Category: News
NELGA Presents: International Women’s Month Q&A Series
Welcome to the International Women’s Month Q&A series on the NELGA website. This March, we are shining a spotlight on the critical contributions that women are making in the field of land governance and land rights. As part of this series, we’re interviewing well-known women in the field affiliated with the network. They’ll talk about their experiences, insights, and points of view on various issues related to land governance, policy, and rights.
The goal of these Q&As is to honour the accomplishments of women in this field while also bringing attention to the problems they’ve had to deal with and the chances for progress and change. We hope this series will encourage more people to get involved in land governance and work for more social justice and gender equity.
We are excited to share the stories and insights of these women, whose actions influence NELGA’s impact in Africa. We hope you will join us in celebrating International Women’s Month and women’s contributions to the land governance field.
#EMBRACEEQUITY
Find the stories here:
Johannes’s Sucess Story – NELGA Intern
It was such an exciting opportunity to be part of a culturally diverse organization while gaining experience in land governance in Africa – Lineekelomwene Johannes, Former Intern with NELGA Southern Africa Node at NUST
In February 2023, I completed all requirements towards my achieving a Bachelor of Business Management degree from the prestigious Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). NUST is the leading hub for the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa, an African Union network managed by the African Land Policy Centre through the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
Part of the requirements for graduation was to embark on an internship through Work-integrated Learning (WIL). This is an integral aspect of our curriculum and must be completed by all students for graduation. Lucky for me, I met Mr. Theodor Muduva, the advisor for NELGA at NUST and I was given the opportunity to gain experience as an administrative assistant intern for the network in southern Africa.
Simply put, it altered the playing field and was a game-changing experience. I was putting theory into practice and exchanging real-world experience. It was a thrill to work with people from various walks of life and learn from their experiences and perspectives. Before I joined NELGA, I had never thought of being interested in land issues, but through NELGA, I became knowledgeable about them. Mentors at the NELGA hub at NUST, especially Mr. Muduva, were extremely rewarding; and cumulatively inspired me to do my best in all my endeavours as I contributed my bit to my country’s development, region and the continent and, of course, come out with a better-than-average grade in my WIL course.
During my internship, a highlight of my time was participating in a planning and review meeting for NELGA with delegates from across Africa speaking as one voice. It was a tremendous pleasure for me to interact with NUST faculty, NELGA partner universities, African Land Policy Centre, GIZ as the implementing partner and many others. I was learning about land governance outside of my original academic interest; however, I could see the business management intersections and alignment with land and how this impacts the continent. It was a thrilling experience.
I am incredibly grateful for the invaluable insight into the workings of the business world that I gained due to my time spent in NELGA in these early professional years. Being a part of the NELGA team was an incredible opportunity to gain significant experience and intellectual resources to guide my future career goals.
Publication: Understanding Urban Land Leasing System as a Strategic Value Capture Instrument to Enhance Urban Revenue in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Bahir Dar City
Since 1993, the Ethiopian government has been using the urban land leasing system to monetize the increase in land value created due to factors other than private investment. Thus, this paper by Seid Hussen Yimam, Hans Lind and Belachew Yirsaw Alemu aims to explore and understand whether Bahir Dar city is leveraging the urban land lease system as a strategic value capture instrument to enhance its local revenue or not.
This study has used the qualitative research method and in-depth analysis. The information needed to reach the goal of this study has been gathered through a desk review of documents and key informant interviews with experts and brokers. The study has found that most urban land is held under a permit system, with landholders paying a small amount of land rent per annum. The study also found that most of the city’s land was given away through administrative allotment at low and out-of-date benchmark prices, which hurt the city’s lease income.
Also, it has been found that there isn’t enough enforcement of lease payment collection, which hurts the city’s ability to make money from urban areas. So, the city isn’t using the public land leasing system as a strategic way to get more value out of the land. Based on these results, this paper suggests that the government set up a modern property tax system to capture the increase in value of land with a permit. Also, the study plans to do empirical research to find the factors that significantly impact benchmark prices and to update the benchmark price based on those factors regularly. Moreover, the study has suggested proper enforcement of the lease payment collection in the city.
