Changing needs for professionals skills

Asked what extra skills they require to perform their tasks better, land policy makers, implementers and practitioners around Africa returned interesting results. The long list included communication, conflict resolution, change management and implications of climate change to land management. Others listed land policy, land information management, women land rights and also strategic management. Customary land rights, sustainable urban and peri-urban management also appeared to be of great concern. The prompting study, commissioned by the African Land Policy Centre(ALPC), previously the Continental Land Policy Initiative(LPI), covered all the five regions of Africa South to North, East to West and Central Africa.

It should be curious that the respondents never mentioned the need for extra skills in numerics, surveying, valuation, law and science. Here was a case where the consumer industry was implying that the graduates from Universities and other training institutions weren’t fully impacting today’s needs despite their rigorous training. Jolted by the results, the African Land Policy Centre, which is charged with coordinating the implementation of the 2009 African Union Declaration on Land Issues, sought to seek suitable solutions.

Needs in colonial Africa

Before looking at the ALPC interventions, let’s get to terms with basic realities. When colonial regimes set up in Africa in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, their priority focus was territorial conquest and protection. A priority concern was therefore the definition of political and administrative boundaries. Soon after, this moved to appropriation of land for food production and exploitation of natural resources. One can therefore appreciate that the regimes were most interested in technical studies that helped to respond to these needs. This called for competencies in measuring land, defining its location and size, and giving its approximate value in order to guide distribution. Basic law to guide appropriation for state and individual holdings was needed too. Urban planning wasn’t much of an issue then since Africa was sparsely populated and not urbanized. Early regimes therefore placed emphasis in promoting training in surveying, land economics and law, with different names going for near similar courses in Anglo and Francophone Africa.

These were the courses that most African pioneer scholars who went to Europe just before and soon after independence embraced. These were also the courses prioritized in most African University Faculties established to offer studies on land in the last century. That was in keeping with the character of civilizations. Knowledge is meant to serve society, and is always useful and relevant when it does so.

Africa's contemporary needs

But over half a century later, Africa’s needs have shifted. Unlike before, more emphasis has now been placed on the need to understand and manage community land. The historical and political contexts underlying country-level land administration systems are helpful. Citizens are more rights conscious hence issues on equity have become vogue. There is concern that global phenomena such as climate change call for greater attention to land use. Major and minor land and boundary disputes are a constant concern at local level. And, with time, cities are bedeviled by rapid population growth, calling for better management of space and resources in urban and peri-urban areas. Technology has made it possible to capture, store and disseminate large volumes of land information. These developments call for a very good understanding of holistic land policies and better management skills of land professionals. These contemporary challenges call for a very fundamental re-examination, review and where necessary, the establishment of totally new curriculum in training institutions.

Efforts by African Land Policy Centre (ALPC)

So what has the African Land Policy Centre done to help African Union member states to mitigate the above knowledge gap? Within the last two years, the Centre has coordinated the development of a framework that maps out current consumer needs against the courses currently offered by various African Universities and other institutions of higher learning that offer land governance courses. The results from this mapping have been used to develop some framework that will help Universities and institutions of higher learning to examine what they currently offer against what the industry requires. This resultant framework entitled “Guidelines for the Development of Curricula on Land Governance in Africa” is an extremely helpful tool to curricula developers and lecturers in Africa. It is anticipated that the curricula to be developed around the continent will help to turn out graduates better equipped to confront today’s concerns.

To empower those already serving industry, the Land Policy Centre commissioned a study that helped to identify suitable short courses to be offered through regional and national platforms. A generic curricula informed by the study is under development. This will be used to equip top managers in government, land commissions and the judiciary. It’s also expected to empower researchers, members of parliament, traditional leaders, civil society organisations, practitioners and other land sector decision-makers.

It behooves governments and managers of Universities in Africa to acquaint themselves with the above developments, harness and customize the products accordingly. Here in Kenya, the government and the Commission for Higher Education will need to prompt local Universities to move with speed and align their curricula to Kenya’s current needs.