Download PDF version

In Swaziland, households in different chiefdoms are being empowered to be agents of their own development. By planning together and sharing irrigated land within the community, smallholders are overcoming poverty.

In Swaziland, competition for the use of land for agriculture and human settlement is high and often generates conflict and inequalities in distribution. Irrigated land is scarce and mainly allocated to large-scale farmers. Within the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP), Chiefdom Development Planning (CDP) has been used as an innovative tool to give smallholder farmers access to scarce resources, such as land and water. The CDP process includes trainings and capacity-building for community stakeholders, participatory community resource assessments, production of resource maps and also the design of development plans by community stakeholders. One of the outcomes of this process is the transformation of local smallholders from subsistence agricultural producers to commercial-scale producers. Through a holistic approach, the CDP process has spread awareness among rural inhabitants about chiefdom resources, so that people are empowered to make decisions on how to use available resources in the most profitable and sustainable way. It has also been working with traditional governance institutions in the Chiefdoms to establish participatory planning based on the communities' aspirations. Chiefdom Development Committees (CDCs) have been established as local governance structures to drive the process at the chiefdom level. The success of the CDP is not limited to land use planning. It has been used as an integrated approach to community development in other areas as well, such as public health, potable water and sanitation, gender equality and economic activities.

Results

• LUSIP has already provided 1,184 households with irrigated land through the development of 40 irrigated farms.
• Inclusive access to land has been achieved through renunciation of individual land by the households participating in CDPs for the purpose of community development and agribusiness.
• 860 more homesteads now have access to clean drinking water.
• The CDP model has attracted a flow of financial and other resources into the chiefdoms. The private sector, banks and other financial institutions have been encouraged to participate in supporting agricultural development.
• Legislation is under way to give the CDP legal status.

Main lessons

• There is a need to clearly define the responsibilities of the CDCs and the traditional authorities in the post-CDP period.
• A capacity-building programme for the CDCs should be developed to equip them with the competencies necessary to deliver specific outputs.
• Despite its success, the CDP tool could require some changes to make the process less complex and time-intensive.
• Disputes among neighbouring chiefdoms, due to the lack of a definitive land demarcation system, can lead to suspending temporarily or even abandoning project implementation in some areas.
• When the value of land is enhanced, due to the development of a new irrigation system for example, external actors will be attracted to the area and falsely claim that they are part of the designated community. It is therefore important to find ways to safeguard the rights of community members who have always lived in the chiefdom.

 

Main challenges addressed

CHALLENGES	SOLUTIONS	BENEFITS
1) While in principle the Chief cannot alter the CDP, there is the risk that some Chiefs will not be ready to compromise their discretional power over land resources and comply with the dictates of the CDP process.	As suggested by the Supervision Mission in 2009, legislation is underway to define the legal status of CDPs. In addition, the project has looked for an alternative power base for Chiefs, e.g. money instead of land.a	This will protect the Chiefdom Development Plans from possible violation by any parties, including the Chiefs, and should provide for an inclusive process for amending any aspect of these documents.
2) In the past, instruments for authorizing land use were flawed and vulnerable to abuse and misinterpretations.	Within LUSIP Project Development Areas, the former Letter of Consentb was re-engineered in a consultative process involving communities and Chiefs. This gave origin to an enhanced Chief’s Letter.	The enhanced Chief’s Letter of Consent is now a document agreed by the Chief and the community to grant land to individuals or groups for the purpose of engaging in business, and it includes more binding clauses for the contracting parties.

Background

Land is a contentious subject in Swaziland. Arable rainfed land is increasingly scarce, and the semi-arid climate and frequent droughts heavily affect agriculture. National land policy reforms progress slowly and do not promise an early resolution to the enduring land administration challenges. Since colonization, Swaziland has had a dual land tenure system partitioned into Title Deed Land (TDL) and Swazi Nation Land (SNL). In TDL, land owners enjoy the full benefits of private property. In SNL, land ownership is vested in the King, who holds it in trust for the nation and delegates Chiefs to administer land resources in their respective chiefdoms. Over 70 per cent of the total country area currently falls under SNL.

The LUSIP project, implemented by the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE), has launched a CDP process that is driven by the people. The project has informed community members of the resources available and their geographical distribution within the chiefdom. It has provided training and capacity-building on development planning and other related topics. The communities have designed CDPs that will act as road maps, indicating areas for development and reflecting community aspirations. The project has put in place CDCs to lead the process of adopting development plans. The CDCs include women, who are involved in decision-making and other development activities.

LUSIP has been able to secure land tenure for rural households by creating farmer groups and enabling them to be legally registered as corporate enterprises. Under LUSIP, individual farmers renounce their land allocations and contribute their land holdings to a group-owned “land block” to be jointly managed as a business entity. In this way, smallholders with contiguous land share the costs, labour and income of their collective agribusiness enterprises.

Parallel to this, LUSIP has invested in developing and extending the irrigation system in the project area. In this way, the project has been able to make irrigated land available to smallholders and enabled them to intensify and diversity their crop production.

Fostering ownership and sustainability

CDPs are people-owned development plans. The groundwork is carried out by community members under the leadership of elected CDCs. Therefore, communities are the custodians of the plans. This strengthens their sense of ownership over the outcomes, which reflect the development vision of the entire chiefdom community. Beneficiaries are responsible for developing and implementing their work plans.The project provides them with training and capacity-building to enable them to autonomously manage their enterprises.

In each chiefdom, a Community Trust is established and collects rentals from farmer groups to be used to finance projects that their CDC develops. This will foster CDPs’ sustainability. In addition, the project assists farmers in developing sound business plans and presenting them to financial institutions. By doing so LUSIP has involved banks in funding farmers’ commercial projects and ensured their financial sustainability.

Replication and scaling up

The CDP process addresses the question of how to enable people to organize themselves and participate in development processes. CDP is a tool to empower all community members to express and achieve their aspirations and make sure that everyone can benefit from available natural resources. Currently four CDPs have been developed within LUSIP I, and the innovation will be scaled up in LUSIP II. Potential for replication in other chiefdoms in the country is very high as the process was successful in building many community skills, securing access to land and enhancing sustainable land use.

---