Overview
Over the past two decades, rapid changes in land use due to demographic factors, social and political insecurity, and the impact of climate change have made governance and natural resource management more difficult for many African countries, affecting their food security.
In Sierra Leone and Mauritania, insecure tenure and unequal access to land and other natural resources affects food security and social stability. Conflicts between different users' groups to access natural resources are leading to conflicts, hampering sustainable use of the environment, responsible investments and economic growth. Tenure-related conflicts are particularly evident in pastoral areas, but also in other areas with other than agricultural activities such of mining, tourism, urbanization, forestry.
In this context, it becomes imperative addressing structural power imbalances by increasing the awareness and agency of the disadvantaged groups to improve their situation, among others by contributing to the building of inclusive road maps for transformative change in local governance of tenure.
Objectives
The project aims at promoting more inclusive and gender responsive local land governance and accountability mechanisms, through the strengthening of local institutions, participatory multi-stakeholder processes and data generation.
The project supports the empowerment of the most vulnerable groups through awareness raising on their land rights, capacity development and promoting collective action. The project also supports the development of accountability mechanisms, through the definition of country targets as part of the national land reform process, testing and application of assessment tools, promoting a Human Rights based approach.
The project promotes a reflection on the uptake of the VGGT principles at national and local level, contributing to improved understanding of VGGT application, through a bottom-up approach.