Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa

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Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa

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The Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) is a partnership of leading African universities and research institutions with proven leadership in education, training and research on land governance. Currently NELGA has more than 50 partner institutions across Africa. The African Land Policy Centre (ALPC), formerly African Land Policy Initiative (LPI), has established NELGA in cooperation with Germany, the World Bank and other partners , to strengthen human and institutional capacities for the implementation of the African Union's agenda on land.

Background

Weak land governance and insecure land rights are still major development challenges for Africa. ALPC has been mandated to spearhead the implementation of the AU Agenda on Land that aims at improving land policy in a regional context. Although a growing number of countries show political will to realize these initiatives, their implementation at country level remains at an early stage. Many countries lack the human and institutional capacity required to implement sustainable land policies. In order to overcome those challenges, NELGA focuses on improvement of quality of academic programmes at African universities and institutions of higher learning.

NELGA's vision

Through excellent training and research NELGA creates strong capacity for good land governance and contributes to implementing the AU agenda on land.

Objectives of NELGA

• Enhancing training opportunities and curricula on land governance in Africa;
• Promoting demand driven research on land policy issues;
• Connecting scholars and researchers across Africa through academic networks;
• Creating data and information for monitoring and evaluation of land policy reforms.

Key functions of NELGA

1. Improve land-related curricula in graduate and post-graduate training courses in quantity and quality;
2. Provide and facilitate academic education and training for African land professionals and practitioners;
3. Define an agenda for research and conduct applied research on land related issues pertinent to the AU agenda on land;
4. Develop a repository for data, indicators and information, in close cooperation with ALPC, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and governments;
5. Promote knowledge management, dissemination and networking in support of land policy and governance in Africa by enhancing the community of practice for land policy experts;
6. Design appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems, and implement pilots to facilitate tracking of land related initiatives.

NELGA in the African regions

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NELGA node map

NELGA nodes and partner institutions

For better coordination of NELGA in the different regions, a lead university has been selected for each AU region (so-called “regional nodes”) to implement and coordinate NELGA activities jointly with other NELGA institutions.

To date, the following regional nodes have been selected:

1. Ardhi University in Tanzania for East Africa;
2. Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan II in Morocco for North Africa;
3. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana for West Africa;
4. University of Science and Technology for Southern Africa (NUST) for Southern Africa ;
5. University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon for Central Africa.

NELGA Scholarship

The NELGA scholarship program is coordinated by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and aims to support Master and PhD studies as well as short-term trainings for young candidates, mid-career professionals and researchers. An exchange of African and European professors accompanies the scholarship program.

The scholarship programme consists of 4 components:

• scholarships for Master and PhD programmes
• short-term research grants
• staff mobility
• accompanying measures

The scholarships for Master and PhD programmes aim to strengthen human and institutional capacities for land governance. Hence, recipients are selected based on affiliation with institutions crucial to land policy development and implementation in Africa. Application is open for nationals or permanent residents of an African country. To date, over 40 scholarships were awarded at five universities in a variety of Master and PhD programmes:

Table 1: Courses available for the NELGA Scholarship

University	Course
Bahir Dar University	Land Policy and Governance (PhD)
Ardhi University	MSc/PhD Land Management MSc Urban Planning and Management MSc Real Estate PhD Land Administration
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology	MPhil/PhD Planning MPhil/PhD Development Studies
Namibia University of Science and Technology	MSc/PhD Spatial Science
University of the Western Cape - PLAAS	MSc/PhD Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies

In addition to the support to graduate courses DAAD also offers a NELGA accompanying measures programme. Together with the scholarships for Master and PhD programmes at selected NELGA universities, these accompanying measures are especially designed to support NELGA member institutions for specific measures that cannot be funded through the regular scholarship programme.

Three funding possibilities are available under the accompanying measures programme:

• short-term research grants;
• staff mobility and staff exchange;
• as well as funding for (training) events, workshops, meetings and other similar events.

NELGA research

The World Bank Development Research Group leads NELGA’s accompanying research component. It aims at promoting demand-driven research on land governance and strengthening monitoring and evaluation of land policy processes in Africa. NELGA research activities create a link between applied research on land governance and policy processes and generate evidence based knowledge on land governance to inform policy makers.

To date the World Bank and NELGA partner institutions have successfully implemented the following projects:

• Impact evaluation of an innovative land related project in Uganda to inform subsequent roll-out;
• Development and test of new methodology and technologies (e.g. satellite imagery) for analysing land issues;
• Implementation of Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) in eleven countries (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia and Mozambique) and kick start of follow up activities;
• Development of a PhD course on land economics in the University of Cape Town (UCT);
• Co-organising national, regional and international events in land governance (workshops, conferences, multi-stakeholder dialogues, etc.).

References

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