By Elisa Mandelli, Associate Professional Officer, IFAD, and Andrea Wyers, Intern, IFAD
This summer, IFAD's Land
Tenure desk took part in the LANDac
Annual International Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands, an event organized
by the LANDac network and a
selection of Dutch and international knowledge institutes. Within the global
context of rapid urbanisation, increased demand for land, and climate change, this
year's conference focused on linking rural and urban dynamics.
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| Harold Liversage (IFAD) sharing with the audience his considerations on the outputs of the conference @E.Mandelli |
In recent years, analyses of the growing demand for land have increased,
but often only within the rural sphere. The effects of similar dynamics in the
urban and peri-urban areas remain relatively unexplored. The aim of the
conference was to bridge the rural-urban divide and explore the linkages
between the two spheres.
Bringing together
stakeholders from around the world and a variety of backgrounds, the two-day conference
was attended by academics, consultants, policy makers, and NGO representatives.
The conference offered spaces for paper presentations, poster displays and
round table discussions, where participants analysed and discussed such topics
as population growth, land scarcity, land-based investments, and especially processes
affecting the transformation of urban and peri-urban landscapes and
livelihoods.
The complexity
and subjectivity in defining legitimate rights was noted throughout the
conference. In contributing
to this conversation, Elisa Mandelli of IFAD's Land Tenure desk gave a
presentation on IFAD’s experience in promoting
land governance and responsible investment in Bagamoyo District in Tanzania
through the Bagamoyo
Sugar Infrastructure and Sustainable Community Development (BASIC) programme.
The programme aims to support a public-private-producer partnership (4Ps) for
the development of sugarcane production in a nucleus estate out-grower scheme. The
investment is being implemented in an area adjacent to Dar es Salaam with high
potential for coastal tourist expansion.
One of the
main challenges has been addressing the tensions in the programme area that
result from the competing resource needs of peri-urban expansion and seasonal influxes
of livestock. Although the programme has yet to come into force, it intends to
include a wider community development programme and to support land tenure
security through land-use planning and land registration activities. The
programme is already supporting civil society engagement and is monitoring the
possible impacts of the programme on tenure security and land use.
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| Elisa Mandelli (IFAD) presenting IFAD experiences in promoting responsible investment in Bagamoyo (Tanzania). @LANDac, 2016 |
The entire programme
highlights the
need for minimizing potential negative impacts and maximizing positive effects
of out-grower schemes and other land-based investment and partnerships models.
This in turn requires more effort in fostering informed and open dialogue with
different stakeholders, especially with CSOs who can play a crucial role in
social accountability and monitoring and evaluation. On this topic, Mandelli
shared some lessons learned from the support that IFAD provides to the International
Land Coalition (ILC)
to strengthen CSO active engagement in the promotion of good land governance in
Tanzania. Through the establishment of a platform for coordination and joint
action, CSO are engaging in policy dialogue on land governance and exploring
opportunities to actively shape models for inclusive and responsible land-based
investments. Building on the third phase of the IFAD-supported Sustainable
Rangeland Management Programme (SRMP III), the platform will also contribute to
securing rangelands.
For the
private sector, responsible and transparent investment can also contribute to
strengthening good land governance by providing much-needed resources for land
tenure activities and opportunities for land development, thus further securing
smallholder claims. Moreover, in a context of increased competition
on natural resources and weak land governance, Mandelli highlighted the opportunities
for fostering responsible investment models as drivers for strengthening good
land governance and secure land tenure rights. The Land Tenure desk will
continue to share lessons on the challenges and opportunities for responsible
land-based investment in the context of competing land demands. We would like
to hear from others on how they are grappling with these issues.