Meeting in Lisbon

FAC coordinator Ruth Hall (South Africa) and FAC researcher Joseph Yaro (Ghana) were invited to participate the Land Policy Initiative & Coalition for Dialogue on Africa event, a Policy Forum on Foreign Direct Investments in Land in Africa: Risks, Opportunities, Challenges, which was held at the African Development Bank Group Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, on 7 June 2011. Ruth made one of the keynote inputs on the topic: “Is FDI the best option for rapidly promoting African agricultural development?”

The meeting provided an opportunity to meet with African Development Bank officials, national ministers of land and agriculture, and various other development partners in multilateral and bilateral agencies. Subsequent to the meeting, this input was written up as a submission to the report on the event, and incorporated into the LPI?s plans for its future engagement with African leaders on regulating “land-based FDI”.

Meeting in Nairobi

The LPI hosted a “High-level Policy Forum on Land-Based Foreign Direct investments in Africa” on 4- 5 October 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. The objectives were to share information and experiences on Foreign Direct Investment in land; develop an African perspective on land-based investments in Africa; and propose concrete interventions in the framework of the implementation of the AU declaration on land issues. The event aimed to bring together land experts from all regions of the continent, African Ministers in charge of land, African eminent personalities, Parliamentarians, representatives of CSOs, farmers organizations, women organizations, the African private sector, centres of excellences; and development partners. The concept note for this event (the position that the LPI will put to African ministers and other participants) includes proposals for host governments, development partners, which draw directly on the FAC proposals presented at the Lisbon meeting and later submitted in writing.