The NELGA Eastern Africa Node, in collaboration with African Land Policy Centre, GIZ and EALAN Secretariat, organized a series of workshops to popularize the Guidelines for Development of Curricula on Land Governance in Africa. The workshops were held between 22nd – 27th of March 2023 in Kampala, Kigali, and Dar es Salaam. The workshops attracted representatives of University Management, University Accreditation Boards, Professional bodies and academic units in universities offering land governance programs in the three countries.  A total of 55 participants attended the three workshops.

The workshops involved the presentation of the guidelines developed by the African Land Policy Centre for implementation by universities in Africa. The Guidelines were presented at the workshops by the Coordinator of the NELGA Eastern Africa Node on behalf of the African Land Policy Centre.  Engaging discussion ensued, touching on content, relevance and adoption of the guidelines in developing curricula on land governance-related programs. Participants in the three sessions acknowledged that the workshops on Guidelines were timely as most universities were either on the verge of reviewing or developing their curricula. Key comments on the content pointed to the need to further de-colonize the curricula, tailor the curricula to land governance theories suiting the African context, re-imagining housing, rethink the status of women’s land rights, particularly in the context of Eastern Africa region and use the Guidelines to develop benchmark standards for land governance academic programs in Africa.  

With regard to mainstreaming the Guidelines in existing or new degree programs in land governance, participants proposed the use of different modes, including informing the curricula through developing standalone subjects, electives, seminars or topics; incorporating the themes in Universities research agenda, and reconsidering the mode of delivery of the curricula that will not overwhelm the learners.