GLF Bonn 2020 - Our land, our future: securing young farmers’ access to land

Solomon is 13 years old und lives with his grandfather Stanley in Mukura-Asuret (Soroti district). He was born outside marriage. Traditional customs deny ext...

To follow-up with topics and questions raised in our session on Land & Youth at GLF Bonn 2020 we want to keep in touch with you!

When you have questions, ideas or if you are interested in the presentations, videos etc. from the session, please write a short notification to Landmanagement@giz.de

We are looking forward to keep on discussing future challenges and solutions for young farmers with you!

Find the videos from the GLF session by UNYFA here!

UNYFA is an initiative of the Uganda National Farmers’ Federation, started in 2015 as an umbrella organization for all agro-based youths in Uganda

Add answer

CAADP Youth Network
"Agricultural Transformation for Youth Employment in Africa"

CAADP Youth Network was formed at the Youth Side Event organized by African Youth initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) with support from Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) during the CAADP Partnership Platform held by the African Union Commision and NEPAD on April 12, 2016 in Accra - Ghana, principally as an African regional consortium of youth organizations and networks working on agriculture and sustainable livelihoods across Africa; aiming to mainstream African Youth into CAADP and 2014 Malabo Implementation and Monitoring Processes especially the Joint Sector Revie, NAIPs and RAIP.

CYN is a consortium of key regional youth organizations working on agriculture. Individual members are approximately 10,000 and more from various youth farmers organizations and some are individual youth agripreneurs without membership to any apex body.

Our Goal
Create 1 million jobs for youth in the Agriculture value chain by 2025, and usher in 1000 Agriprneurs by 2020

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ

The Secure Access to Land and Resources (SALaR) project aims to address these issues under the initiative of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), as facilitated by UN-Habitat. The Project focuses on three selected countries: Uganda, Philippines and Laos. Its goal is to improve land and natural resources tenure security for rural smallholder farmers, most of whom are poor women, men and vulnerable people.

Treffen unterschiedliche Menschen aufeinander, birgt das die Chance, Ideen zu sammeln, zu entwickeln und neue Inspirationen entstehen zu lassen.

Knowledge Product from the the Chat

Land tenure insecurity is a major obstacle for smallholder farmers wishing to invest in soil protection and rehabilitation. Securing access to land for those most affected by it – especially women, youth and migrants – is crucial.

This publication is a practical guide to the Youth and Land Responsiveness Criteria, which is a tool that can be used to increase the incorporation of youth perspectives into land matters at both institutional and programme levels, through a participatory process. The criteria are presented in the form of a matrix with various probing questions about different issues that youth face with regard to land. It can be used to identify challenges, opportunities and key entry points on youth and land at global, regional and/or country levels. It can be used in following ways: a) as a diagnostic tool, b) an awareness and advocacy tool, and c) for designing new youth responsive land programms/projects. The YLRC tool can be used by GLTN partners (www.gltn.net), as well as by youth engaged in community work, youth-led organizations, community leaders, project coordinators and managers, and policy-makers. This practical guide provides tips on how to use the tool to better understand youth and land issues.

"Youth and Land Tenure" - Lessons learned and land tenure toolkit by IFAD

IFADs Papers of the 2019 Rural Development Report "Youth access to land, migration and employment opportunities: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa"

LANDESA: "LANDLESS YOUTH: A BARRIER TO AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AND YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA"

Danilo Antonio from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) on the Project "Secure Access to Land and Resources" (SALaR)

1) Considering the complexity of land tenure regime in Africa, I would like to know exactly how you are improving young farmers access to land?

• In general, GLTN strengthens tenure security of smallholder farmers in Africa through the use and application of land tools. See www.gltn.net. In our existing initiatives, women and youth engagement is at the core of our strategy. Youth (and women) groups are trained in the use of land tools and are exposed to the challenges on access to land and resources and work with them on the finding out how to resolve them, including how to ensure tenure security for all. In so doing, youth are able to appreciate the need for security of tenure, their appreciation of community’s culture and the need to protect their land rights are strengthened and through ‘technological tools’ they are able to be the ‘frontliners’ in securing land rights of their own rural communities.

2) What kind of engagement and participation by youth is supported through the project?

