*Apologies for cross posting*

Dear colleagues

We would like to share with you several recent publications and a blog from the Global Water Initiative in West Africa’s work in Niger on ensuring just compensation – through a process of free, prior and informed consent – for people displaced from their land by the Kandadji dam, as well as on sharing the benefits from the dam with local communities.

From traditional land rights to long term leases: fair compensation?

When it is finally built Kandadji dam will displace around 38,000 people, many of whom hold traditional (private) rights to their land. In order to provide these people with the ‘prior and just’ compensation required by law, on what will be publicly-owned land, innovative land tenure solutions need to be put in place. In partnership with the High Commission for the Development of the Niger Valley (HCAVN) and the National Irrigation Office (ONAHA), the Global Water Initiative in West Africa has developed a proposal for two new types of lease – one for landowners and another for tenant farmers who will all receive land on the irrigated schemes.

To find out more, read the new blog from Jamie Skinner (IIED / Director of GWI West Africa)

Obtaining the consent of affected groups: the example of Kandadji in Niger

Free, prior and informed consent is enshrined in international law and is a guiding principle in many regional conventions, however, carrying it out in practice is often challenging. In 2013, the High Commission for the Development of the Niger Valley (HCAVN), supported by the Global Water Initiative in West Africa, undertook formal consultations with 31 villages, tribes and hamlets affected by the construction of the Kandadji dam. The subject of the consultation was the proposal for a ‘lease in perpetuity’ for compensation land in the new publicly owned irrigation schemes as compensation for private land lost.

To find out more, read the policy briefing by Thierry Berger (investment law and sustainable development specialist) and Aladoua Saadou (Lawyer, expert on land tenure and expropriation procedures, Niger)

Niger: a local fund to share the benefits of the Kandadji dam

Resettlement causes significant disruption to livelihoods that often take years to stabilise and improve. Income from hydropower sales offers a strong revenue stream that local people can use to invest in development opportunities offering long term improvements to their living conditions, throughout the lifetime of a dam. The Global Water Initiative and partners propose the creation of a local development fund, financed by revenue from the hydroelectric component of Niger’s Kandadji dam, to provide a long-term source of development financing to local people.

To find out more, read this factsheet by Jamie Skinner and Jérôme Koundouno (IUCN / GWI regional coordinator for West Africa).

The Global Water Initiative in West Africa is implemented by IIED and IUCN and funded by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation.

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