The following events, announced by the Land Policy Initiative office for the months of September and October 2013, are worth noting by stakeholders to the continental land policy process. The events are expected to influence future processes of the initiative. Those keen on detailed information can get in touch through the details below the announcement.

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1)        1-2 October: Parallel Meetings for a) Development Partners; and b) Stakeholders/ implementing partners scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first LPI development partners meeting seeks to implement an LPI steering committee decision to bring together bilateral and multi-lateral donors as well as UN agencies supporting land policy in Africa, who are currently engaging with the LPI. The Stakeholders/implementing partners meeting on the other hand will bring together representatives of major stakeholder category groups who themselves are involved in advancing policy development and implementation in Africa and/or have expressed interest to work with the LPI in advancing the implementation of the AU Declaration on land.

It is envisaged that these meetings will help to identify areas of mutual interest and cooperation in order to enhance synergies and collective impact in land related interventions in Africa. The meetings will further explore modalities for- and nature of such cooperation as well as mechanisms to track progress in implementing these partnerships.

2)        2-3 October: A joint validation workshop for the report on mainstreaming land Policy and Governance in the CAADP national agriculture and food security investment plans (NAFSIPS); and the report on land governance in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). This event will take place in Addis Ababa and will be organised jointly by the LPI and the Capacity Development Division of the ECA which has led in preparing the land-APRM report. It will not only aim to review and validate these reports but provide inputs to frameworks for tracking progress in the implementation of land governance commitments in the context of the APRM and CAADP. The meeting will further outline actions needed to promote advocacy and build capacity for regional and country level interventions in Africa

3)        8-9 October: A validation workshop for the draft Capacity Development Framework on Land Policy in Africa which is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa. This event will be co-organised with UN-Habitat and is part of activities to develop a strategy and enhance capacity in land policy development, implementation and monitoring. The workshop will review and validate the background content and framework, providing inputs to its finalization. In addition, the workshop will develop a roadmap of capacity development and training activities that will advance capacity development in the area of land policy for implementation by the LPI and/or its partners and stakeholders

4)        10-11 October: A validation workshop for the LPI study report on assessing large scale land based investments in Africa (LSLBI) scheduled to be held jointly by the Pan African Parliament and held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The study has been conducted in response to the call by member states and other stakeholders under the Nairobi Action Plan on LSLBI. The workshop will review and validate the findings of the study and help to develop a skeleton framework for developing principles on LSLBI for review and adoption by AU member states as per the Nairobi Action Plan. The workshop will further identify the key actions in the realms of advocacy, capacity development and monitoring and evaluation in order to support efforts to enhance the governance of land based investments to increase economic and social benefits while reducing unintended consequences on the rights and livelihoods of local communities.

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Joan C. Kagwanja
Chief, Land Policy Initiative
Regional Integration and Trade Division
UN Economic Commission for Africa
P.O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251 (0)11 544-3789
Cel: +251 (0)927 346-554
Fax: +251 (0)11 551-4416/(0) 11 551 0350
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.uneca.org/lpi