Togo: Civil society, State, and traditional chieftainship representatives hold meeting to tackle land conflicts

Economic governance

Thursday, 27 April 2023 03:37

Togo: Civil society, State, and traditional chieftainship representatives hold meeting to tackle land conflicts

(Togo First) - As part of the Land Reform for Agricultural Productivity (LRAP) Project, the Millennium Challenge Account Implementing Agency (OMCA) held in Lomé (Togo) a national workshop on land conflict management on 25 April 2023. During the meeting, key stakeholders of the LRAP–representatives of the civil society, traditional chieftainship, and the State–assessed the project, in preparation for its upcoming stages.

"The LRAP project has reached cruising speed," said N'gname Bougonou, Director General of the Millennium Challenge Account Implementing Agency (OMCA TOGO) and Director General of OMCA. "Indeed, in March and April, which is ending, under the coordination of VNG (the firm providing technical support for the project), tests were carried out to optimize land procedures,” she added.

The workshop is consequent with preliminary studies and a micro-regional diagnosis of conflict management in the country. These helped draw a typology of land conflicts and the local structures involved in their management.

"We started our technical assistance mission and conducted a number of exercises, including a micro-regional diagnosis on conflict management," Egy Sossou, head of mission for technical assistance under the program, commented in this regard. Before adding: "We had other complementary exercises to deepen this theme and today, we felt that it was time to be able to meet in a spirit of sharing and consultation, to better identify together the most appropriate ways, processes, approaches, taking into account local realities, the capital that exists at the level of customs, to together define more effective approaches that consolidate peace and social cohesion on the management of land conflicts."

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The prefectures of Zio, Wawa, Dankpen, Tchamba, and South Oti are the five localities picked for the pilot phase of the LRAP. Each is located in one of Togo’s five economic regions.

In Togo, over 80% of cases brought to court are land conflicts. "Most of the conflicts in our communities are related to land", said Vincent Kavege, head of mission for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Togo, during the workshop; Kavege’s organization is quite active in South Oti. "We, the civil society organizations, also have our way of helping these communities and finding solutions that could, possibly, prevent them from going to court," he added.

The LRAP has a budget of CFA20 billion. According to current forecasts, the project should end in February 2026.

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