Canadian International Council: The Central Role of Land in Africa's Future

This session will focus on land and land rights as cross-cutting or preconditions to: (i) enable inclusive rural economic growth; (ii) foster household and community asset formation; (iii) improve natural resource management practices; (iv) strengthen community-based agency; and (v) shape the nature of food production and household livelihood systems.

The speakers will shed light on the many issues surrounding land claims, in particular the complex system of Inter-locking rights and interests relating to access to and ownership of land giving particular attention to access, inheritance and ownership by women.

This is a Hybrid event

If you wish to join us online you can acess the event through the following ZOOM link:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_seMqMR3VTmKj5rN7knZtHQ.

Speakers  

Eva Maria Anyango Okoth is currently the Africa Regional Coordinator, based in Nairobi, of the International Land Coalition.  She has extensive experience in environmental rights, climate justice, and land rights, having worked with grassroots communities impacted by large-scale projects in Africa as well as supporting networks of people's organizations to advocate for people centered land governance. In her current role, she leads regional programs and operations, offering technical support to national and regional member-led platforms. She also oversees and co-ordinates the work of ILC Africa's Regional Co-ordination Unit. Eva Maria is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and holds a Master of Laws in Public International Law.

Dr .Mwenda Makathimo is the Executive Director of the Land Development and Governance Institute, based in Nairobi. He has wide experience on issues of land and environment policy, land management and administration, governance, assets and property valuation, real estate management, boundary delimitation and mapping.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Land Economics, a Master of Arts in Valuation and Property Management and a Doctorate in Environmental Policy from the University of Nairobi. He has also undertaken executive training on Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development at the Columbia University. He was a member of committees that developed Kenya’s National Land Policy; the National Land Commission Rules and Regulations, and the land policy guidelines for Africa as part of an African Union and African Development Bank initiative.

Ogochukwu Udenigwe is a global health researcher and Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia. She completed a PhD in International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research focuses on maternal health inequities, gender and inclusion, knowledge use, and health policy. She is a guest editor for the journal Reproductive Health on the topic of Enhancing equity through digital technologies for sexual and reproductive health in low and middle-income countries. She coauthored the paper entitled 'Does the Canadian government support women’s rights to land in sub-Saharan Africa?".

Moderator: Bruce H. Moore is a civil society activist, former United Nations Diplomat and NGO Executive Director.  Most recently, he served on the Boards of Transparency International Canada; the Institute for Global Food Security at McGill University; Canadians for Tax Fairness, the Forum for Democratic Global Governance and the Huairou Commission, an international alliance of grassroots women’s organizations.  He was the first Director of the Rome-based International Land Coalition from 1998-2008, a global alliance of civil society, UN and intergovernmental organisations working to enable poor rural families to gain their land and resource rights.  Earlier he was the Executive Director of Partners in Rural Development, a Canadian NGO supporting farmer and rural peoples’ organizations. He has chaired the NGO Advisory Committee to the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development; chaired policy dialogues at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development; and served on the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor. 

Host or Publisher CIC National Capital Branch