Twenty land practitioners and experts met in Nairobi on 30 and 31 October, a few days before the biennial GLTN Partners’ Meeting, for intensive consultations on the continuum of land rights. With the theme “Consolidating advances in understanding, theory, development and practical application of the continuum”, the meeting sought to share knowledge and understanding of the essential findings of five research and development projects on the continuum, develop new insight into the key conceptual, theoretical and practical implications of the various project findings and agree on and formulate clear recommendations on opportunities, challenges and the way forward.
The meeting discussed five projects:
1. Research into the continuum of land rights in practice in five southern African countries (and subsequent support to the Government of Namibia on implementation of the Flexible Land Tenure Act)
2. Development of a strategic framework for the operationalisation of the continuum of land rights at country level
3. Research into the theoretical underpinnings of the continuum of land rights
4. Drafting a framework for evaluating continuum of land rights scenarios
5. An overview of application of the continuum of land rights in the work of GLTN partners.
From the deliberations it was clear that the continuum of land rights approach, combined with appropriate land tools, offers a pathway to tenure security for everyone, including the poor and marginalised. The approach can be summarised as assisting relevant governments and stakeholders to recognise, record and administer a variety of appropriate and legitimate land tenure forms.
Follow up actions from the consultation will include a report on the deliberations including recommended next steps, with a focus on in-country application, which will be circulated for inputs by all GLTN Partners. Research into and dialogue on partner application of the continuum will be also intensified. In this regard all GLTN partner representatives who have not yet completed the survey on the continuum are encouraged do so and, even if they completed it, to also encourage other relevant individuals in their organisation to do so.
Contact persons:
- Jean du Plessis jean.duplessis@unhabitat.org
- John Ochola john.ochola@unhabitat.org
