Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Zambia’s leading efforts in land policy reform have gathered steam with the support of many stakeholders, including the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Land Policy Initiative (LPI), a joint undertaking of the African Union Commission, African Development Bank and UNECA.
In this regard, Zambia will host a stakeholders meeting on 24 Jan. in Lusaka, in partnership with the stakeholders and others so as to reach a common understanding of the land policy reform process being led by the (Zambian) government.
It is expected that after the meeting, the LPI will facilitate the participation of land policy experts from Zambia and the region to support Zambia’s efforts to review its land policy, drawing lessons and best practices from other African countries which have experienced success in this regard, according to LPI’s Joan Kagwanja.
Kagwanja said in a statement on Friday that there will be multi-stakeholder consultations and engagement throughout the policy development process, in accordance with the African Union Framework and Guidelines on land policy in Africa, which promote the need for a shared vision for land policy development.
The meeting will also assess underlying land related challenges as well as clarify and consider views and roles of all stakeholders in the land sector and, in particular, indigenous institutions, the land using public and civil society organisations.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of the government, private sector, civil society, and research and academia as well as development partners.
The Zambian government has identified priority areas of reform or improvements, which include computerisation of land records as well as land information systems and land management.
Also, the government wishes to see a new land policy and land law developed and finalised soon to provide an appropriate framework for governing and managing land, especially customary land that constitutes almost 90 percent of Zambia’s land.
According to the LPI, increasing investments is quite important to Zambia and the land reform process will aim to help Zambia achieve this objective.
Photo: Comap
