DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL LAND POLICY FOR UGANDA

1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL LAND POLICY FOR UGANDA BACKGROUND • Land Policy development process and land reform has been on Uganda’s agenda since 1983 when the government established an Agricultural Policy Committee that resulted into a report on Land Tenure and Agricultural Development in 1989

2. Land Tenure and Agricultural Development Report, 1989 • In 1983, Govt. of Uganda established an Agriculture Policy Committee for purposes of coordinating, directing and reviewing key policies and programs in the agricultural sector • The Committee, together with Makerere Institute of Social Research and the Land Tenure Centre- University of Wisconsin, USA carried out a detailed study on Land tenure and agricultural development in Uganda

3. This study made several recommendations but was the first study that also informed the initial process of policy reform in Uganda. • Among other things: The study recommended the policy alternatives for Uganda as a country and also pointed out alternative tenure policy that could stimulate social and economic development in the agricultural sector.

4. Odoki Commission Report 1992 • This Commission commonly known as the famous Odoki Commission of 1988, was appointed by Government to review our constitution and make proposals. • Under Land proposals and recommendations for the new Constitution of 1995, issues on land tenure, land use, management, POLICIES came out leading to a change in the management system as is now in ARTICLE 237OF THE CONSTITUTION 1995, and Land Act CAP 227

5. 1995 CONSTITUTION The Constitution points out the salient issues for the land policy process in Uganda through Article 237 • Land belongs to the citizens of Uganda • Land shall be held in accordance with four tenures (customary, freehold, leasehold, Mailo)

6. Government can acquire land in public interest • Parliament to make a law regulating the relationship between bonafide and lawful occupants on registered land • Parliament to make a law providing for the acquisition of registered interest by lawful or bonafide occupants

7. Salient issues in the 1995 constitution • Uganda Land Commission to manage government land • The rest of land to be managed by District Land Boards • District Land Tribunals to handle land disputes cases • Non-citizens to acquire only leaseholds

8. 1998 Land Act • Came into force on July 2nd 1998 • Operationalises the principles laid down in the Constitution of 1995 • Implementation of the Land Act is not realised fully because, among other things, there is no comprehensive policy • 2001 a Strategic Plan is put in place (commonly known as the LSSP) as a mechanism to carry forward the reforms

9. LSSP 2001-2011 • The LSSP was designed to provide for the operational, institutional and financial framework for the implementation of sector wide reforms and land management including the Implementation of the Land ACT. • One of its key strategic objectives was the development of a National Land Policy, which was pro-poor and putting in place a systematic framework for addressing the role of land in national development,

10. land ownership, distribution, utilisation, management and control for poverty reduction. Land Use Policy Within the framework of the LSSP, under land utilisation and management, we have developed a draft Land Use Policy

11. Background cont’d • Based on that background, in 2001 the then Ministry of Water, Lands & Environment agreed that as part of the policy formulation process, there had to appointed a National Land Policy Working Group (NLPWG) to steer this process. • NLPWG was then appointed in 2001

12. Composition of NLPWG The membership of this working group was drawn from both public and private sector institutions, government departments, NGOs and other stakeholders working on land.

13. Progress Made So Far • Issues Paper for the NLP was completed in 2004 • In a retreat with all the key stake holders and the Working Group, areas that needed further studies / research were agreed on • 5 study areas were identified and consultants hired to undertake these studies

14. Key Study areas The areas identified and recommended as key study areas included: • Study on Revenue Generation, Utilisation, Sharing and Mechanism for Fiscal Transfer • Study on Integration of Traditional Land Administration in the Land Act and Management of Common Property Resources in Uganda • Study on Resettlement, Landlessness and Internally Displaced Persons

15. Study Areas cont’d • Study on Privatisation and Divesture of Land Services • Study on HIV/AIDS, Property Rights and Agricultural Productivity • All consultancies were short term consultancies and the all these studies provided POLICY BRIEFS for the National Land Policy development process.

16. Drafting of the NLP • Uganda has reached its 2nd draftof the National Land Policy

17. 2ND DRAFT UGANDA NATIONAL LAND POLICY: PRINCIPLES

18. What are some of the Policy Principles covered in this 2nd draft National Land Policy? • The draft is divided into a three- band model, comprising of a policy element/principle, the objective of the policy element and the proposed strategies for addressing the issues as raised. • The major policy principles cover the following 6 areas/themes:-

19. Policy Principles cont’d • Land in the National Development Framework • The Legal Regime • The Land Tenure Framework • The Land Rights Administration Framework • The Land Use and Management Framework and, 6. The Policy Implementation Framework

20. I. LAND IN THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES Land as a factor of production • Land is one of the major factors of production that underpins national development especially through the agrarian sector. In order to ensure increased contribution of land to economic productivity, and commercial competitiveness, the national land policy for Uganda will have to design and execute a paradigm shift from emphasis on land ownership to land development.

21. Land and Poverty Eradication • Land as a tool for poverty eradication: To ensure that the land sector contributes effectively to poverty eradication, the national policy of Uganda will have to protect the poor from activities which deny them access to the land resources they hold or occupy; such as land grabbing, speculative and distress land transfers and indiscriminate evictions and destruction of property in rural and urban areas.

22. Land and Governance • To ensure that the management of the land sector contributes to democratic governance, the national policy of Uganda will carry out land reforms within the government policies of decentralization, divestiture, empowerment of the people including the private sector.