• Youth are trained on the use of pro-poor, gender-responsive and fit-for-purpose land tools and approaches
• Youth groups take the lead in the enumeration and mapping of farms, settlements and other resources
• They also assist in awareness building and community sensitization.

3) What is the specific innovation for improving access to land for youth?

• Under the GLTN supported Secure Access to Land and Resources (SALaR) project, the specific innovation is the use of low-cost geo-spatial technologies like the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) where in many cases, youth groups spearhead the enumeration and mapping process including the data base development and maintenance.
• By accelerating the improvement of tenure security of poor rural households, the inheritance rights of the young people are also secured
• Given the youth active engagement in the process, their ‘stake’ to protect their land rights are also strengthened.

4) Could you please identify the main innovations you use?

• Use of pro-poor, gender-responsive and fit-for-purpose land tools and approaches (more information at www.gltn.net).
• The innovation also involves youth engagement as ‘active’ partners, and in many cases as ‘leaders’ of specific activity streams.

5) Do you have clear definitions of who qualifies as "Youth" in the countries? I know it varies a lot in terms of age, where you live and whether you are married...

• ‘Youth’ is normally defined by each country and it is basically within some age range. In Kenya for example, youth is defined as those young people aged 18 to 35 years old.

6) Are you looking at the scalability of the project? How do you find government interest in the project?

• Yes, in SALaR project, government authorities are part of the implementation. In some cases, they are also leading the project activities particularly regarding validating land tenure claims, conflict resolution and issuance of legally recognized

7) If we talk about youth is there also a gender issue to be considered within those that we call youth?

• Indeed. Hence, GLTN always undertake youth and women engagement as an integrated activity or strategy. GLTN has developed particular tools on youth and gender.

8) Any experience in situations where population density causes a lack of land availability for agriculture expansion or division to parcels of a size that allow youth / new farmers to flourish sustainably?

• We have not experience such situation, but we believe this is an issue in some countries particular in peri-urban areas and a rapidly urbanizing regions.

9) Often it seems as if the issue of land rights are largely connected to governmental more-top down jurisdiction, are there any experiences of working with this in order to enhance youth's access to land?

• Indeed, in many cases this is true. However, GLTN/SALaR project is able to integrate the government roles into the project activities without sacrificing the need for people’s participation and decision-making processes.

10) How do youth in rapidly urbanizing communities access land, considering that they are often expensive?

• Access to land is not limited to buying or purchasing land. It can also be accessed through inheritance, leasing and other legal means
• What would be good is to enhance policies regarding land leasing making it easier for the youth to have access to such resource.

Nicole Bolomey from the Andreas Hermes Akademie (AHH) on the Project GEN-X in Uganda

1) Are there any models of agricultural education that work particularly well?

• AHA puts the individual at the centre of education. His/Her growth is key to the development of the family and society. Further, we value the relationship between trainer and trainee as a key element of education. Thematically, we focus on skills such as entrepreneurship, business/ finance, leadership, communication, self-management e.g. This approach has led to positive and sustainable outputs in different African countries and India.
• In Uganda, also other education models are implemented like the FAO Farmer Field schools or the single spine extension model used by the Ministry of Agriculture.
  

2) Specific to workshop facilitation techniques, has literacy been an issue or barrier to youth participation?

• The AHA entrepreneurship training (b/u/s) also works for illiterate. The focus on personality and self-reliance is not linked to literacy. Where literacy is required, we did so far not encounter difficulties – the youth is generally better educated then older populations.
• Yes, it has been in some cases since the national literacy rate is at 76.35% (UNESCO 2018) but with the current government intervention, a large number of youths are becoming literate.

3) I'm curious which methodologies and guiding philosophies helped you with conflict management soft skills?

• We are working together with very experienced trainers in the field of communication and conflict management. According to the assessment workshop and the found-out needs, they worked on a concept with suiting methods and philosophies. Some of them are:
• Inner mind set and inner goals
• Harvard Orange -> different opinions/ wishes, finding compromises and solutions which fits both parties through successful communication
• Non-violent communication
• Glasl’s model of conflict management
• Also Success stories/role models (e.g. in the war ravaged area especially in Northern Uganda) are guiding blocks.

4) What about co-management arrangements? Did this come up in the assessment workshop?

