Land Conflicts, Local Governance and Decentralization in Post-conflict Uganda,
Burundi, and Southern SudanConflict about land is increasingly seen as a core challenge for
post-conflict peacebuilding. Land is a source of local and national
conflict, while conflict strongly impacts land governing institutions. Many
interventions to deal with land conflicts include support to
decentralization. Thereby, responsibilities for managing land and resolving
disputes are transferred to local authorities and institutions. Generally,
decentralization is considered an important strategy for conflict
transformation and state-building from below. Yet, in practice,
decentralization appears to be an ambiguous process, and its contribution to
peacebuilding is not evident.
This research programme investigates how land governance evolves in
post-conflict situations, as an outcome of the interaction between multiple
stakeholders, including government, traditional authorities, NGOs, and local
people. Thereby, it looks in particular at how decentralization influences
relations of governance, how it impacts the legitimacy and authority of
local land tenure institutions, and how it affects the resolution of land
conflicts. It builds around comparative analysis of case studies from
Uganda, Burundi and southern Sudan. The programme will generate an
analytical framework for the study of land governance after conflict that
aims to inform decentralization policies in post-conflict situations and to
promote dialogue with policy-makers about land governance.
Key questions are:
• How has civil conflict impacted the workings and legitimacy of land
governance institutions and in particular, their capacity to deal with land
disputes/competitive claims to land?
• How does decentralization influence land governance and reconfigure
relationships of governance, in terms of empowerment, local participation,
gender relations and downward accountability?
• How does decentralized land governance affect the legitimacy and authority
of different institutions involved in governing land, and how does this
impact the resolution of land conflicts, tenure security and the kind of
justice promoted?
• How do (local) land conflicts relate to other conflicts in society, and
how does decentralization restructure those relationships and so impact
political stability and peace?
• How can (inter)national development organizations, donors, and local
governments contribute to more effective land governance?
A central aim of the project is to foster learning and stimulate exchange
between academics, development organizations, local community institutions,
and local governments. To facilitate this, representatives of NGOs,
grass-roots organizations and local governments will be involved in
identifying questions, collecting data, interpreting findings, and
formulating policy recommendations through a series of workshop. A steering
committee will be established to oversee this process, involving research
staff, representatives of local governments and interested NGOs. The
programme further aims at establishing a regional training programme on land
governance, and a virtual international network of experts and practitioners
from the region.
This research programme is a collaborative effort of:
• Faculty of Development Studies, University of Science & Technology,
Mbarara, Uganda
• African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands
• Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management, Radboud
University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
• Law and Governance Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
• Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
• Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• VNG International, the Netherlands
• Resource Based Conflicts Management Network, Nairobi, Kenya
• LOGO South - Millennium Development Goal Program, Kampala, Uganda
• Bureau de la Coopération suisse, Burundi
The programme ‘Grounding Land Governance’ is funded by WOTRO Science for
Global Development, a division within NWO, The Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research.
http://www.wotro.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_6UB9S8_Eng
For more information on the programme, please contact the coordinator of the
programme: Mathijs van Leeuwen.
Email: m.vanleeuwen@fm.ru.nl
PhD's:
Peter Justin
Doreen Kobusingye
Embedding Land conflict
Decentralized land governance and conflict transformation in Uganda
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Decentralization in Uganda has a long history. Though serving as an example
for many other African countries, results of the programme are mixed in
terms of local participation in decision making and downward accountability
of office holders. This research project explores the experiences with
decentralization of land governance in particular. Disputes about land often
represent a complex blending of intra-family tensions, local politics and
corruption, patronage, institutionalised dispossession or exclusion, and
wider economic developments. The project explores such complex relationships
between (local) land conflicts and conflicts at other levels in Uganda,
identify how those relationships are restructured as a result of
decentralization, and what this implies for post-conflict stability.
Shifting Legitimacies
Decentralized land governance and legal pluralism in Burundi
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The transition from war to peace in Burundi is marked by multiple land
disputes related to displacement and return, a surge in land grabbing, as
well as structural land scarcity, persisting inequality and a lack of
alternative livelihood options. This research project explores how state
authorities as well as customary institutions and new institutions created
through aid interventions deal with these multiple land conflicts.
