BY ANDUALEM SISAY GESSESSE – Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire –
Without ensuring land rights for women, Africa cannot end hunger by 2025, said African Union Commission official.
“80% of the food we consume comes from women who don’t have access to land. So we cannot reach our own objective of ending hunger by 2025 because the key actor is being discriminated. This inequality gap needs to be sorted out,” said Sacko Josepha, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Economy at the African Union Commission.
She made the commit at the 2019 Conference on Land Policy in Africa opened in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire this morning.
“For us to win the fight against corruption we need to ensure that land is equitably distributed and accessed by all, more especially women, youths and other vulnerable groups,” the Commissioner said in her opening statement.
“It is important that land governance also responds to new challenges that our countries are facing such as climate change, natural disasters, environmental degradation and continuous demand for land for different land uses,” she said.
This year’s conference focuses on land related corruption under the theme of, winning the fight against corruption in the land sector: sustainable pathways for Africa’s transformation.
Stephen Karingi (PhD), Director of Private Sector Development and Finance at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, on his part indicated that the campaign by Africa Union to make at least 30% of African women own land in a short term time is making progress.
“…We have a very good campaign that is led by the African Union to ensure that as soon as possible we have at least 30% of all the land that is registered being owned by women. I think we are making progress towards that,” said.
He indicated that the UN Economic Commission for Africa has been advocating for good land policies.
“We actually have a centre that focused on the issue of gender, women empowerment, and land is one of the issues we deal with…You cannot be able to achieve any of the sustainable goals because all most all of them 100% of them are actually integrated with the land question,” said Stephen Karinge,
In the coming days, the conference is expected to place emphasis on the need for African governments to ensure that policies, processes and institutions by which land, property and natural resources are managed are transparent, accountable, effective, efficient, responsive to the demands of our nations and accessible to all men and women.
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