Rwanda Initiative for
Sustainable Development

Annually, ILC Africa Regional Node holds a Regional General Meeting to review progress made and to develop an action plan and budget for the following year. Hence, a broad action plan and tentative budget for 2011 was developed and agreed by members.

This year, the General Meeting was held from 15-17 November 2010, in Lome (Togo), hosted by LandNet West Africa under the theme “Bringing land tenure issues in the development agenda: the role of civil society“.

The meeting was officially opened by the Togo Minister of Agriculture, His Excellency Kossi Messan Ewovor who put emphasis on the need to secure land rights of farmers, including women, noting that 70% of jobs in Africa are agricultural based. The Minister called for a stronger role of civil society in the implementation of the Africa Land Policy Framework and Guidelines (ALPFG). In support of the ALPFG process, ILC members in Africa have put in place a framework, which include Scorecard process, and Awareness leading to the domestication of ALPFG. The third day of the meeting was specifically dedicated to the input of the discussions on the Scorecard implementation strategies. The meeting also decided to strengthen each Sub-Region with a communication officer in order to enhance communication among members and between members, the African Node and the ILC secretariat. Hence, the current focal points for the four sub-regions are: Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (East Africa), MBOSCUDA from Cameroon (Central Africa), Land Net Malawi (South Africa), and Land Net West Africa (West Africa). Members also strongly recommended that a permanent hosting arrangement for the Regional Node, which has been hosted by RISD on interim basis for most of 2010, must be put in place effective from January 2011. To improve the understanding of ILC work in Africa, and to encourage new members who may be interested to join, non-ILC members, especially from West Africa, were invited to participate in the meeting. This initiative was appreciated by members.