Civil Society prepares for 2nd Land Conference
The NANGOF Working Group on Land Reform, announced that it will hold a series of local and regional consultations over the next 2 months which will culminate in the Civil Society Conference on Land Reform, as a precursor to the envisaged government 2nd National Land Conference.
Earlier, in August the Minister of Land Reform, Hon Uutoni Nujoma formally announced government decision to convene the 2nd National Land Conference in November. The community based localized meetings will consult with communities, landless people, traditional leaders, beneficiaries of Government resettlement and regional land boards, on the state of land reform and the resettlement programs since independence.
Specifically, the civil society consultations are aimed at, identifying key challenges / thematic areas related to the current land policies; ascertaining underlying structural issues that impose current challenges; putting forward people’s responses on such challenges for the purposes of advocacy and lobby; seeking input for the process and content of the 2nd National land conference for lobby purposes; and agreeing on a civil society position paper on land reform for the 2nd National land conference.
The local and regional consultations will prioritize the eight regions mostly affected by land dispossession by German and South African colonial governments, however all regions will eventually be covered. These include Hardap, //Kharas, Omaheke, Khomas, Otjozondjupa, Erongo, Kunene south and Oshikoto south.
When Government under the leadership of Dr Hage Geingob (then Prime Minister) organized the 1st National Land Conference in 1991, civil society organizations although not well coordinated made efforts to influence the outcomes.
However, three years after the National Land Conference when no action was taken by government to implement the 24 resolutions taken at the National Conference, civil society organizations under the facilitation of RISE Namibia organized the 1st ever Peoples Land Conference in Mariental in September 1994, which was attended by closed to 500 delegates from all over Namibia.
