Addressing and mainstreaming land governance in the African peer review mechanism

Abstract

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a mutually agreed instrument established in 2003 by the African Union in the framework of the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The objective of the APRM is to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional and continental integration. The thematic intervention areas of the APRM are democracy and political governance; economic governance; cooperate governance, and; socioeconomic governance. The main objective of this paper is to identify the common problems on land facing APRM countries and to provide analytical research with a view to suggest recommendations implementable at country level. The paper will facilitate the development of an APRM land governance review framework, which will be a tool to help APRM upcoming countries to assess their policies regarding land governance and monitoring of progress. The framework will contain set of land governance indicators which will be identified within the existing expertise of the Land Policy Initiative (LPI).