New Study: Women’s Access to Land Ownership and Agricultural Development in Baïgom, West Cameroon
Women represent close to 51% of the Cameroonian population, and they are more than 70% active in food and market gardening activities (INS, 2010). Like those elsewhere, the rural women of Baigom are fighting with all the means at their disposal to gain access to land and participate in the agricultural development of this village. To this end, they need land and capital to carry out their actions to make agriculture profitable and ensure food security for their families.
This contribution makes it possible to analyze the socio-economic and cultural context, which is unfavourable primarily to women’s access to land in Baigom. Women active in agricultural production activities are limited by the unavailability of land resources, which constitute a no less negligible factor of production. This State of virtual exclusion of these leading actors in family farming is detrimental to the development of the agricultural economy.
To conduct this study, the methodology adopted focused on primary and secondary sources and field observations. As for the primary sources, socio[1]economic surveys were carried out with a target population of women producers in the village of Baïgom. The socio-economic surveys reached 5% of women over the age of 15; in the end, 150 questionnaires were collected in the five central districts of the village (Nkoupetgom, Nkou gahri, Chaanké, Mbayé, Njissen). Young girls are more like family labourers in peasant agriculture.
The secondary data are the fruit of the literature review and the consultation of the archives. These archives are present in the decentralized services of the State of the specialized institutions which generate official statistics, such as the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The webography was not, moreover, a source of acquisition of specific knowledge in terms of the gender approach to land issues in tropical Africa as a whole. The main results indicate that women’s access to land ownership is low, with only about 8% holding a land title. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of modern and customary rights complicates the marginalization of women’s access to land, negatively impacting agricultural production activities. Despite these obstacles, solutions are envisaged by all the actors to involve women more in the management of rural land.
New Research Explores Relationship between Landownership Inequality and Education Attainment in Kenya
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new research paper by John Kamau Gathiaka, which examines the relationship between landownership inequality and educational attainment in Kenya. The study, published in the Tanzanian Economic Review, used data from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey and the Kenya Population and Housing Census to investigate the Gini of landownership’s influence on the Gini of education attainment across counties and the determinants of educational attainment in Kenya.
While previous research has documented an inverse relationship between unequal land ownership and educational attainment in other countries, the evidence generated in this study does not support this strong relationship in Kenya. The study found that government financing of free education, coupled with bursaries, reduced the impact of landownership inequality.
To reduce inequality in education across countries, the research paper suggests that the government should invest more in education and make policies that promote equality in household income, urbanization, and public employment participation.
We encourage you to read the entire research paper (DOI: 10.56279/ter.v12i2.119) and learn more about the findings and their implications.
Please click here to view the research on our website.
MOROCCO: IAV Hassan II Publish the 2023 Journal on Land and Geospatial Sciences
NELGA today announced the publishing of its first Issue of the African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences (AJLP&GS) for 2023.
You are kindly invited to view the published articles of this Issue, available at:
Uncovering Land Governance Challenges in 9 African Countries: NELGA’s Overview of Pastoralism and Small-Scale Farming
NELGA has put out nine country profiles about South Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania. These profiles give information about pastoralism and small-scale agriculture in these countries. Through research on the current state of land governance in each of these nations, the individual reports have identified policy gaps that could be amended to better support pastoralism and small-scale agriculture.
The profiles also emphasised the significance of regional and international cooperation throughout Africa to enhance land governance structures tailored to local communities’ needs. The profiles included an assessment of existing research on the topics; the effects of climate change; public policy in place to support pastoralism and small-scale farming; the role of women and young people in this space; and regional and international cooperation available to support respective countries. The individual country profiles make recommendations for improving land governance in each country.
NELGA hopes that these reports will help the government improve the way it manages resources while making sure that rights over resources are kept, and international standards are always followed. NELGA keeps working with its African partners to improve how land is managed in all countries involved.
