Addis Ababa, 14 November 2025 – Under a wave of applause that still echoed through the grand hall of the African Union Commission, the 6th African Land Policy Conference closed with a session of rare political and emotional intensity.
For nearly four days, governments, researchers, traditional authorities, representatives of the diaspora, women’s and youth organizations, the private sector and civil society debated, confronted perspectives and built what many are already calling a “foundational milestone” for the continent’s land future.
The final session, steeped in solemnity, opened with remarks from Dr. Janet Ademe, representative of the African Union Commission since 2014, invited to deliver the closing reflections. In a message infused with gratitude, political firmness and continental hope, she recalled that this year’s theme — land governance, justice and reparations for Africans and their descendants in the diaspora — required participants to go “beyond the technicalities of administration” to reaffirm land as a source of justice, dignity, identity and peace.
Dr. Ademe summarized the spirit of this edition with five key messages:
- restoring justice at the heart of land governance;
- strengthening state commitment to the AU Declaration on land challenges;
- consolidating partnerships between governments, universities, traditional authorities, civil society and the private sector;
- placing research and knowledge as the foundation for any reform;
- ensuring coherent continental coordination under Agenda 2063, “The Africa We Want.”
She also saluted the titanic work carried out behind the scenes: the scientific committee, secretariat, experts, interpreters, rapporteurs, IT teams, communication teams, security staff, NELGA network coordinators, and even the cultural dancers who celebrated the richness of African identities. “Without you, there would be no conference,” she declared to dozens of team members invited on stage, some visibly moved.
The first official speaker, Mr. Abubakar Sappay Foraymusa, Director General of the National Land Commission of Sierra Leone, captured the moment with “Everything good must come to an end,” before presenting a series of commitments meticulously negotiated by African states.
Governments announced the establishment of an integrated national policy for land restitution, cultural preservation and historical repair. A single national architecture must now bring together the identification of beneficiaries, the restoration of indigenous place names, the protection of sacred sites, and the anchoring of policies in social justice, human rights and sustainable development.
To support these ambitions, national restitution and restoration funds will be created, financed by state budgets, partners and restitution agreements. They will cover compensation for displaced communities, the rehabilitation of artefacts and ancestral remains without creating unsustainable financial burden, as well as research, data systems and capacity building.
African governments also pledged to fully recognize customary land systems, harmonizing statutory and customary law, ensuring equitable access for women, youth and marginalized groups, and systematically involving traditional authorities who administer more than 80% of the continent’s land. All efforts must be grounded in African values such as sovereignty, collective ownership, food security and cultural heritage.
In the same spirit, states announced strengthened partnerships with universities and research centers to modernize land governance training, equip students with solid technical competencies, and realign African narratives with national realities. They committed to standardizing community engagement to prevent conflicts, integrating digital innovation into land management, establishing a biannual African Conference of National Land Commissions, better regulating peri-urban land amid rapid urbanization, and further mobilizing the African diaspora in land policy. The moderator smiled: “It’s a colossal agenda. But we know you are capable.”
The floor then passed to academia. Professor Moha El-Ayachi, Director of IAV and NELGA Coordinator, recalled the progress made since 2023: NELGA universities updated their curricula to align with CLPA recommendations; these programs are now taught at bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, as well as in continuing education and MOOCs; comparative NELGA–NODES research has been launched. One challenge persists: establishing sustainable African financing mechanisms for land governance research.
Academic institutions then unveiled new commitments structured around four pillars:
- Training:
- revisiting national land policies through the lenses of decolonization and nation-building;
- integrating AI, spatial technologies and climate issues;
- prioritizing youth in academic programs;
- developing new accredited trainings — such as climate and land at Western Cape.
- Research:
- programs on the decolonization of land relations;
- stronger collaborations with civil society and social movements;
- studies on spatial inequalities, digital agriculture, emerging collective land regimes;
- creation of digital research repositories;
- work on youth access to land, inheritance practices;
- partnerships with the diaspora and the Global Land Observatory.
- Support youth initiatives on land at national and regional levels of YILAA (Youth Initiative for Land in Africa) and mentor them to advance research and advocacy.
- Knowledge dissemination:
- strengthening the CLPA continental platform;
- supporting the GLPGI journal;
- sharing results through briefs, films, radio, social media and newspapers;
- publishing in local languages to reach communities directly.
- Youth, the land sector and sustainability:
- ensuring CLPA’s long-term financial sustainability;
- integrating biodiversity, oceans, forests and even space applications into land debates;
- encouraging young researchers to work on reparations and justice;
- normalizing land-sector practices at continental level;
- strengthening ties with professional bodies, including surveyors.
“We will be watching closely,” warned the moderator.
The final voice was His Majesty Stephen Izakare, speaking for the Forum of African Traditional Authorities. Despite minor technical issues, his declaration stood out as one of the highlights of the closing ceremony.
Traditional authorities committed to promoting inclusivity in addressing historical injustices, increasing transparency — notably through customary land administration secretariats to combat multiple land sales — and reforming customary practices that still disadvantage women, youth or people with disabilities.
They pledged to include more Queen Mothers, women and youth in land governance structures, actively participate in national policy development by integrating indigenous knowledge, and strengthen their capacities through training in law, land governance, management and ICT. They also expressed readiness to lead community economic projects combining development and preservation of customary stewardship, improve land access for vulnerable groups and the diaspora, and collaborate with the African Land Policy Centre and universities to build a continental curriculum on customary land.
“We must all see the commitments so we can hold one another accountable,” insisted the moderator.
The next scene featured the Scientific Committee taking the stage: Prof. Kimani, Dr. Liz Musvoto, Prof. Moha El-Ayachi, Eileen Wakesho, Onyekachi Wambuwe, Nancy, Dr. Emmanuel Soulé, Prof. Milou and others. Joane Kagwanja reminded the audience that these men and women had held “more than 25 meetings” since May to review abstracts, correct papers, organize panels, validate moderators and ensure the scientific rigor of an event now considered one of the continent’s most influential on land issues. The applause was long and heartfelt.
“Without them, there would have been no conference,” Kagwanja repeated, triggering another wave of appreciation.
The closing of this 6th African Land Policy Conference was far more than an institutional ritual: it marked a political turning point. Africa has adopted a shared vision in which land is no longer merely a title or territory, but a spiritual heritage, a historical right and a lever for collective reparation. The active presence of youth, women, the diaspora and traditional authorities reminded all that land transformation cannot rest on a single actor: it is an intergenerational, transdisciplinary and deeply identity-rooted project. On a continent marked by conflicts, internal displacement, historical injustices and extractive pressures, the resolutions adopted in Addis Ababa constitute an ambitious yet realistic response. They affirm that another future is possible one where restitution, memory and land justice form the foundations of shared prosperity.
As delegations leave Addis Ababa, one certainty prevails: the conference is over, but the work has only just begun. States will now be judged not by their speeches, but by their ability to translate into action the commitments they themselves brought forward. And in the corridors of the AU Commission, the echo of applause is giving way to a new conviction: Africa is moving forward, united, toward the land it wants and toward the justice it deserves.
By Kilalopress
