South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Okech Francis
South Sudan is developing a gender responsive land sector strategic plan that aims at inclusivity in using land for economic development in the country.
Supported by the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, stakeholders in the land sector are devising ways through which land can be profitably invested in in South Sudan as a resource for spurring investment.
The need is to “promote land sector interventions that tackle the underlying causes of tenure in security, including securing the protection of land tenure rights, increasing transparency in land administration and promoting equal access to land for all land users,” David Kwaje, the IGAD Head of Mission in South Sudan said at a stakeholders consultative meeting in Juba yesterday.
The consultative meeting was convened to assess and validate a draft inception report for the development South Sudan Land Sector Strategic Investment Plan.
“The Land Sector Strategic Investment Plan will guide the land reform agenda in line with the African Union Declaration on land issues, and is intended to critically evaluate and confirm the accuracy, reliability and the applicability of the proposed conceptual framework, methodology as well as the work plan,” Kwaje said.
According to Dr. Salaheldin Hassan Ahmed, the consultant leading the development plan, gender inclusivity is part of the process and aims at ensuring mainstreaming gender inclusivity in land ownership.
It’s a plan targeting gender equality in managing land resources and “will enhance the rule of land for economic development” and “increase transparency in the land sector,” Dr Salah said.
That would strategically position women in the forefront of development in the land sector, Savia Aya Silvestor, a Coordinator in the Land Reform Unit at the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development.
It is a positive plan for women whose roles have often been overlooked in the development of the land sector in South Sudan, Aya told The Dawn in an interview. “Starting with agriculture, for example, if we overlook the role of women who are dominating the subsistence farming, if we don’t take care of the land tenure system or agricultural production, then we will miss something out, which is very important. If we talk of zero hunger, we know that land is in the system of agricultural production so we really need to have women on board,” she said. “We want economic development for anybody, and then land is part of economic development so we need not leave anyone behind. We need to move together, men and women.”
According to Addis Teshame, a representative of the IGAD Local Governance Unit, objectives of the consultative meeting in Juba is to validate the overall concept of the land sector strategy, ensuring the maximum economic benefit that the land sector can provide to the nation.
Teshame argued it should be tailored towards contributing to national development “that will lead to our desired final product, that is the strategic plan that can be owned and implemented by the land sector actors.”
Kwaje for his part called for “achievement of understanding” among various stakeholders including the government and other agencies in line with improving coordination, accountability and mutual understanding among the Land Sector actors regarding the Land Sector Reform Agenda in South Sudan. “IGAD remains committed to support Member States to develop relevant, responsive and context-appropriate land policies which are going to be compliant with international as well as regional best practices,” he said.
Aya noted that bringing on board everyone would pave the way for collective development on all fronts in South Sudan. “We need to be sensitive in all these aspects. We need to have some quotas, we need to have some affirmative action, so that we bridge the historical gap which has been existing between men and women by having some affirmative action as we have for the 35 percent” in leadership, she said. “We also have gaps in the economic empowerment. We bridge that by having a gender responsive investment plan, which may have specific responses for specific constraints and barriers which women face.
