TOGO

Two ILC members, along with other stakeholders, have joined together to form Togo’s National Engagement Strategy (NES). NES are multi-stakeholder processes set in motion by the ILC to promote people-centred land governance in individual countries by influencing the formulation and implementation of land policies and programmes. NES processes and their platforms are led by national actors, including both ILC and non-ILC members, and have links to regional and global processes of the ILC.

NES Togo began advocating for people-centred land reform at local and national levels in 2012. This advocacy increased significantly between 2014 and 2017, during the formulation process of the current Togolese Land Code. In 2018, the national NES platform was decentralised with the establishment of regional platforms in each of the five regions of the country. This has allowed for a more targeted approach that can better address the specific concerns in each region.

WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE?

The overall objective of NES Togo is to enable the rural poor, both men and women, to gain secure access and rights to land in order to enhance their food security and to fight poverty and vulnerability.

WHAT DO WE COMMIT TO?

ILC’S 10 Commitments identify specific aspects of land governance that guide ILC’s individual and collective efforts. The work of NES Togo and its strategy contributes to our goal of people-centred land governance through the following four commitments: Secure Tenure Rights Equal Land Rights for Women Inclusive Decision-making Transparent and Accountable Information.

WHAT ACTIONS DO WE TAKE?

Under their current strategy, members of NES Togo will:

• Educate and train local decision-makers (traditional chiefs, customary chiefs, land chiefs) on principles of gender equity in land rights.
• Promote good practices for the sustainable management of the land in order to ensure sustainable food security and the preservation of the environment, especially in the interest of climate change adaptation.
• Utilise participatory mapping to identify currently unused cultivable land and advocate with owners to allocate it to landless women and young people.

OUR IMPACT

In 2018, DRC recorded the highest number of land and environmental defenders killed compared to any other country in Africa. In partnership with ILC’s work on Defending Land Defenders, a land observatory was established in DRC to help report land corruption and denounce land malpractices.

When seven indigenous Pigmy land defenders faced prosecution, the land observatory was able to quickly bring it to public attention and document the state of the violation. Additionally, NES DRC helped the Defending Land Defenders platform secure the release of 15 land rights defenders facing government criminalisation in the country.