How ILC members helped design a land policy document in Congo

On a scorching day in November 2021, the only thing hotter than the afternoon sun was the heated discussions inside the meeting rooms of Pullman Hotel Kinshasa. Hundreds of land actors had gathered there for the validation workshop of the national land policy document. “It’s a historic moment,” a participant screamed out to the crowd. “We’ve never had such an intensive process in the land sector.”

The substituted land policy document was over 50 years old and dated to the colonial era.

When the process was launched by the National Commission for Land Policy (or CONAREF), ILC Africa members in DR Congo used a bottom-up approach to bring local organizations and communities closer to national leaders to discuss land issues. They held consultations with the populations in the territories of five provinces (North Kivu, South Kivu, Equateur and Kinshasa), which specifically targeted local communities and organizations—for a dialogue on the reform and new land policy document.

Leaders of key government partners, of which the National Land Coalition in DR Congo, took a family photo at the end of the validation dialogue, around the Congolese Minister Molendo Sakambi (Photo credit: CONAREF)

Over three years, ILC Africa members relayed results from consulting local populations in 26 provinces: 10 in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 6 in 2021. The National Engagement Strategy (now the National Land Coalition) in DR Congo extended its support to two other provinces: the mining province of Lualaba (in June 2021) and the province of Kinshasa (in February 2021). As the platform collected opinions from rural farmers, a meeting of the minds appeared likely. “We remained open to dialogue,” said Angelique Mbelu, the National Land Coalition facilitator in DR Congo. To ensure that all voices were heard, the expectations of vulnerable populations and local actors were disseminated by ILC members in the media to inform the public and political leaders of the urgency of adopting rural land management involving local communities.

Spread across the Congolese provinces, the members worked strategically with community-based organizations. Each DR Congo ILC member worked with a particular marginalized group: The Programme Intégré pour le Développement des Pygmées (PIDP), whose work on the new law that finally defended the territorial rights of the Batwas and other indigenous peoples we published in 2021, developed an approach for indigenous peoples in eastern DR Congo and documented their needs, expectations and practices. The ERND Institute (Environnement Ressources Naturelles et Développement) documented cases from the Equateur province where it is accompanying communities and paralegals. The Aide et Action pour la Paix (AAP) and Union pour l’Emancipation des Femmes Autochtones (UEFA) relayed the campaigns to community-based organizations and regional organizations in the eastern Congo.

Operational session during the validation meeting by the National Land Coalition in DR Congo on the consultation with local communities (Photo credit: National Land Coalition DR Congo)

CONAREF officials were pleased with the data collected and used them twice to revise versions two and three of the Land Policy document—in April 2019 and September 2020 respectively. Version four of October 2021 integrated data and concerns from the last 6 provinces consulted. This last consultation group benefited from a better participation, following the collaboration between CONAREF and civil society organizations on the preliminary activities in the territories and during the provincial consultation workshops. “I am both proud and happy to note that these meetings have enabled you to take up the great challenge of providing the DR Congo with a consensual national land policy document,” said Molendo Sakambi, the Congolese Minister for Land Affairs, at the end of the validation event. “I am full of admiration for the quality of the work you have done […], in an atmosphere of openness, in order to offer the country this essential tool for land governance that it so urgently needed,” he added.

Unsurprisingly, that sentiment was shared by the National Land Coalition in DR Congo, which directly co-sponsored the validation event. “For us, the next step will be the real reform,” Angelique Mbelu declared. “How to implement all these innovative ideas, all these concerns informed by experiences and realities on the ground. We are counting on the roadmap, or the action plan, but above all, on the transitional measures that will be taken as soon as the law is promulgated, to curb land grabbing and hoarding that certain elites, officials and powerful persons began when the land reform was announced.”

A cross-section of participants, of which ILC Africa members, fine-tunes an issue in the draft document prior to final validation (Photo credit: CONAREF)

Ultimately, the process is about supporting DR Congo’s agriculture and food systems. Congo’s 80 million hectares of arable land, 4 million hectares of irrigated land, and many rivers with important fishery resources can easily make the country a global agricultural power. Although the agricultural sector employs over 60% of Congolese and comprises 19.7% of GDP, it fails to safeguard food security and yield sufficient revenues and sustainable employment. Leading cash crops include coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton, sugar, tea, and cocoa. Congolese farmers have had some success developing cocoa and coffee for export. Food crops also include cassava, plantains, maize, groundnuts, and rice. But commercial agricultural production remains limited, with most producers engaged in subsistence food agriculture.

The land reform in DR Congo will therefore go a long way in reinforcing the country’s food systems.