Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

There are multiple tenure arrangements operating in South Africa , with varying degrees of security, but most of them are not recognized, supported and valued, resulting in gaps between law and practice. This carries the risk of sidelining certain people, households and communities from development opportunities. Coupled with the recognition granted to title, especially individual title, this phenomenon reproduces the dual economy and perpetuates inequity. Linked to this central problem is the fact that: South Africans do not all experience the impacts of the failure to recognise, support and value the multiple tenure systems operating in South Africa in the same way - tenure insecurity in urban and rural contexts intersects with poverty, gender and HIV and Aids in complex ways that appear to exacerbate vulnerability. This is inadequately understood and therefore policy interventions often fail to mitigate vulnerability and instead contribute to it.

The project proposes the setting up of an action-research partnership between: the LEAP PROJECT - A learning approach to increasing the tenure security of poor and vulnerable people in order to enhance their livelihoods and access to services and local economic development and ZIBAMBELENI RURAL RESOURCE AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT.

The partnership is intended to reflect on and practically improve the tenure situation of members of the 15 land reform projects in Muden so that there is a more suitable and sustainable base for improved economic use of land and access to state services that enhance poor people's livelihood strategies.

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

Overall objective:

LEAP's overall goal is to enhance its understanding of current tenure realities in order to develop and advocate for more appropriate approaches to securing tenure, which it defines as ones that:

•  Recognize the reality of multiple tenure arrangements.
•  Identify the relationships between them, including the tensions and incongruities.
•  Find solutions to integratio.
•  Increase tenure security for poor and vulnerable individuals and groups in order to:

•  enhance livelihood strategies;
•  enable improved delivery and maintenance of services;
•  enable improved equitable access to economic opportunities

Specific objectives/Milestones of the project:  

•  To support land reform "beneficiaries" to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their current practices and systems for administering tenure.
•  to build the capacity of "beneficiaries" to develop proposals for adapting the current tenure arrangements.
•  to create opportunities for land reform "beneficiaries" to lobby and advocate for adaptations to their tenure arrangements.
•  to share learning around concepts and methods for working with poor people on communal tenure issues.
•  to contribute to debates on what a pro-poor land management system should look like in South Africa.
•  The project is managed efficiently and accountably.

Expected outcomes:  

The outcomes of the partnership work at community level will be:

"Beneficiaries" from five farms will understand what their actual tenure practices are (including how these work for women and households affected by HIV/Aids), how these differ from their legal tenure situation, and what this gap and the legal tenure form means for state housing and private sector investment in agriculture.

•  These "beneficiaries" will have discussed amongst themselves and with the traditional authority and agreed to adaptations, if necessary, to their tenure arrangements and the costs and benefits of these adaptations in terms of livelihood strategies and needs for housing and agriculture.
•  The "beneficiaries" will also have discussed and debated the differential impacts of the current tenure arrangements and any adaptations on women and households directly affected by HIV and Aids.
•  The "beneficiaries" will have participated in workshops with stakeholders to discuss tenure related obstacles to meeting their development needs and put forward proposals for addressing these.
•  At least some "beneficiaries" from each of the remaining land reform farms will have had an opportunity to participate in discussions and analyses of the relationship between tenure and development.

The outcomes of the partnership work at civil society level will be a contribution to:

South African and international land NGOs, research organisations and Leap have a better understanding of the practices and systems that poor rural people develop to secure their tenure and build their livelihoods in the context of state policies providing for group ownership;

•  Participatory action-research methods and concepts for working with poor people to improve their tenure are tested and developed into materials for general use by practitioners;
•  Leap and its partners have advocated for changes to laws, policies and implementation systems that are more suitable to pro poor land management systems in South Africa and the developing world.  

The outcomes for work with the government stakeholders will be:

•  Government has a sound understanding of how its various laws and policies intersect with poor people's systems for managing tenure, livelihoods and economic opportunities and how these block or enable state and private sector investment in land reform projects;
•  Government departments have participated in processes to develop proposals for improving this intersection in order to support tenure security, livelihoods and economic development that is grounded in the realities of poor people's lives.  

Other general outcomes will be:

•  The project partners (Leap and Zibambeleni) have actively contributed to Leap's annual learning events aimed at facilitating learning across groups, including experience from other developing countries, in order to situate South African problems correctly;
•  Consensus building between potential private, government and community partners in development.
•  Working closely with government planning departments to develop and institutionalise a new approach based on poor people's needs.
•  Developing a district level plan that defines the "rules of the game" in ways that all participants are able actively to engage and make use of opportunities.
•  Leap and Zibambeleni have written up their work as case studies and shared these widely.
•  The project has contributed to a book produced by Leap, which documents all findings and learnings about securing tenure to improve the livelihoods of the urban and rural poor.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

The research process and team members will be co-managed by the LEAP contact person and the Zimbabeleni coordinator. 

Activities:

•  Preparatory Leap/Zibambeleni meeting to share information, design processes, refine plans.

Introduction of project and team members to communities.
Land use and needs assessment workshops with each community.
Focus group discussions.
Household interviews.
Workshops for analysis with each community.
Full workshop with all to reflect on systems and practices.

•  Collection and analysis of documentation - trusts, laws, policies.
Workshops to consider legal versus de facto tenure arrangements.
3 Full workshops to analyse implications of tenure form and legal/practice gap on community development needs.
Establish and regularly meet community working group to develop concrete proposals for adaptations, including seeking legal advice on proposals.
Full workshop to present and discuss working group proposals.

•  Conducting stakeholder analysis with communities to identify key stakeholders and impact points.

