General

Ethiopia is chronically food insecure and suffers significant food deficits each year. To tackle this challenge, the Government of Ethiopia strives to increase agricultural production, access to markets and employment opportunities. Investments in commercial agriculture are considered one of the key elements in advancing economic development and supporting the country in achieving food security. In the past, Ethiopia promoted foreign and domestic investment in large-scale farming and identified about 3 million hectares for commercial agricultural purposes. To facilitate economic development, the benefits of such investments need to be shared with local communities. However, achievements in this field remain limited and only a fraction of the land allocated was developed. Traditional land rights of local communities in rural areas remain inadequately documented and large-scale land allocations have often disregarded the rights of legitimate landowners. The struggle over resources between traditional landowners and investors led to a range of disputes and conflicts. The expectations of creating economic development and food security through large-scale land allocations for agriculture have not been met. In addition, government capacities on regulating investments and investor-community conflict management are limited. Agencies at all levels lack knowledge, structures and equipment to steer and monitor commercial agricultural land investments sufficiently. As a result, the rural population, and particularly women and marginalized groups, face great land tenure insecurity. To alleviate poverty and ensure food security in Ethiopia, it is thus essential to promote secure land tenure and responsible agricultural investments.

Activities in Ethiopia

The country module operates in three fields of activity:

• Improving Framework Conditions and Procedures: National and regional authorities in three regions will be sensitized and trained on institutional framework conditions and procedures to enhance land tenure security for the rural population.
• Strengthening the Civil Society: The civil society will be supported to contribute to the socio-political debate on responsible land policy through educational campaigns, training measures and awareness raising.
• Cooperation with the Private Sector: Private sector actors will be advised and capacitated in exchange fora with communities and trainings on effective land management, to deliver on environmental and social commitments.

An example from the field

The country module Ethiopia of the Global Project Responsible Land Policy is a continuation of the project “Support to Responsible Agricultural Investment” (S2RAI) implemented on behalf of the BMZ and with financial support from the European Union from March 2016 until June 2019 and thus capitalizes on previous lessons learned and products developed. Some of the main achievements include a digital land investment management and monitoring system (CAMiS), the development of contract templates, monitoring guidelines as well as the Guidelines for Social and Environmental Practices of Responsible Commercial Agriculture in Ethiopia (SECoP). Additionally, S2RAI supported the decision to redefine ceilings for agricultural investments from 1 million ha to 1,000 ha for domestic and 3,000 ha for foreign investors. Through strengthening of the organizational development of land institutions, awareness raising and capacity building the social and ecological performance of investors is now monitored. Both, the monitoring system as well as the SECoP guidelines have been taken up into the national strategy for commercial agriculture by the Ethiopian government. Furthermore, almost 80% of lease agreements have been reviewed. As a result, agreements covering about 70,000 ha were ended. In addition, investor-community dialogue fora, implemented by a local NGO, led to amicable land dispute resolutions and joint planning for the future. The project harmonized its efforts with other development interventions, such as thematically relevant GIZ projects and other donor projects in the context of land tenure, land use planning, land allocation and certification.        

General

The Peruvian Amazon region is home to more than 50 indigenous peoples living in almost 2,270 communities. Around 30% of these communities – 680 – still have no collective land titles (government data 3/2020). This legal uncertainty causes disputes over land, exploitation of natural resources and growing pressure on indigenous territories as a result of infrastructure and industry projects and the influx of settlers from other parts of Peru. Over the decade until 2015, virtually no collective land titles were granted to indigenous communities. The reasons include a lack of clarity over responsibilities, inadequate capacity and budget limitations. The governing role for land titling was transferred back to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI) in 2014, but regional government agencies remain in charge of the day to day implementation. Since late 2015, German development cooperation − in coordination with other international actors − has been addressing the need for standardised databases, simpler procedures for granting titles, guidelines on the involvement of indigenous peoples and communities, and dispute resolution strategies, as well as capacity development and adequate budgets.

Activities in Peru

The project supports the granting of land titles to indigenous communities in the Ucayali and San Martín regions and improvements in processes at national level. In field of activity 1, the project is advising MINAGRI and regional agencies on drawing up and improving procedures for granting land titles. It is also supporting further development of the statutory framework for collective land rights, including procedures for preventing and mediating in land disputes. Activities in field of activity 2 are strengthening the national- and regional-level participation of civil society, especially indigenous organizations, in granting land titles to indigenous communities All project activities focus particularly on the rights and concerns of indigenous women who play an important role in ensuring food security but are often disadvantaged in terms of access to land. Impact at two interconnected levels Guaranteeing the land rights of indigenous peoples requires reliable cadastral information.