Currently, there is considerable debate about the attributes and interplay
between these different institutions, which each have their limitations.
With a view to more effective responses to land conflict, decentralization
and land governance reform have been introduced in Burundi. These
developments reshape the authority and legitimacy of the different
institutions and legal frameworks and intensify a situation of legal
pluralism. The project explores such changes in relative authority and
legitimacy of locally prevailing institutions, and how this impacts local
capacities for resolving land conflicts.
Reconstructing the state
Decentralized land governance and relations of governance in Southern
Sudan
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In Southern Sudan, decentralization policies are implemented after a very
long civil war, in a context where the state has largely been absent in the
past. Reforming land governance in such a context is a process of reordering
and re-negotiating power relationships between local people and the state.
Legitimacy of both local institutions and newly emerging state structures is
contested, and it remains unclear how local people will participate in
decision making about problems related to land allocation. The project
explores how decentralization develops in the interaction between emerging
land governance by the state and ongoing local land governance processes.
The project focuses on the challenges for outsiders’ intervention in dealing
with such institutions, which are often preconceived in terms such as
‘patronage’ or ‘nepotism’, yet may be deeply rooted in local communities. It
explores how public authority gets shape, and how political legitimacy,
downward accountability and accessibility of both state and non-state
institutions comes about at the local level.
Discourses, policies, and practices of decentralized land governance
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To better understand why particular decentralization policies work better in
certain contexts than others, this project analyses discourses of decentralized
land governance and the assumptions and ‘theories of change’ underlying them,
and assesses their applicability in the real world. In fact, discourses on
decentralizing land governance are not ‘neutral’, but highly political, assuming
certain ideal relationships between citizens and state representatives, and how
resources should ideally be managed. Further, discourses of decentralization are
adopted by different stakeholders to advance different political projects. Our
understanding of decentralized land governance is incomplete without assessing
how policy actually gets shape. This research project investigates how
interveners may better take account of the local dynamics of land governance
reform.
Dr. Matthijs van
Leeuwen's profile at ASC Leiden
Partners in the programme
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The African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, is the only
multidisciplinary academic research institute in the Netherlands devoted
entirely to the study of Africa. It welcomes African scholars through its
visiting fellowship programme, has a monthly seminar programme and an
extensive library that is open to the general public. Its current research
and education programmes focus on the following themes: Connections and
Transformations: The Social Construction of Linking Technologies in Africa
and Beyond; Economy, Environment and Exploitation; and Social Movements and
Political Culture.
Website: http://www.ascleiden.nl/
The Faculty of Development Studies (FDS) at Mbarara University of Science
and Technology (MUST), Uganda, contributes to the interdisciplinary analysis
of development in Uganda, by focusing practically on the comparative
problems and prospects for Uganda and the Great Lakes region. Other faculty
objectives include advancing capacity in development studies by contributing
to local, national and international policymaking. It faculty offers degree
programmes in development studies as well as community based training
focusing on the practical applications of physical and social science to the
needs of the community.
Website:
http://www.must.ac.ug/view_fac_ins.php?faculty_id=3&faculty_code=ds
The Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM) of the
Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is an interdisciplinary
institute that offers education and carries out research in the field of
conflict studies. In addition to offering elective education in the
Bachelor’s stage, the CICAM participates in the Human Geography Master’s
programme ‘Conflicts, Territories and Identities’. Its research deals with
questions regarding possibilities of conflict prevention and conflict
intervention, with special attention to post-conflict reconstruction and
peacebuilding processes.
Website: http://www.ru.nl/cicam
Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, offers education,
research and policy advice on the issues of conflict and natural disasters,
the relations between these crises and processes of development, and the
dynamics of aid interventions during and after disaster and conflict. It
contributes with qualitative research to multi-disciplinary approaches.
