Opening Statement
By Josué Dioné,
Director Sustainable Development Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

22 - 24 April 2003
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Chairperson,
Distinguished Experts,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Executive Secretary of ECA, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this Expert Group Meeting on Population, Agriculture and Environment. We deeply appreciate that you kindly accepted to allocate some of your invaluable time to come here and share with us your expertise and experience on one of the most burning issues of Africa's quest for food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development - land tenure.

Indeed, the arithmetic of poverty conveys a clear message. First, with some 40 percent of the people living on less than $1 a day, Africa is the poorest region of the world. Second, poverty in Africa is predominantly located in rural areas where more than two-thirds of the total population and 70 percent of the poor of the continent live. Third, the livelihoods of the African poor, both in rural and urban areas, depend primarily on agriculture, as at least two-thirds of the total labor force engage directly or indirectly in agriculture-related enterprises. Moreover, urban poverty and rural poverty are inter-linked, because the former feeds on the latter through rural-urban migration. Hence, for the majority of poor African households, improving the productivity of the domestic food and agricultural systems (production, processing and marketing) is key to enhancing well being and upgrading out of poverty.

The challenge of triggering a Green Revolution and getting agriculture moving for food security and poverty reduction in Africa is also clear in what I would call the "TIP challenge" for sustainable development: Technology, Infrastructure and Institutions, and Policies. And land, my friends, is at the crossroads of this TIP. Land is literally the main foundation for agricultural production and, therefore, for food security, employment and income generation in rural economies. It can be easily used as an asset for social and regional integration or disintegration, as can be illustrated by many examples across Africa. Consequently, access to, and security of, land rights are prime concerns for policies and strategies aiming at reducing food insecurity and poverty.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Rapid population growth, widespread poverty, persistent food insecurity, and alarming rate of environmental degradation have fueled an increasing debate on land tenure systems and land reforms in Africa. Some experts and international donors have attributed the inter-related problems of rural poverty, poor agricultural performance and low levels of economic growth to the persistence of farming systems based on customary tenure. Besides, economic analysis supports the view that the contribution of land to economic growth depends upon the security of property rights, which provides incentive for investment in agriculture and natural resources, and thereby contributes to increasing agricultural productivity and improving natural-resource stewardship. This view has inspired a variety of land reforms with a general trend toward market-oriented access to, and privatization of, land trough private entitlement, on the premise that individualized tenure offers the best certainty in land rights, facilitates access to credit, and fosters the emergence of land markets. Yet, other voices are being heard, challenging such a single-solution approach on the basis that social relations within and between local communities in rural Africa have traditionally been able to provide secure land rights.

At this juncture, there seems to be no strong consensus on the type of tenure that would yield greater security and efficiency in terms of agricultural productivity or natural resource management. The factors at play are so numerous and variable that it is difficult to ascertain that either individual or collective rights do guarantee better land management practices and/or higher agricultural productivity. For instance, some analysts have argued that the hypothesized greater efficiency attributed to individual titling of land may be a mere illusion if other crucial goods such as rural infrastructure, efficient technology and market information systems, and access to affordable credit are not in place.

Dear Experts,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the midst of these unresolved controversies, many African countries have embarked on state-led land tenure reform programs aimed at providing equity, reducing poverty, fostering economic growth and improving the management of land resources. However, most of these reforms have yet to bring about the expected results, most likely because of flaws in either their conception or their implementation.

The current worldwide attention on the land-reform process in Zimbabwe underscores the urgent need to address land reform implementation in Africa. While some may qualify the situation in Zimbabwe as an extreme case, experience in other African countries suggests that little success has been achieved so far on the land reform agenda. We definitely need to take stock of experiences and draw lessons from land tenure reform strategies and processes within and outside Africa to help us lay the way forward to further efforts.

It is in this regard that we, at the ECA, have undertaken a special effort to better understand the linkages between land tenure, food security and natural resource management. In doing so, we strive to learn from experiences on the ground with a view to assisting policymakers of our member states in formulating and implementing land reform policies that are relevant and appropriate to the African social and cultural contexts.

Distinguished Experts,

In line with the goal I just mentioned, the main objectives of this meeting are: (1) to submit to your peer review the report of a study on `Land, Food Security and Sustainable Development in Africa"; (2) to identify and discuss key land tenure issues in Africa as they relate to food security and natural resources management; (3) to make suggestions on land reform implementation issues that need to be further investigated and brought to the attention of policymakers; and (4) to provide guidance on the way forward and the role of ECA.

Given the range and the depth of your expertise, I am confident that these objectives will be fully met at the end of this meeting. We look forward to your recommendations and guidance for further work of the Sustainable Development Division of ECA to help address the thorny issues of land tenure and pave the way to sustainable development in Africa.

Let me conclude by expressing again our gratitude and appreciation for your support to the work of the ECA. I wish you very fruitful deliberations and I now declare open the Expert Group Meeting on Population, Agriculture and Environment.

Thank you.