Land tenure security, the Belgian Survival Fund Joint Programme and IFAD

Secure access to productive land is critical to the millions of poor people living in rural areas and depending on agriculture, livestock or forests for their livelihood. It reduces their vulnerability to hunger and poverty; influences their capacity to invest in their productive activities and in the sustainable management of their resources; enhances their prospects for better livelihoods; and helps them develop more equitable relations with the rest of their society, thus contributing to justice, peace and sustainable development. In rural societies, the landless or near landless and those with insecure tenure rights typically constitute the poorest and most marginalized and vulnerable groups. The rights of these groups tend to be secondary, rarely extending beyond use rights; moreover, these rights are often unprotected and weak, especially for women.

Pressure on the land and improving income from animal husbandry : How do we find the equilibrium? (ASDPL Project Tanzania) – By BSF-Team

The Belgian Survival Fund Joint Programme (BSF.JP) focuses its interventions upon those factors affecting vulnerable populations in the poorest countries, in an attempt to improve food security and nutrition and reduce poverty among the most vulnerable segments of rural communities. Within this strategy, support for agrarian reform and equal access to land is seen to be an important factor for the achievement of the BSF.JP objectives. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with its focus on providing financing and technical expertise to overcome rural poverty by supporting agricultural development, increasingly recognizes the importance of secure access to land as essential for rural smallholder livelihoods.

What BSF.JP is doing

Over the years, BSF.JP has addressed land issues mainly through Collaborative Action on Land Issues (CALI). CALI uses a multistakeholder approach to support pro-poor land policy formulation and implementation in Uganda and Niger. In Uganda, CALI works with the Government and other stakeholders to develop national land policy, paying particular attention to issues important to pastoralists. In Niger, CALI works within the Government's Code Rural to register land rights: the first implementation of Code Rural in Africa. During a second phase, CALI will be scaled up to include other countries, i.e. Mozambique and the Democratic Republic the Congo. BSF.JP works closely with IFAD and the International Land Coalition (ILC) in supporting the CALI initiative.  Significantly, BSF.JP was one of the ILC's founding members. The coalition was established in 1996 to strengthen the role of civil society organizations at the country, regional and international levels in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes for more equitable and secure access by poor people to land.

Through its projects and programmes, BSF.JP also deals with land issues in a more indirect manner by strengthening access to land for the most vulnerable people, such as women (e.g. GBLADP in Eritrea), young people (e.g. PIDRN in Mali), those affected by HIV/AIDS (e.g. CKDAP in Kenya) and pastoralists (e.g. PPILDA in Niger). The BSF.JP also supports participatory approaches to natural resources management (e.g. ASDP-L in Tanzania) and land conflict resolution (e.g. PIDRN in Mali).