LAND Quarterly Report No. 15 (Oct - Dec 2016)

Under Component 1, Improved legal and policy frameworks at national and local levels, the final draft amendment of Federal Proclamation No. 456/2005 was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) for review and approval. However, review and approval were delayed due to a change in senior management of the Ministry. In the meantime, the Property Rights Lawyer of LAND presented the proposed amendments to staff of USAID, the Agricultural Transformation Agency, and representatives of the donor group working on land. The Draft Afar Pastoral Communal Land Registration and Management Regulation and the Draft Afar Pastoral Communal Land Expropriation, Valuation and Compensation Guideline were reviewed by experts from different bureaus of the Afar National Regional State (NRS). The revised drafts will be subjected to consultations with stakeholders, including representatives of pastoralist communities. LAND continued its support to the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to develop its national land use policy. A team of national consultants produced a draft of sectoral issues that need to be incorporated in the national land use policy, and a national consultant produced a revised draft roadmap for preparing a guiding national land use plan to implement the policy. Under Component 2, Strengthened capacity in national, regional, and local land administration and use planning, MoANR's draft local level participatory land use planning manual was revised. LAND's technical and financial support to the Ethiopian Mapping Agency (EMA) was completed during the reporting quarter. Training in establishing, operating, and maintaining continuously operating reference stations (CORS) was delivered to 19 EMA and three Information Network Security Agency (INSA) staff. The four CORS of EMA were rehabilitated successfully and supplied with large capacity servers, power backups, and cables for uninterrupted operation of the CORS. Under Component 3, Strengthened capacity of Ethiopian universities to engage in policy analysis and research related to land tenure and train land administration and land use professionals, forty of the first group of 42 M.Sc. candidates supported by LAND at ILA/BDU successfully defended their theses. The second group of 40 candidates completed their coursework under difficult circumstances due to the recent civil unrest in Bahir Dar. They are now back in their respective regional offices with arrangements to develop their thesis proposals and start conducting field studies after securing approval from ILA/BDU. Under Component 4, Strengthened community land rights in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas to facilitate market linkages and economic growth, negotiations with both Oromia and Afar regional states over the size of communal pastoral landholdings to be certified resumed towards the end of the reporting quarter. Agreement was reached with the Oromia NRS officials that a compromise could be made by increasing the area of landholdings to comprise 3-5 kebeles. The Head of the Afar NRS Environmental Planning Land Administration and Use Agency (EPLAUA) informed LAND that their position could be flexible on land allocation for rangeland livestock production. Agreement was reached with the agency to begin piloting LAND's activities in a few selected kebeles in Chifra woreda that have large grazing areas. The five grantees under LAND's research grant scheme have completed their field work and analysis. Three of them have submitted their technical and financial reports, while two are still pending and expected to do so in the next quarter. ETHIOLANDNET is planning to organize the first Ethiopian Annual Land Conference during the second quarter of FY 2017.