• Indeed, it is one of the main aspects which are even in existing especially in the western region, were the farms are registered as a business and owned by shares by every individual of the households. Typical example can be found in two of the testimonials that were captured within the workshop.

5) Are these needs similar to what was found in other contexts in other parts of the world? How transferrable therefore is what you have produced to other situations?

• Some aspects are universal, others are particular. Comparing our findings with other parties in the world will be part of the next steps. Currently we are about developing modules as a pilot project for the Ugandan context. After piloting this, general products and modules shall be shared with other countries and adapted to their needs.

6) Are the workshops are to be replicated in other countries? Can the training materials be made available or a online train the trainer like program be done?

• The aim of this pilot project is to create replicable workshop modules. The rights of these modules will be owned by GIZ/ AHA. Since we believe that especially for conveying soft skills a personal exchange between trainer and trainees is desirable, we prefer workshops with physical attendance conducted by local or international trainers. In times of Corona it is also thinkable to do alternative online modules.

7) Is it possible to access the modules (shown in presentation)?

• Direct reply from Frank Bertelmann: The AHA modules are still under development but can be shared once they are finalized.

8) What's the average size of farms we're talking about?

• Basing on the data collection that was conducted during the start of the project the average farm sizes varies between region with central and eastern region having farms between 1-5 acres, northern and western region having between 5-20 acres.
  
• This is due to land tenure and agricultural systems that exists within the regions; western and northern: communally land ownerships and livestock management, central and eastern: Mailo land ownership, and crop growing. And the increasing population that leads to land fragmentation thus making land smaller and smaller.

9) How do you deal with potential future land fragmentation?

• The workshop aims at equipping the participants with necessary knowledge to improve their role in farm succession and to help them in finding their own way how to deal with this issue. This might lead to avoiding land fragmentation. However, the handling with the case land succession will be finally decided by the farmers.
• In general, we want to accompany farmers and their families in the process of land succession to find better solutions. The overall aim is not to lower land fragmentation. If it is an outcome, we welcome this very much.

10) Do you have any experience in situations where population density causes a lack of land availability for agriculture expansion or division to parcels of a size that allow youth / new farmers to flourish sustainably?

• In the central and some parts of the Eastern region, land parcels owned by farmers are small and are getting smaller each now and then due to their cultural norms which favor the fragmentation of land parcels rather than maintaining the land has one big parcel.
• Furthermore, the family size of 7.4 members/household 4.5 being children also has influenced the division of the land thus making it difficult for expansion.
• Also the illiteracy levels and lack of knowledge of farming as business unit, increases the fragmentation of land to small units that can be easily sold off for other businesses, e.g. motorcyclists business.

11) Do you work with young women as well as with young men? If yes, how far will they be able to take over farm enterprises?

• Both genders if well prepared through practical skills training, exposure and access to modern farming technique can take over farm enterprise. For example, through our international exchange program we empower youth of both gender with exposure to modern farming used in Germany. Furthermore, we link them to other partners who convey agricultural skills within various chains. All these programs are aimed at preparing youths for farm take overs.
  

12) If we talk about youth is there also a gender issue to be considered within those that we call youth?

• Gender issues relating to inheritance, access to land ownership rights, and access to education are some of the gender issues affecting the girl child. Some of these issues are political and require advocacy. Others are embedded with the traditional and cultural lifestyle. Some organizations are promoting women emancipation.
• As an Umbrella body of Youth, we encourage and promote gender participation within our different workshops and trainings and further within the Youth District Structure the women have 40% position. And through HR manual we have an equal employment opportunity to both genders.
  

13) How to select people and who to select is so important. How do you deal with possible issues related to sources of selection biases? Are there any statistical methods that you also use for the selection process?

• Farmers participating in the assessment workshop (farm succession) were selected by recommendation from our partners, Agriterra/SNV, in the western region, and Kibinge Coffee Farmers’ cooperative in Central. Being a youth farmer’s organization selection of youth directly linked to the theme was easy.
• For the subsequent workshops (Consultation workshop) and the following coaching phase, participation will be by registration. During the sensitization phase, awareness will be created using; social media for UNYFA and our partners, and media platforms after a media analysis has happened. Through these campaigns’ farmers will be invited to register for both workshops.