When the project started, cadastral information was only available in outdated Excel files (national level) and insufficiently organized physical files (regional level). To address this situation, the project applied a multilevel approach and supported its partners in the development and consolidation of two complementary digital cadaster systems. At regional level, since 2016 young indigenous professionals worked as project interns for 6-12 months in the systematization and digitalization of approx. 250 community files in both regions. This initiative also improved the technical skills and employability of these young professionals. At national level, MINAGRI launched two digital cadaster systems in 2018 which had been developed with project support. The Cadastral System for Rural Properties (SICAR) is a modern tool for online rural cadaster data updating which focuses on individual (usually non-indigenous) rural properties. Its main innovations are the interoperability with diverse governmental information systems (e.g. on natural protected areas, production forests, mining and oil concessions) and a public viewer to visualize individual rural properties, indigenous communities, concessions etc. The SICAR consolidates the information registered by the 25 regional governments of Peru and is accessible to public users. The transparency it creates helps to prevent land conflicts with indigenous communities. The second system called SIC-Comunidades (Cadastral System for Communities) for the first time provides information on peasant and native communities of the Andes and the Amazon, respectively. It is an innovative web application (also with a map viewer) which allows to follow and monitor the - often lengthy - legal recognition and collective titling procedures. To protect indigenous rights, it can currently only be accessed by registered users, mainly the regional governments but also the indigenous umbrella organization. The work done by the indigenous interns since 2016 prepared the ground for consultancies to upload cadastral information on all (San Martín) or a large part (Ucayali) of native communities into the SIC-Comunidades, an important contribution to enhance their tenure security.

Resources

Here on Landportal, the GPRLP shares its knowledge products, which come directly from the projects in the countries. These include good practices, impact stories, as well as manuals and guidebooks on topics like tenure security, dispute resolution and implementation strategies. You can find all our resources from Peru down below!

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Context

The livelihoods of large parts of the world’s population depend directly on access to land. If access is denied, the results are often hunger and underdevelopment. According to UN World Food Programme estimates, half of the 815 million people suffering from hunger in 2017 were members of smallholder families. Many landowners and land users possess only informal or traditional land rights, which are often not sufficiently recognised.

Alongside its economic value, land is accorded high traditional, religious and social value in almost all cultures. However, large-scale investments are placing growing pressure on land as a resource. In the absence of protective measures and transparency, as well as inadequate conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms, such investments often lead to conflict, forced expropriation and displacement. Thus, the pressure on land continues to intensify as it becomes increasingly scarce. 

Many countries have committed themselves to good land governance and have signed up to the United Nations’ Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. Yet, they still face considerable challenges in upholding these commitments. The rural population, especially women and socially marginalised groups, often lack reliable access to land.

Approach

In cooperation with policymakers in the partner countries, the project team is working to improve the framework conditions for good land governance. Together with its partners, the project aims to introduce transparent procedures and mechanisms in land administration, thereby improving the population’s situation with respect to land rights. The project focuses on three areas of action:

1. Securing land rights for the rural population through improved procedures
In Peru, the main emphasis is on land titles for the areas of indigenous communities, while in Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Laos and Uganda it is on strengthening individual and collective land and usage rights. Here, the legal security is improved through property titles and long-term leases. The project closely collaborates with related projects who use secure land rights as basis for further activity such as soil conservation and forest rehabilitation.

2. Promoting the participation of civil society in responsible land policy
The project team supports civil society groups that participate in the implementation of new procedures for securing land rights. Civil society actors take on an important role in monitoring conflicts and shaping dialogue processes, and act as service providers.

3. Improving the framework conditions for responsible private agricultural investment
Through a series of awareness-raising and dialogue activities, the project team supports the responsible design of agricultural investments that consider the rights and needs of the local population. In Ethiopia, Uganda and Laos, this field of action is supported and deepened through European Union cofinancing (Responsible Governance of Investment in Land, RGIL). 

The ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests’ and the ‘Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment’ of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) guide the project’s actions. The activities in the target regions in Madagascar are being implemented by the ECO-GOPA-Land Resources working group.

Results

• The global project has already been able to strengthen the land rights of over 155,000 small farming households. Of these, more than 60,000 households have registered their land rights in the name of the woman or together as a couple. 
• The project has helped to resolve nearly 4,100 land conflicts. 
• More than 75 agricultural investors follow international guidelines and thus contribute to sustainable development.