Enhancing Sustainable Land Governance: NELGA’s Collaboration with PLAAS

As the Strengthening Advisory Capacities for Land Governance in Africa (SLGA) program approaches its conclusion in 2026, its incredible impact on people’s lives was illuminated during the SLGA/NELGA team’s visit to the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) in Cape Town, South Africa.

The visit entailed a detailed discussion about PLAAS’s sustainability strategies and comprehensive work plan for 2024 and provided detailed perspectives on its collaboration with GIZ and the African Land Policy Centre.

The significance of PLAAS’s role within NELGA as a technical node and its contributions to self-sustainability and regional development was driven home by two colleagues who directly benefited from PLAAS’s research.

Malany Meyer, a community-based activist who works with PLAAS, is from one of Cape Town’s largest and most impoverished townships, Lavender Hill. She recounted her experience of being evicted from her home, retelling her terrifying story of finding her daughter through the dust after a combative confrontation with eviction teams. Malany had initially thought her daughter was away from the vicinity when it happened.

Sandiso Kraai, a graduate of PLAAS’s unique Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, the only such course in Southern Africa, gave an impassioned rendition of his time in the programme. As a member of the government and on the opposing side of communities where he has to evict people and face those like Malany – often where his family members live – he said the teachings gave him the language to express himself and the complexity he deals with daily, which made him into a more understanding public servant.

While the SLGA program is coming to an end, the collaboration with PLAAS remains steadfast. PLAAS’s presentation of its strategy and shared lessons provided invaluable guidance in navigating the extrication process.