AUDA-NEPAD LAND GOVERNANCE PROGRAM COUNTRY ASSESSMENTS VALIDATION WORKSHOP COMMUNIQUE

02-04 December 2019

Accra, Ghana

INTRODUCTION

1. The Country Assessments Validation Workshop was organized by the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) from 02sd to 04th December 2019 and hosted by the Republic of Ghana at the Mensvic Grand Hotel, East Legon, Accra, Ghana.
2. The Validation Workshop was attended by 30 participants and delegates from 10 participating countries, these are Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia and Uganda. Other participants came from AUDA-NEPAD, the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE)/Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
3. The Validation Workshop was aimed at galvanising technical partnerships to support building consensus on key priorities (datasets) for the design and development of digital land data and information repository, with visualization and analytical functionality; exchange information on country experiences on the assessments; review country specific needs and requirements for the establishment of their national help desk; and Agree on country-specific activities for help desk set up.
4. Discussions were informed by five sub-themes, namely: a) socio-economic data; b) administrative data; c) geo-spatial data; d) legal & institutional framework for land governance; and e) legal & institutional framework for administrative and geo-spatial data management.
5. Based on the evidence from the results of the country assessments reports, Member States urged AUDA-NEPAD and its technical partners to proactively and significantly increase their efforts towards influencing and supporting Member States to embark on the establishment and operationalization of the national land help desks. The meeting also urged for collaboration of all stakeholders through adopting effective and efficient coordination and integration mechanisms.
6. The sessions featured presentations, amendments and concurrent discussions focusing on each of the sub-themes, which highlighted strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, as well as threats to be taken in the course of implementing the AUDA-NEPAD Land Governance Program (LGP).

KEY MESSAGES

7. The help desk will be put in place to support Member States to promote the achievement of the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges adopted in July 2009 in Sirte, Libya.
8. There is need to integrate data from various sectors on land-related ministries. The help desk should be accessible to all ministries and other users. A number of initiatives within the participating Member States geared towards finding the solution to improve the data access, document land-related data, evidence-based decision making. However, there is the need to integrate and harmonize the efforts for sound, holistic and robust information generation for decision-making.
9. Strong willingness of Member States for the establishment of data sharing policies, frameworks and structure in providing clear guidelines on what to be shared and how to be shared.
10. Proper documentation, management, administration and storage of land data can create an opportunity to promote revenue generation and collection.
11. Member States validated the country assessments results presented by the technical partners under reservation of amendments given.

RECOMMENDATIONS

12. Member States to ensure a continuous political will to put in place and operationalize the help desk.
13. Member States to promote and ensure the establishment of data sharing policies, laws and institutional organs/agencies/authorities for data access, security and integration.
14. AUDA-NEPAD LGP to backstop Member States in ensuring the sustainability of the help desk, supporting them technically and in resource mobilization.

Done on 04th day of December 2019 in Accra, Ghana