Ministerial dialogue: focus on good land governance in Africa

Abstract

The Ministerial dialogue session was preceded by a keynote presentation made by Ms. Joan Kagwanja, Chief of LPI, which provided a background to the session. Ms. Kagwanja noted that, despite the difficult context created by the colonial legacy challenges, cultural practices, and poor governance, the recognition by African leadership of the importance of land to the development agenda was a crucial step towards a unified approach to addressing land governance issues. Ms. Kagwanja highlighted the importance of improving women’s land rights, in view of the African Union (AU) commitment to have 30 per cent of land owned by women documented, by 2025.