The formulation of a comprehensive land policy that is expected to enhance access to land, land use, planning and management, productivity and sustainable utilisation, has been launched in Mutare.
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Retired Air Chief Marshal, Perrance Shiri who was represented by his Deputy, Douglas Karoro launched the process to come up with a comprehensive land policy this Friday.
Deputy minister Karoro said stakeholders have an important role to play in the formulation of the land policy.
“The National Land Policy should be homegrown. It will be grounded from contributions from all stakeholders. This, therefore, calls for full participation by all stakeholders. The presence of all of us here signifies the importance of the work at hand, I am confident that the Comprehensive National Land policy will be critical for the achievement of government’s vision 2030 following the outlines of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP),” he said.
Participants at the launch said they are expecting a gender-sensitive land policy.
“We want women and the youths to also be landowners so in the policy that aspect should be included,” said one participant.
“Issues of illegal settlers in timber plantations is one major challenge that we are facing so the land policy should be able to address the kind of penalties associated with illegally settling in a timber plantation,” said another participant.
The process will be guided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Voluntary Guidelines for responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) and will be aligned to the African Union (AU) Framework Agenda 2063 and guidelines on land policy in Africa.