Disaster Studies combines academic teaching and research with a desire to
enhance policy discussions and local and international responses to disaster
and conflict. Research is interactive in nature and builds on dialogue with
policy-makers and people in the field.
Website: http://www.disasterstudies.nl/UK/
The Law and Governance group of Wageningen University, the Netherlands,
focuses on the role of law and governance in the domains of food and natural
resources. In research and teaching we pay attention to rules, agreements,
and institutions devised and applied at different levels of socio-political
organization. We analyze the often problematic and contradictory interaction
of state and non-state rules originating from various sources of law and
other forms of regulation, whether local, national or global. The group
combines legal and social-scientific knowledge and expertise. It is our aim
to analyze and understand existing conditions in the domains of food and
natural resources, and to contribute to their improvement.
Website: http://www.law.wur.nl/uk/
The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is an
independent centre of knowledge and expertise in the areas of international
and intercultural cooperation, operating at the interface between theory and
practice and between policy and implementation. The Institute contributes to
sustainable development, poverty alleviation and cultural preservation and
exchange. KIT operates internationally through development projects,
scientific research and training, and also provides consultancy and
information services. These activities, along with those of its Tropenmuseum,
Tropentheater and publishing house, are the Institute’s means of bringing
together people and organizations within the Netherlands and all around the
world. One of its areas of expertise is rural decentralization and local
governance.
Website: http://kit.nl/
VNG International is the International Cooperation Agency of the Association
of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG is the Association of Netherlands
Municipalities). Its mission is to strengthen good local government
worldwide. VNG International supports decentralisation processes and
facilitates decentralised cooperation. It aims to strengthen local
governments, their associations, training institutes and decentralisation
task forces both in developing countries and in countries in transition. VNG
International’s work is financed by the Netherlands Ministries of Foreign
Affairs and Home Affairs, the European Union, the World Bank, various United
Nations agencies, and others.
Website: http://www.vng-international.nl/
The LOGO South - Millennium Development Goal Program, Kampala, Uganda, is a programme of VNG International that supports Dutch local authorities, their
twinning partners and associations of local authorities in developing
countries to execute projects.
Website:
http://www.vng-international.nl/projectsprogrammes.html
The Resource Based Conflicts (RBC) Management Network is a coalition of
civil society organizations that seeks to support peace building and
conflict prevention efforts in the Horn and East Africa region by partnering
with like-minded entities and seeking innovative strategies for equipping
civil society organizations with the right skills and tools to be able to
make a difference in the conflict prone areas of the region. A section of
civil society organizations from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea
and Sudan have collectively set up a regional network as a strategy for
building synergies towards a coordinated approach for tackling regional
conflicts as well as managing the impacts of existing Resource Based
Conflicts in the Horn and East Africa region.
Website: http://www.rbc.or.ke/
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is the international
cooperation agency within Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs (FDFA). It is responsible for the overall coordination of
development and cooperation activities, as well as for all humanitarian aid
delivered from Switzerland. SDC has been active in the Great Lakes since the
1960s, helping to respond to the political, economic, security and
humanitarian related challenges in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). Switzerland’s support for peace consolidation and
reducing poverty in these three countries is envisioned in a framework of
regional integration in line with the Swiss government’s “Great Lakes
Strategy 2009-2012.” SDC promotes a comprehensive approach to development.
For the execution of its programmes, SDC works cooperatively with the
authorities, the concerned populations and different implementing partners.
SDC works to improve the quality of life for the inhabitants of the Great
Lakes through programmes in two sectors: basic health and good governance.
SDC implements seven national programmes and several regional initiatives
through the joint coordination of activities at its regional cooperation
office in Kigali, Rwanda and programme offices in Bujumbura, Burundi and
Bukavu, DRC.
Website :
http://www.cooperation-suisse.admin.ch/grandslacs/fr/Home/La_cooperation_suisse_dans_les_Grands_Lacs |
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Embedding land conflict
Shifting legitimacies
Reconstructing the state
Discourses, policies, and practices of decentralized
land governance
Partners in the Programme
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