NELGA & PLAAS: Strengthening African Land Governance Through Research, Training, and Policy Engagement

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) is marking three decades of transformative work in land governance, research, and policy engagement across Africa and the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) is proud to support this journey in building one of the most influential partnerships on the continent’s land governance agenda. By combining PLAAS’s academic rigour with NELGA’s African academic institutional reach, this collaboration is laying strong foundations for more inclusive, equitable, and responsive land policies.

PLAAS serves as a special node under NELGA, particularly in designing and implementing high-impact short courses on The Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa and Climate Change and Land Governance in Africa. These courses, co-funded by the African Land Policy Centre (ALPC) and GIZ, are developed, accredited, and awarded by PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape. Since their inception in 2018, the short courses have trained over 180 land professionals to date, drawn from dozens of African countries.

The joint work is delivering impact in several ways:

Capacity building: By equipping land professionals—including researchers, policymakers, practitioners—with conceptual, technical, and regional knowledge, the training helps fill gaps in understanding customary versus statutory land tenure, gender dimensions in land rights, and the political economy of land policies.

Policy relevance: PLAAS-NELGA courses are more than academic exercises; they engage government officials and decision-makers, facilitating translation of research into policies and tools for land governance reform.

Adapting to new challenges: For example, the “Climate Change and Land Governance in Africa” course pilot in April 2025 tackles intersections between climate mitigation, land tenure, and equity—an increasingly urgent set of issues. Plaas