Our work
- ActionAid
- Focus areas of our work
- How we work
- Countries we work in
- Examples and results
- The organisation
Ms Zambia Newsletter June 2009
By Nachilala Nkombo, Deputy Director, MS Zambia
30. June 2009
From the 14th – 24th of April 2009, staff from MS-DK and MS country offices spearheading land rights programmes in Tanzania and Zambia visited Nepal with a double mission. The first was to peer review the progress of the MS-Nepal land rights programme. The second mission was to attend an international conference on land rights that gathered 180 participants from around the world to discuss the pressing land rights struggles facing poor communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The conference was organized by the International Land Coalition, the Government of Nepal and MS Nepal partner – the Community Self Reliance Center (CSRC) under the theme Securing Land Fights for peace and Food Security. Both activities where in line with the MS goal to strengthen thematic knowledge management of best practices within the organisation globally and outside.
From these activities, the political nature of land rights and the fundamental importance of ensuring practical land reforms that address first historical land access inequalities that face poor farmers, women and indigenous communities came into sharp focus. Kathmandu was the right venue for such an important discussion as communities in Nepal have in the recent past still faced severe land ownership inequalities and land tenure security problems. On these issues, the MS review team found that interventions of MS Nepal had contributed to land security. Its partner’s had facilitated processes that enabled acquisition of land certificates for landless communities in Bardiya and Kapilvastu, among them were ex-bonded labourers and women.
The review also learnt that while the allocation of land certificates to landless communities had increased their psychological sense of economic security, it was not an automatic solution for their poverty reduction. This was so because most programme beneficiaries in these communities still lacked agriculture inputs to make their new land productive; address food and household security needs. This expressed the importance of complimentary pro-poor agriculture policy to the success of land reforms.
The international conference on the other hand provided a platform where new global threats to land security for the poor, research on successes and failures of national land reforms and Civil society interventions from around the world were shared. Options promoted in different parts of the world to ensure security of land for the poor and their challenges were also discussed. Conference highlights included the need to promote land and resource rights for the poor indigenous communities, the effects of climate change on livelihoods of rural communities and the need to recognize the role and rights of women as farmers in their own right.
The conference communiqué notes despite the enormous challenges of promoting land rights, the conference participants collectively committed themselves to working together to ensure secure land and resource rights for poor women and men. This was seen a pre-requisite to enable the poor to live with dignity as equals in society, and to transform their own lives, institutions and communities. To ensure that land rights for the poor will be addressed, the role of the state was viewed by participants as central, however, the work of CSO's was critically complimentary in ensuring grass roots communities inputs to state engineered reforms and in monitoring the effects of these reforms.
The land issues noted above (except those unique to Nepal) in one way or the other are evident in the other two MS country programmes addressing land reform. Some of MS-Nepal approaches were similar and relevant for MS - Tanzania and MS Zambia partners. Thus, MS Zambia’s participation in these activities helped to strengthen its knowledge and networks on land right with its sister programmes and other land rights organisations from around the world.
The mission to Nepal was also interesting for MS Zambia as it in addition to its regular work will launch a women’s land rights project in September 2008 that aims to promote traditional women leaders as champions of customary land rights for poor women in six districts of Zambia.
Land Rights mission to Nepal
While Civil Society is essential to promote land security for the poorest, it is vital that central government implements a pro-poor agriculture policy to compliment these efforts.
|
|
Participant at the Land Rights conference in Nepal
|
30. June 2009
From the 14th – 24th of April 2009, staff from MS-DK and MS country offices spearheading land rights programmes in Tanzania and Zambia visited Nepal with a double mission. The first was to peer review the progress of the MS-Nepal land rights programme. The second mission was to attend an international conference on land rights that gathered 180 participants from around the world to discuss the pressing land rights struggles facing poor communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The conference was organized by the International Land Coalition, the Government of Nepal and MS Nepal partner – the Community Self Reliance Center (CSRC) under the theme Securing Land Fights for peace and Food Security. Both activities where in line with the MS goal to strengthen thematic knowledge management of best practices within the organisation globally and outside.
From these activities, the political nature of land rights and the fundamental importance of ensuring practical land reforms that address first historical land access inequalities that face poor farmers, women and indigenous communities came into sharp focus. Kathmandu was the right venue for such an important discussion as communities in Nepal have in the recent past still faced severe land ownership inequalities and land tenure security problems. On these issues, the MS review team found that interventions of MS Nepal had contributed to land security. Its partner’s had facilitated processes that enabled acquisition of land certificates for landless communities in Bardiya and Kapilvastu, among them were ex-bonded labourers and women.
The review also learnt that while the allocation of land certificates to landless communities had increased their psychological sense of economic security, it was not an automatic solution for their poverty reduction. This was so because most programme beneficiaries in these communities still lacked agriculture inputs to make their new land productive; address food and household security needs. This expressed the importance of complimentary pro-poor agriculture policy to the success of land reforms.
|
|
Participants at the Land Rights conference in Nepal
|
The conference communiqué notes despite the enormous challenges of promoting land rights, the conference participants collectively committed themselves to working together to ensure secure land and resource rights for poor women and men. This was seen a pre-requisite to enable the poor to live with dignity as equals in society, and to transform their own lives, institutions and communities. To ensure that land rights for the poor will be addressed, the role of the state was viewed by participants as central, however, the work of CSO's was critically complimentary in ensuring grass roots communities inputs to state engineered reforms and in monitoring the effects of these reforms.
The land issues noted above (except those unique to Nepal) in one way or the other are evident in the other two MS country programmes addressing land reform. Some of MS-Nepal approaches were similar and relevant for MS - Tanzania and MS Zambia partners. Thus, MS Zambia’s participation in these activities helped to strengthen its knowledge and networks on land right with its sister programmes and other land rights organisations from around the world.
The mission to Nepal was also interesting for MS Zambia as it in addition to its regular work will launch a women’s land rights project in September 2008 that aims to promote traditional women leaders as champions of customary land rights for poor women in six districts of Zambia.
