News on Land

A Quarter of the world’s 4.4 billion hectares (10.9 million acres) of cropland is degraded, often due to drying, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Just over a hectare and a half, or 4 acres, of that dried-out land have for years been located at Benedict-

pound) bags of produce from a 0.8-hectare (2-acre) plot, whether the rains are adequate or not.

The Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency (RVO), the Netherlands Embassy in Kampala (EKN), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) are pleased to announce their collaboration for a LAND-at-scale project in Uganda. In a virtual signing ceremony on September 9th, the partnership was made official.

Abdoulie Fye, Director of Programmes and Operations at The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) has urged communities to build peace among themselves, within their village and also among their neighboring communities.

Mr. Fye made these remarks at Pieara Tenda, Upper River Region during the conclusion of the peace building fund project.

As it was widely reported in the newspapers of August 12, 2021, the government in partnership with NMB Bank, has launched a five-year Plot Loan scheme to enable land owners in informal settlements to survey and get title to their land. This was in part a result of the realisation that land owners were finding it difficult to foot the cost of surveying, registering and obtaining title deeds. Hand in hand with the loan, the cost of surveying has been reduced from Sh150,000 to Sh130,000. The project is being piloted in Mbarali District before rolling out to other areas,

Nairobi. President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday declared the drought ravaging parts of the country a national disaster.

The declaration comes just a month after the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said an estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face acute food shortage and would be in urgent need of assistance in the coming six months.

This was a rise of more than 600,000 people from the 1.4 million Kenyans the government in April said faced hunger due to the drought and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has moved to court to challenge a section of the law that limits the period within which victims of historical land injustices can make compensation claims.

Mr Omtatah argues it is not practically possible that the National Land Commission (NLC) will have addressed the victims' grievances captured in reports such as Ndung’u, Akiwumi, Kiliku, Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the standard gauge railway (SRC) by May 2022 when the 10-year limit lapses.

The timelines began running from the commencement of the NLC Act on May 2, 2012.

Posting Title: Programme Management Officer, Human Settlements, P4 (Temporary Job Opening)
Job Code Title: Programme Management Officer, Human Settlements
Department/Office: United Nations Human Settlements Programme
Duty Station: KINSHASA
Posting Period: 17 August 2021 – 15 September 2021
Job Opening Number: 21-Human Settlements-UN-HABITAT-162034-J-Kinshasa (E)
Staffing Exercise: N/A

Landgrabs at  gunpoint escalate in Uganda as the operations of a defender of affected communities are suspended

On Friday, 20th August, Uganda's Non-Governmental Organization Bureau suspended 54 organizations for alleged 'non-compliance'. However for multinationals it was time to merry-make as their ‘nemesis’, Witness-Radio, has been cornered.   

Witness Radio - Uganda is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the provision of legal representation and support to poor and vulnerable victims of land grabs financed by development financing.   

USAID and Colombia’s Superintendence of Notary and Registry (SNR) continue recovering important land records by digitizing files and building the entity’s capacity to serve a healthy land market.

In 2016, when USAID tried to support the Colombian government with the digitization of rural land and property files, this initiative encountered resistance.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 5 – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has secured 29,035 acres of land as habitat for wildlife in Amboseli, in the south of Kenya.

The agreement signed by Daniel Leturesh the Chairman of the Olgulului Ololarashi Group Ranch (OOGR) and Azzedine Downes, President and CEO, IFAW, will see 3,598 landowners benefit from annual lease fees and eventually eco-tourism revenue once the land is legally registered as a wildlife conservancy.