The Multi-Action Platform on land governance and responsible agriculture investment, an advocacy group championing land rights in Liberia, has emphasized the need for the implementation of the Land Rights Act.
The group’s Communication and Reporting Officer for its Multi-stakeholder Platform, Haje Paasewe, told FrontPageAfrica at the start of the three days training session on land ownership and implementation of Land Rights Act in Tubmanburg, that the Act has been passed but its implementation remains a challenge.
“The Act has been passed into law, but the Liberia Land Map Platform says there is a serious need to implement the Act so that community members will have an insight on it. It focuses on providing information on land rights across all sectors,” Paasewe said.
The training brought together stakeholders in the land sector for education on the step and procedure in establishing a multi-stakeholder partnership to ensure the implementation of the Land Rights Act.
The training was a follow-up on a MultiStakeholders Partnership for the three western counties to include Gbarpolu, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties.
Paasewe believes there is the need for community members be sufficiently informed on the Land Right Act, while advocacy on its implementation continues.
He said the training will strengthen actor’s capacities on Map Action Plan and Multi-Stakeholders Partnership processes in implementing Land Rights Act across Liberia.
“The training is intended to strengthen the capacities of community members on creating making informed decision on issues surrounding land rights in Liberia,” Paasewe averred.
“This is intended to enable people understand the steps in multistakeholders partnership.”
Paasewe said the MAP process on land platform started in 2018, following advocacy from Civil Society Organizations, on the passage of the Land Rights Act.
According to him, the initiative was initially sponsored by the Land for Life Project, but it is now being headed by the International Land Coalition, which is involved with the national engagement strategy.
Paasewe stressed the need that in order to fast track such objective, there is a need to decentralize multi-stakeholders partnership on Land Rights.
“Monrovia is not Liberia and having a structure at regional level is also important,” Paasewe added.
As part of efforts towards having a decentralized platform on land governance and responsible agricultural investment in Liberia, the Multi-Actor Platform for Land Governance (Map Liberia Platform) is also discussing key challenges facing the land sector and together, develop strategies for sustainable solutions, while the process training is intended to strengthen the capacity of MAP actors in the three western counties on key components of the land sector of the country.
Under its decentralization plan, the MAP Liberia Land Platform seeks to be extended firstly in two regions: Western, and South-east Liberia.
At the Southeastern region, the first regional MAP will target Grand Kru, Maryland and Grand Gedeh Counties, Paasewe added.
He said, “The multi stakeholders partnership (MSPs) are generally known to be effective and innovative approaches for tacking the challenges addressed in the 2030 Agenda.”
“MSPs are arrangements that bring together stakeholders with a shared interest in the results of the collaboration and demonstrate some degree of ownership to address the issue.”
The MAP Liberia Land Platform is a notionally owned process initiated in February, 2018 by the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) spearheaded by Right and Rice Foundation (RRF).
The platform brings together various actors and stakeholders including land, environment and agriculture related agencies of government, private sectors institutions, Civil Society Organizations, Community Based Organizations, Academia and Research Institutions, as well as International Development partners.
The MAP is currently sponsored by the Land for Life initiative- Making Policies Work for food security, the International Land Coalition (ILC) through the National Engagement Strategy (NES)
By October of this year, the MAP Platform will be hosting a National Land Conference, celebrating the third anniversary of the Land Rights Act of Liberia.
The overall objective of the conference is to create an opportunity for all revenant stakeholders to review progress made implementing the LRA, to get a common grasp, and to open the further implementation together.