africa Land Policy Centre and IGAD Secretariat. The project has been jointly implemented with Land Policy Initiative/Africa Land Policy Center at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and supported through funding from the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC).

The project aims at helping IGAD and its Member States to address the various land policy and governance issues and constraints. The African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges provides the basic framework for IGAD’s work on land governance.

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03 May 2019, DJIBOUTI (Djibouti): The Land Governance Project of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) yesterday closed a two-day training workshop on coaching for Land Tenure Experts and officials from IGAD Member States and some Programme Managers and staff members of the regional organization based in Djibouti.

During his opening remarks on Day one of the Coaching Clinic the Director of Economic Cooperation Division, Mr. Elsadig Abdalla, said that this training on coaching skills will help “to take full advantage of our individual qualities and overcome pitfalls that may hinder our effectiveness in the pursuit of challenging and meaningful objectives in our personal lives as well as in our careers”.

“I hope that through this process we will learn some innovative and integrated approaches that will enable us address today's complex and multidimensional challenges in the different spheres of our lives”, he continued before officially opening the training.

After the two days, Anita Lubari Ramba, Deputy Director-Policy and Law at South Sudan Land Commission, said her satisfaction to have participated in and pledged to transmit the knowledge gained to her colleagues back home.

Simone Zurschmitten, Project Assistant in the Land Governance Project, assured that she will be able to apply the coaching models and methods taught to support colleagues of her team, other IGAD staff members as well as a variety of stakeholders in overcoming obstacles that lie in the way of achieving common objectives of our project.

According to the trainer, Marco Noordeloos from Africa Lead, it was a real pleasure to work and learn with such a committed group of participants from IGAD. “Based on the clear actions plans shared during our closing session, I’m hopeful that the learning will translate into real commitments to integrate a coaching-approach into the work and management styles of these talented professionals”, he said.

This Coaching Clinic was conducted by Africa Lead, one of USAID and Feed the Future's food security and resilience capacity building programs for Africa. The training was part of a new collaboration with IGAD under a broader investment by USAID to support the coordination and implementation of the African Union agenda on land governance.                                                                                                                                                                      .ஜஜ۩END۩ஜஜ.

25-04-2019, Djibouti: The Deputy Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Mr. Mohamed Moussa, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Land Coalition - ILC AFRICA to have a close relationship of cooperation and partnership, with the view of favouring the scaling up of best practices, formulating and developing programmes and projects to support land reform processes, and promote people centred land governance in the IGAD Member States.

This Memorandum of understanding will enhance the implementation of the IGAD Land Governance Project, designed to improve land governance in the IGAD Region. The cooperation between the two organizations shall be based, among others, on the following areas:

• Support the successful establishment and functioning of the IGAD Civil Society Platform on Land Governance;
• Jointly promote and support the establishment and functioning of national and regional multi-stakeholder platforms on land governance in as many IGAD Member States as feasible;
• Promote in the IGAD Member States the integrated application of the African Union Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (F&G), Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs) and the ten ILC Commitments for a people centred land governance.
• Jointly promote Women’s Land Rights in the IGAD Member States;
• Jointly expand the work on pastoralist land governance in the IGAD Region
• Promote the expansion ILC presence/membership in all the 8 IGAD Member States;

 In his remarks, Mr. Mohamed Moussa Welcomed the cooperation and underscored it as timely particularly in responding to the need to strengthen multi-stakeholder processes on land governance at country level through enhancing the capacity of NGOs working on land. He welcomed the need to have a vibrant civil society in the region closely engaging with governments to create sustainable and systemic change in land governance at country and regional level.

Mr. Audace Kubwimana Regional Coordinator for International Land Coalition-Africa, emphasized the significance of cooperation in furthering a people centered land agenda in the region. IGAD is the first Regional Economic Community to fully engage on land governance. ILC is excited at the opportunity to strengthen the reach of its work in Africa though this cooperation.

The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding is under the framework of the IGAD Region Land Governance Business Plan whose goal it is to improve access to land and security of land rights for all land users in the IGAD region achieved through implementation of the AU Declaration on Land Policy.

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The second Executive Committee of the IGAD-HAWEN was held at Sarem Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

25-26 March 2019. Addis Ababa, (Ethiopia) The meeting was attended by all Executive Committee members of the member states, IGAD Secretariat, AUC, Interpol, AWF TRAFFIC and US Embassy in Addis. The objective of the meeting was to review the status of implementation of the HAWEN Action Plan and forge ways and means to expedite its implementation. In this regard, the meeting deliberated on strengthening and integrating IGAD-HAWEN and AUC activities related to wildlife management. The deliberation also included on a draft protocol on confiscated wildlife animals and related products.  

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  15 March 2019, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in collaboration with the African Land Policy Centre based at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, today held a workshop to validate a Framework on harmonised land policies in the IGAD region.

 Given that three of IGAD Member States, namely Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, are also members of the East African Community (EAC), it was decided that the convergence framework for IGAD will be used for learning exchange within the EAC Member States as a whole.

 The IGAD harmonization framework seeks to equip Member States with a common reference frame to guide and facilitate the formulation of reliable land policies that guarantee the rights of local communities to securely access land, which is indispensable for attaining social peace and sustainable economic development within the regions. The goal of the Framework is to promote consensus and convergence of national land policies around fundamental values and principles of economic growth, equity, good governance and sustainable management of the environment.

 Participants to the one-day validation workshop were Member States representing government agencies in charge of land and other related government departments, and regional experts. Participants were also from the African Union Commission,

the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa institutions, IGAD CSO platform, development partners such as the Swiss Development Agency, and the German Agency for Development GIZ.

 In his opening remarks, the Director of Agriculture and Environment Division at IGAD

urged the participants to “look critically at the key elements that frame the policy convergence, to ensure that the proposed approaches and methods are implementable and take us closer to developing and shaping land policies in the IGAD Region in a manner that fosters integration and development”. “This will be a critical element in the implementation of Phase II of the IGAD Land Governance Project”, he added.

 The specific objectives of this validation workshop were to review the draft report with a view to achieving the following objectives:

• validating the information and the underlying analysis presented in the draft report;
• building consensus and get inputs on the vision, goal, mission and principles of the framework; the principles of land governance; the criteria of harmonization; and the framework’s implementation plan; and
• Agree on way forwards and follow up actions.

 The draft report was validated as the workshop closed.

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