October 28, 2022 (KAMPALA, Uganda): Ministers responsible for Lands, Justice, and Environment from Member States of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today held a meeting on Land and Conflict in Kampala.
The Sectoral Ministers meeting endorsed the outcomes from the IGAD Region Conference on Land and Conflict held on October 24-26 in Kampala.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development of Uganda, Hon. Judith Nabakooba, stated: “I am glad that as Ministers, we are meeting to make a joint commitment towards issues that affect us all. I want to commend the active participation of our judiciary in the preceding conference. The Judiciary is such an important player in the land sector because it is always the arbitrator. I call upon members to take this matter seriously and we adopt useful and practical commitments towards addressing our land related conflicts and climate change challenges.”
Speaking on behal of the Executive Secretary of IGAD, the Head of IGAD Mission to Uganda, Ms Lucy Daxbacher, said: “Today’s meeting will give fresh impetus and momentum to land governance in the region. The IGAD Secretariat is confident that the Gender responsive Land and conflict Transformative Agenda from the just concluded Conference will guide Member State and Partners’ interventions in terms of continued cross border regional collaboration, resource mobilisation and technical assistance from policy to community level.
The Ministers issued a Communiqué on commitments towards promoting access to justice for peace, inclusive sustainable development, and climate change actions. The communiqué will enable the IGAD Secretariat to provide the necessary support to the Member States in strengthening access to justice and the rule of law on land governance while drawing a nexus with conflict transformation and gender transformative climate change Action.
The Ministerial meeting was preceded by a one-day technical meeting of Directors from the responsible Government Departments who will negotiate and agree on the positions of their Member States, including areas of convergence for action in the next ten years.
The meeting was held with the financial support from Swedish Embassy in Addis Ababa and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and in partnership with International Development Law Organization, (IDLO), International Land Coalition (ILC Africa), Supporting Pastoralism & Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) and other partners.
Download the attached Communique in PDF below