23. Land, Peace and Security • Competition over land caused among others, by population growth, resource depletion, and scarcity, is the cause of conflict, insecurity and environmental stress in many parts of Uganda. In order to restore stability in land relations, and the resumption of sustainable livelihood activities, the national policy of Uganda will seek to address all the root historical and current causes of conflict driven by competition over unregistered land masses.

24. II. THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES Uganda is perhaps one of the few former British colonies in which the land question has always been at the center of the constitutional and legal discourse. The result is that land issues are mired in a bed of complex constitutional structures and processes, drawing legitimacy from historical as well as contemporary political exigencies. This has created problems and ambiguities in the Uganda’s property system.

25. UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES • The NLP should ensure that: The juridical status of land and, especially, the modalities through which land rights are created, acquired and protected should be simple and clearly defined; ie, the NLP should be able to eliminate ambiguities on Residual sovereignty over land; “land belongs to the citizens of Uganda”, define the Power of eminent domain (Policy should ensure that the power of eminent domain is used by the state and local authorities responsibly and strictly in the public interest); ensure police power of the state is used responsibly for public good i.e. the authority to regulate the use of land held under any tenure.

26. POLICY PRINCIPLES UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL & LEGAL FRAMEWORK Cont’d • Components of the land question which must be anchored in the Constitution should be confined to issues of the location of radical title, the classifications of land ownership characteristics, and state/land relations (ie clear whether the citizens of Uganda, individually or collectively can assert residual authority against the state, local authorities and community governance organs in respect of unallocated or vacant land) and; • The NLP should ensure that there is clarity in both the Constitution and the Land Act as to what the role of the state is or should be in land sector development.

27. The Land Tenure framework: Policy Principles • The regulatory framework for land sector operations should be rationalized in such a manner as to eliminate overlaps, internal conflicts, bureaucratic competition and inconsistent normative prescriptions. There should be an enforcement framework for public regulations, putting in place penalties for any violations.

28. Classification of tenure regimes: • The Constitution and the Land Act provide that land in Uganda may be held in terms of four tenure categories only. These are customary, freehold, mailo and leasehold tenure. The incidents of those tenure regimes (other than leasehold) are defined in terms of generalities which establish no particular frontiers • In order to clarify these issues, the national land policy should amend the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Land Act to provide for a simplified, progressive and affordably implementable land tenure system in Uganda.

29. Land Tenure Framework UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES • Tenure determines, in a very general sense, who may have access to what land, for what purpose and for how long. • A good land tenure framework should guarantee security of tenure and access, ensure equity in the distribution of land resources, eliminate gender discrimination in ownership and transmission, and preserve and conserve resources for future generations; The policy should ensure that those who need land and depend on it are able to obtain secure tenure and access to it.

30. PRINCIPLES UNDER LAND TENURE • The tenure system should also ensure that land markets in all tenure regimes function efficiently and in support of the social economic and cultural needs of the land using public. • The policy should ensure that natural resources are protected, preserved and sustainably used.

31. Principles Under Tenure cont’d • All tenure regimes should ensure that natural resources are protected, preserved and sustainably managed; • Policy should guarantee effective protection to and preserve the quality and value of common property resources • The policy should ensure that women are able to gain secure access to land and that all international conventions outlawing discrimination against women are fully complied with (including the widows, children, PLHIV/AIDS)

32. Principles under tenure continued • Individual land tenure systems should be facilitated to develop and evolve in response to competing social, economic and political demands.. • Development control authorities, particularly urban authorities, to ensure that they effectively enforce development control in all areas under their jurisdiction as stipulated in the laws and regulations

33. Tenure cont’d • Policy should review the two tenures (freehold and mailo) to subject them to rules and conditions that apply to leasehold in urban areas. Government land should be protected and sustainably be managed. • Policy should sort-out the multiple land rights on all tenures (lawful/ bonafide occupants) • Policy to ensure framework for Communal Land Associations

34. LAND RIGHTS ADMNISTRATION FRAMEWORK UNDERLYING POLICY PRINCIPLES Land rights administration refers to the structures and processes through which land rights and appurtenant incidents are refined, created and recorded; integrity of transactions assured and guaranteed; land rights disputes processed; and land information inventoried, utilized or otherwise archived

35. LAND ADMN. PR’PLES CONT’D • Land rights administration systems must be designed and operated with a view to enhancing and facilitating the management of land resources both as property vested in the public, communities and individuals, and as an asset central to national development; • Land rights administration structures and processes must be transparent, cost-effective and accessible to the ordinary land using public; • Land rights administration must be treated as a professional function hence should not only be delinked from routine public administration, but more importantly, be insulated from demands exerted by political elites bent on appropriation of land resources; and

36. LAND ADMN. PR’PLES CONT’D • Policy development must recognize and seek to strengthen the existence and buoyancy of two parallel but complementary and interactive systems of land rights administration in Uganda, namely, indigenous and community based systems which operate as part and parcel of the social and political organization of territorial communities, and statutory (or state) systems governed by imposed law and which vary by tenure regimes, land categories and resource characteristics.

37. Policy Principles on Regional & International Frameworks • The National Policy of Uganda will be to strengthen regional co-operation in the management of trans-boundary and national resources • Uganda National Policy will be to comply fully with international commitments on the management of climate change parameters.

38. Way Forward • Agree on a draft National Land Policy for consultations by mid December, 2006 • To conduct regional consultations starting January, 2007 • To conduct consultations with special interest groups starting February, 2007 • To have a National Conference by September, 2007 • Draft Policy for submission to Cabinet by end of 2007