"Support to the regional dialogue in East Africa: The Challenges of Land Net East Africa Network"

Local Organization: Uganda Land Alliance - ULA

Region: Uganda - East Africa

Content: ULA is the focal organization for Land Net East Africa, an organization established with representatives of Kenya , Uganda , Tanzania and Rwanda interested in land sector reform. It came into being to facilitate policy makers, researchers and civil-society representatives' discussion on rights, land tenure and land policy reforms in the sub-region. The network is directed by the following objectives among others:

• Facilitate sharing information, ideas and expertise between and among land policy practitioners in government, NGOs, Research Institutions in the East African Sub-region.

• Promote the development of guidelines for best practices for land policy development and administration in the sub-region.

• Promote development of human and institutional capacity for land policy development and administration within the sub-region.

• Promote, encourage and facilitate research into issues affecting administration, management and use of land and land-based natural resources and sharing of research findings across the sub-region.

• Facilitate collaboration and interaction between civil society and the government practitioners of land policy development to promote democratic and equitable land policies.

• Strengthen the Land Net East Africa. A workshop was organized in Kampala, Uganda.

Results: The workshop carried out a needs analysis of the Network requirements to move the process forward. The following were identified:

• improve the capacity of members of the alliances/nodes to fulfil the mandate of the network;

• better focus on collective visioning. Identify clear, defined activities and outputs;

• monitor and evaluate the land reform processes focussing on policy, legislative and institutional frameworks.

The Challenges of a network such as Land Net East Africa are, among others:

(a) Need of a common perspective;

(b) dealing with policies under different Ministries; unsupportive governments (as in the case of Kenya ); globalization.

The Land Net East Africa workplan was designed on two priority areas:

Developing the sub-regional networks, and developing partnerships.

Lessons learned: T he establishment of a network in the sub-region is negatively affected by communication difficulties and insufficient financing to cover operational costs. These practical problems could be overcome through external support. The network needs to prioritize and strategize processes.

The objectives sustaining this network are very relevant to the region. The capacity to present the African vision is considered by decision-makers to be fundamental in reducing the gap between top-down and bottom-up rural development strategies, one of the most common causes of failure in the development processes.