NELGA is Delighted to Unveil its New Website
NELGA is pleased to announce the launch of its new website, www.nelga.uneca.org, which boasts an enhanced user experience and cutting-edge functionality. NELGA has wholly revamped its old website into a new, fully functional, responsive, and dynamic website with expanded functionality and accessibility, resulting in a more comprehensive and dynamic user experience.
The new platform is designed with the support of the German Development Cooperation and has the user in mind, boasting a sleek, contemporary appearance and intuitive navigation. With a focus on providing valuable information and resources, the website provides NELGA members and land stakeholders with a wealth of knowledge about the network’s activities, opportunities, research, engagement, and networking spaces.
In addition, the website’s functionality has been enhanced with a responsive design that optimises the user experience across all devices, improved search capabilities, and a streamlined subscription process that ensures visitors are always informed of the latest NELGA news.
Jennifer Aghaji, NELGA’s Communication Specialist, said, “Our objective was to design a visually appealing and user-friendly platform. We believe the new website achieves both goals. We have integrated various platforms into a single website and incorporated a knowledge management repository for land-related subject areas.”
The new website will enhance communication and accessibility with Africa’s land stakeholders and the general public.
NELGA Researchers in Southern Africa Master the Art of Scientific Writing
Scientific writing is important in the development of academia and academic institutions. It is a challenge for postgraduate students and lecturers (supervisors) to write scientific papers, especially for publication in high impact scientific journals. Academics and postgraduate students have found it difficult to develop their scientific writing skills to meet the publication requirements of high impact journals. Lecturers who supervise postgraduate candidates face the daunting task of transferring quality scientific writing skills to the students since writing at postgraduate level is complex. Therefore, strengthening the capacity of lecturers to transfer scientific writing skills effectively improves graduation rates and academic publications.
In an attempt to a Scientific Writers’ workshop was held back in October 2022 at Chaminuka Lodge and Nature Reserves in Lusaka, Zambia. The objectives of the workshop are as follows; i) Improve the quality of scientific writing skills. ii) Assist early researchers working on scientific papers to produce publishable papers. iii) Increase research collaboration among NELGA member Universities and iv) Strengthen research supervision and mentorship skills of academic staff supervising postgraduate students.
The Workshop was a collaboration among Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST), Network for Land Governance in Africa (NELGA), University of Zambia, and sponsored by GIZ. The University of Zambia hosted the workshop, facilitated by four consultants: Professor Chigbu (Namibia), Professor Chakwizira (South Africa), Dr Pamela Duran Diaz (Germany), and Dr Chavunduka (Zimbabwe). The consultants led each of the sessions that focused on a specific aspect of scientific writing. The areas covered included: H-index and Social Impact factors in scientific academic publication; Strategies of scientific writing skills; Comparing different styles of scientific writing; Conducting effective literature review; Writing scientific articles; Publishing articles in high-ranking journals; Strategies of scientific writing skills; Comparing different styles of scientific writing; Tips on PhD Discourse.
Ten (10) PhD students and one (1) Masters Student registered at various universities also presented summaries of their research papers. Supervisors gave feedback to the students and identified areas of improvement. The main outputs of the workshop included the identification of the members of team to spearhead the development of a scientific writer’/supervisors’ manual. Secondly, the submission of abstracts from each of the participants as a contribution as a chapter a book that will be edited and published.
Land Stakeholders Chart Course on Land Transformation in Ghana
From the 6th to the 9th of December, land stakeholders in Ghana will convene at the 2022 National Land Conference to institutionalize a structured arrangement for multi-stakeholder participation in the transformation of the land sector in Ghana.
The conference was organised under the theme – Leveraging National Land Policy, Legislation and institutional Capacity Towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Development by the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources and COLANDEF with the support of the German Development Cooperation, NELGA and other partners.
The conference creates the platform to discuss policy options and experiences, present new research and scalable innovations, foster high-level support and ownership of interventions to tackle land governance, and empower and develop the capacities of the land sector stakeholders. The Conference will establish a multi-stakeholder platform that will monitor the implementation of the conference’s recommendations, including the implementation of Ghana’s new national land policy and provide support for improving land governance and land administration in the country on a sustainable basis.
Click here to read more about the conference.
