Assessment And Technical Support To Darfur Land Commission And Addressing Land Concern At Return Sites

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As part of Darfur Development Strategy (DDS) foundational and short term (FaST) the joint programme intends to address issue of land in Darfur which constitutes a considerable challenge to Darfur peace initiatives, demanding equitable and sustainable interventions to develop holistic solutions to meet the basic needs and rights of all residents and develop in place land policy and management in the long term, through sustainable land management. Ensuring durable solutions for the poor including the displaced in Darfur is therefore a priority. Addressing the issues of land policy, legislation and management in a politically, socially, economically sustainable manner will require development of innovative approaches with the bottom-up approach to ensure participation of all stakeholders at all levels to reach a consensus between customary and statutory law. It also requires adoption of dynamic, flexible and realistic land conflict resolution mechanism and land legislation that ensures long term vision with short term practical solution to the key land issues based on participatory priority setting.  Fortunately and timely, the DLC has already embarked on the Natural Resources and Land Use Database and Mapping for Darfur; Traditional Land Use and Hawakeer Management Study; Collection and Documentation of Traditional Customs on Land Use in Darfur which provide ample opportunity for technical assistance and a new perspective in looking at the problem of land tenure.     

 The experience and knowledge of FAO on land use planning and sustainable land resources management will be capitalized to keep track and guide activities. Thus, VGGT tools and principles is an additional instrument that compliments the experiences of UN-Habitat in resolving land disputes. Such tools and the normative works of FAO, the knowledge base on land, forests and water will be used in applying local land use plans and sustainable land management practices learned from other countries in Africa and the Near East Region with similar farming systems and agro climatic conditions.  

 Given the conflict situation in Darfur, the project will apply conflict sensitive programming as a best practice in all activities.  This will include conducting of conflict assessment in the 50 prioritized return villages and along the proposed migratory corridors to help in targeting the interventions, identification of key stakeholders and actors to guide the design of the appropriate actions.   This will be a bottom up approach from village and Admin Unit up to Locality and state levels and will be concluded with Darfur and National level discussions.

 The priority areas of interventions in the 5 States of Darfur will be identified in close coordination with the DRA and state Ministries of Planning, Ministries of Agriculture, Returnees CBOs and CSOs. Rapid assessment will be conducted for 50 returns villages with the purpose to identify suitability, constraints and needs of the return villages, in coordination with Voluntary Return and Resettlement Commission (VRRC), in order to provide important information on the reintegration needs of the returnees. It will also represent an important tool for planning medium to long-term recovery in Darfur. Return villages will be assessed within the overall context of the spatial regional strategic plan prepared by UN-Habitat, and will also be framed within the reintegration context. To facilitate return of IDPs the project will develop of land conflict resolution mechanism at local level which will base on the assessment of indigenous and traditional system that based on mediation is based on win-win mediation.

 It is anticipated that this project will establish the foundation for other FaST projects and as such strong linkages and coordination with FaST interventions such as provision of basic services, Return  and provision of sustainable energy should be encouraged and supported.

 Desk review of the literatures, statistics and records on return villages will be conducted in order to select appropriate return villages, for further assessment and studies. Rapid assessment will be conducted for 50 returns villages with the purpose to identify suitability, constraints and needs of the return villages, in coordination with Voluntary Return and Resettlement Commission (VRRC), in order to provide important information on the reintegration needs of the returnees. It will also represent an important tool for planning medium to long-term recovery in Darfur. Return villages will be assessed within the overall context of the spatial regional strategic plan prepared by UN-Habitat, and will also be framed within the reintegration context. It requires review and preparation of recommendations for settlements hierarchy in support of rural-urban linkages in terms of mutual benefit and interdependency between town and village. Within this context the exercise will include the assessment of existing infrastructure basic services and affordability of transport. At the village level, village boundary including future expansion as well as a buffer grazing zone around the village, following traditional practice, will be delineated in a participatory planning in collaboration with Ministries of Physical Planning and Public Utilities (MPPPUs) and Ministry of Agriculture and Animal wealth, to avoid encroaching of the settlement at the expense of grazing or agricultural areas in addition to planning for village facilities and services, both existing and proposed.

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