Dear colleagues

 

For the 48,000 people who will be affected by Fomi dam in Guinea, fair compensation and security of tenure for agricultural land are two urgent topics. It is in this context that Guinea’s Ministry of Energy and Water and the Global Water Initiative (GWI) in West Africa and held a national workshop in Conakry on 4 and 5 March. Participants included representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture and of Urban and Rural Planning, as well as from the National Assembly, civil society and donors.

 

Key documents:

•        Final workshop communiqué: http://www.gwiwestafrica.org/en/final-communique-national-workshop-securing-agricultural-land-tenure-communities-affected-fomi-dam

•        Dams in Guinea: proposals for achieving local development [Factsheet] http://www.gwiwestafrica.org/en/dams-guinea-proposals-achieving-local-development

•        Fomi dam: catalysing land tenure reform in Guinea [Web story] http://www.gwiwestafrica.org/en/fomi-dam-catalysing-land-tenure-reform-guinea

 

More information:

Legislative and administrative reforms

The workshop took as a basis for discussion a study conducted in 2014 by the Directorate General for the Fomi project and GWI in West Africa. The communities who will be affected by Fomi were consulted and contributed their feedback during a workshop in July 2014 in Kankan. The full study and a summary will be published soon on www.gwiwestafrica.org. Here is a summary of the proposals made in the study:

•        Reform the legal framework, particularly the land and federal code (CFD);

•        Develop an operations manual for land expropriation in the public interest;

•        Define the operationalisation of options for agricultural development in the Local Development Plan (LDP), clarifying the ownership of the land concerned;

•        Provide social support (consultations, negotiations) for land tenure processes.

Implementation of reforms

Through the final communiqué of the recent workshop in Conakry, the legislative and administrative reforms identified have been validated and a series of recommendations established for their implementation, including the need to:

•        Integrate the issue of expropriation, compensation and land tenure security into current initiatives of the Ministries of Agriculture and Urban and Rural Planning;

•        Combine modern law and customary rights;

•        Resolve the issue of the availability and location of land to be used for compensation.

 

 

Best wishes,

Lucile

 

 

Lucile Robinson

Knowledge management and communications coordinator, Global Water Initiative - West Africa

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

80-86 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8NH

T: +44 (0) 203 463 1548 | Skype: lucile.robinson | @lucile_robinson

www.iied.org | @iied  | www.gwiwestafrica.org

 

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