Africa-Press – Liberia. The Multi-Actor Platform for Land Governance in Liberia (MAP) has announced a major land conference to find a solution to the struggles community dwellers still encounter in owning land.
The conference, the first of its kind in years, comes as the Liberia Land Authority is plagued by a range of problems, which include practical, legal, institutional, and procedural problems in the implementation of the 2018 Land Rights Act.
Also, the LLA is finding it difficult to implement inclusive land tenure rights, for women and youth as mandated by the Land Rights Act due to deeply rooted traditional and customary practices, as well as all actors in the land sector.
“Within the context of widespread food and land tenure insecurity inherited from the past, the historical passing of the Land Rights Act (LRA) and the initial progress are only the first steps of a long and complex process at hand,” said Haje Paasewe, Communication and Reporting Officer of the MAP.
But through the MAP conference, the LLA and its partners are expected to deliberate for three days in finding a solution to the problem facing the government lead agency for land matters. The conference will take stock of the successes achieved so far in the implementation of the law, analyze and highlight challenges, identify opportunity cities and generate recommendations and commitments for the way forward.
“As we all know now, Liberia celebrated the signing into law a new Land Rights Act (LRA) in October 2018. Following enactment of the law in 2018, the LLA has been working together with Civil Society Organizations and partners in initiating some good steps towards implementation of the law,” Paasewe added.
He noted, “Among the early achievements are the development of an Implementation strategy and standardized messages for disseminating the Act, drafting regulations and guidelines, the undertaking of pilots of community land formalization schemes, however, there remain lots of challenges that they intend to solve through this conference.”
The MAP conference will bring together 165 participants from the 15 counties. Under the theme: ‘Celebrating 3 years of the Land Rights Act’ the conference is organized around eight major themes including mapping of activities of land actors, regulations, policies and procedures, and customary land rights formalization.
It will focus on the promotion and protection of Women’s and youth land rights, monitoring of progress in land governance, decentralization of land services, and linkage of tenure security to responsible agricultural investment and food security Land sector coordination.
MAP comprises the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and other key government agencies, Civil Society Organization (CSOs, the private sector, academia and research institutions, international development partners and local communities, and the MAP Liberia Land Platform Secretariat, headed by Rights and Rice Foundation (RRF).
The MAP conference is being organized by LLA, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the College of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Libera, and the Secretariat of the MAP Liberia Land Platform.
Government and Donors supporting the conference include the Government of Liberia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Land Coalition (ILC), the World Bank, the United Nations System, the German Government through Welthungerhilfe (WHH), the European Union, ECOWAS, United States Agency for International Development, and the Swedish International Development Agency.
Other international organic Paris-based provide technical support including the Washington based Rights and Resources International, the Paris based Institute for International Development (IISD), among others. Most of these donors will be supporting the conference through their implementing programs run by international and local NGOs.
The donors and their international and national partners have already pledged financial, material, and technical resources to the tune of 60% of the proposed $160,000 budget of the conference.
Government and Donors supporting the conference include the Government of Liberia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Land Coalition (ILC), the World Bank, the United Nations System, the German Government through Welthungerhilfe (WHH), the European Union, ECOWAS, United States Agency for International Development, and the Swedish International Development Agency.
Madam P. Bloh Sayeh, Vice President and Commissioner for Administration and Services, LLA admitted that despite the passage of the LRA, Liberians continue to face land issues. “The land Rights Act was passed on behalf of our people. The land is the economic basis of life,” she added.
For More News And Analysis About Liberia Follow Africa-Press