To develop an advocacy strategy and plan;
To held four stakeholder workshops to obtain support on analysis and proposals (municipality, provincial govt, Dept of Land Affairs and Agriculture, Dept of Trade and Industry, Dept of Housing);
Implementing other advocacy plans (eg. Media; submissions to portfolio committees; meetings with Members of Parliament and potential business partners)

The identification of district level economic development plans, including IDPs, spatial development frameworks and any plans the Department of Land Affairs may have developed for the district;

•  The technical identification of potential productive land uses in the Umvoti district;
•  The assessment of markets and niches (eg. Nguni skin products) that build on rural people's existing agricultural skills;
•  Workshopping and mapping with rural people on the land reform farms options for using land in ways that develop their livelihoods beyond subsistence;
•  Approaching the private sector (including credit institutions, agri-businesses, commercial farmers in the area) and government departments (including Dept of Economic Affairs and Agriculture) to assess what they would require from such a plan in order to invest;
•  Consulting legal services to determine how to formalise business and tenure arrangements that meet the needs of the rural poor;
•  Drafting a plan with spatial components that reflects the consensus between these stakeholders;
•  Presenting the plan to the Umvoti Municipality for incorporation into their IDP and spatial development framework.

PROJECT'S MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING

Leap is, by definition, a learning and disseminating project. Its methods include: team discussion and, if necessary, analysis of every step in the project, and every action is evaluated in terms of how well it achieved its intended objectives. Its work intersects academic research with field interventions designed to have an impact. We expect to find lessons at three levels: policy, implementation and methods of work.

In terms of policy , we expect to identify and describe policy constraints in relation to what is needed to resolve poverty-related problems at community level and potential solutions to these. The lessons will be in terms of the constraints and the analysis of why and how policy is constrained in these ways.

In terms of implementation , we expect to find policy, procedural and method lessons in the testing of solutions (where testing is possible). We also expect to find considerable information on how people at local level work around and adapt to the implementation of government frameworks. These gaps between law and practice are rich with lessons on the limits of law and the kinds of social processes that are likely to continue regardless of law.

Leap's work has historically generated rich lessons around how to work in the field. This includes the identification of field facilitation designs, methods and techniques for undertaking field work and analysing the emerging results. This mix of concept tested in field and field realities checked against concepts is challenging but does generate new insights into what works and doesn't work at community level.

In terms of dissemination , Leap works at multiple audiences through both written and verbal mediums. Materials are developed for target groups and are made accessible to that group through layout and design, language and availability. The website holds information for practitioners, who also have access to pamphlets, posters and short research reports distributed through partner organisations and at workshops or conferences. Leap also participates in national and international conferences and workshops at which formal presentations of our work are given. Research is written up for publication and made available to academic and NGO researchers.

Verbal engagement is an equally important vehicle for dissemination. Leap argues that active engagement and dialogue with stakeholders facilitates learning for both parties. Engagement and dialogue take place within the team, within the partnerships (between Leap and the local NGO, in this Zibambeleni), within the Leap structure (that is, between the different projects Leap is undertaking with a range of partners) and during the work of any one project in terms of engagement with stakeholders, particularly government departments.

The planned Leap learning events will bring together a combination of materials and verbal engagement. These annual events, which will be neither conferences nor workshops but designed as processes for participants to learn across different conceptual and geographical contexts, will draw together Leap core team members, project partner members and other national (and sometimes international) academic, NGO and government organisations with work to present.

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

The Project area is n the Muden region of KwaZulu-Natal , the target groups will be:

1. At community level:

The primary stakeholders at community level are the so-called "beneficiaries" of the land reform projects. However, because more than 15 farms have been transferred in Muden to thousands of beneficiaries, Zibambeleni and Leap have agreed to work intensively only with five farms, which Zibambeleni has selected for diversity of issues and needs. The remaining farms will be included on a representative basis in workshops from time to time in order to build a general knowledge base in those communities. In addition, a farmer's co-operative that services all the land reform projects will also participate as a primary stakeholder. The Muden area generally is under the jurisdiction of the Mchunu Traditional Authority, which plays an active although extra-legal role in administering land in the area, including on some of the land reform projects. It will be important that the inkosi (chief) and izinduna (headmen) are also involved.

At civil society level:

The primary stakeholders at civil society level are Zibambeleni and Leap. However, Leap's involvement is for a broader purpose, namely to support other land NGOs and CBOs working with poor rural and urban communities whose tenure is insecure or doesn't support improved livelihoods. This includes internationally based NGOs and research and advocacy organisations.

At government level:

Primary government stakeholders are at three spheres of government in this partnership. Local government will need to be involved because it has a co-ordinating responsibility for local development and service delivery within its municipal boundaries. The impact of tenure policy on the capacity of local government to deliver its mandate is an area that is beginning to be researched and which local government clearly needs to understand better. This project will also need to include the Departments of Housing and Agriculture, which are both at provincial level of government. For Housing, this project offers an opportunity to test and further develop its rural housing policy, which clearly doesn't yet accommodate land reform beneficiaries. Finally, the third primary stakeholders are the Departments of Land Affairs and Trade and Industry located at national level. DLA is legally responsible for tenure policy and will thus need to hear the project's recommendations while the DTI offers many opportunities for supporting commercial agricultural development.

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CONCLUSION

Finally, it is Leap's intention to write up work from the various partnerships it has worked with into a book for international distribution. The intention of this work will be to compare contexts across rural and urban environments under a variety of local and legal tenure arrangements to extract the lessons for development and improved livelihoods.

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