EfD members from six countries participated in the conference "Land Governance in Support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Responding to new challenges", held in Washington DC, March 9-10, 2009. Presentations were held by Jintao Xu, EfD in China, Tekie Alemu, EfD in Ethiopia, and Stein Holden, EfD Associate. John Mduma represented EfD Tanzania. Wilfred Nyangena represented EfD in Kenya, and Gunnar Köhlin, EfD Director, participated as chair and discussant.
"Land governace is of great importance to EfD Tanzania""I found the themes presented of great significance to EfD and EfD Tanzania in particular", says Dr John Mduma, who participated in the conference. He ascertains that Land governance is coming up as an agenda which has not been studied in a satisfactory manner in most developing countries. Thus, it appears that land governance will soon be an integral part of the research agenda, especially in relation to climate change, food security, energy scarcity, natural disasters, urban growth, and environmental degradation. "Certainly, these are the issues from which EfD Tanzania could find a niche for its future research agenda. Furthermore, the policy relevance of research in these issues are high and the demand is increasing due to recent development in large agricultural land acquisition in Tanzania in the name of bio-fuel, etc", says Mduma.Click here to read the whole interview
The Conference took place at the World Bank in Washington, on March 9-10, 2009. It was jointly organized by the World Bank and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). See Conference webpage including all presentations at: ProceedingsThe 2009 conference focused on six broad themes:- Land Governance for the 21st Century - Sustainable Systems for Land Administration & Management- Securing Social Tenure for the Poorest - Making Land Markets Work for All - Improving Access to Land and Shelter - Land Governance for Rapid UrbanizationJintao Xu, EfD Coordinator and Professor, Peking University, presented Collective forest tenure reform in China: Outcomes & implications.Tekie Alemu, EfD Research fellow and Professor, University of Addis Ababa, presented Investment impacts of land certification in Ethiopia.Stein Holden, EfD Associate and Professor, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, presented Impacts of land certification on land market activity in Ethiopia. Gunnar Köhlin, EfD Director, was chairing the session (TNR3:) Assessing the impact of improved tenure security, and discussant at (MKT3:) Exploring the different dimensions of land markets.Dr Wilfred Nyangena, EfD Coordinator and Research fellow, represented KIPPRA/EfD in Kenya.Dr John Mduma, EfD Research fellow, represented University of Dar Es Salaam/EfD in Tanzania.