United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

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On the agenda are the following topics:

I. Land Reform in Africa

Even in the 21st century and every seventh human die of starvation. Solely in Africa starve 206 Million humans. Besides natural disasters like the current drought in Somalia the agricultural situation is an important factor which also influences the living conditions in the development countries. The life of the people in East-Africa often depends on the availability of land with which they are able to sustain their family. In this regard, it is necessary to pay more attention to the agriculture. The fact that African land is enhanced leased to foreign investors since some years, deteriorates the situation of the developing countries as well. Thus, the current famine in East Africa is not only caused by the extreme drought but also “Land-Grabbing”, the extensive allocation of country to foreign investors, represents a further reason. The hope for positive effects like the strengthening of the economy or investments of agriculture technology takes a backseat based on the prevailing negative repercussions for the local population. The contracts often miss an institutional or legal framework. The regulations of the contract are not equal whereas they are concentrated on the interests of the investors. Thus, many organizations rightly have a very critical view on Land-Grabbing.

Yet the UN has not answered the needs of hungry humanity and the national governments have not risen to the challenge. Based on the G8 summit in 2008 the World Bank, FAO and UNDP induced seven “Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment”. Certainly, there are still a lot of abuses of these principles and the UN-Assembly tries to work on the voluntary principles since 2008. Thus, the UN member states needs to work out guiding principles and a legal framework to protect the local inhabitants from the investors who want buy the land just to nourish their own population with spending no thought to the starving native population.

II. Internally Displaced Persons

Currently, in more than 50 countries of the world, there are 27.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Almost half of the IDPs live on the African continent, e.g., in the Sudan, Somalia, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is a steady decline in the number of IDPs in Africa, while the displacement continues to rise in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, e.g. there are over a million IDPs in Colombia and Iraq.

The GA has addressed internal displacement in several resolutions. In 2002, the Internal Displacement Unit was established within the UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. But looking at the total number of IDPs the international community has failed – both in preventing new crises that cause displacement and in contributing to the creation of environments conducive to return and other durable solutions. Finally in October 2009 the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of IDPs by the African Union can be described as an historic accomplishment. The “Kampala Convention” is the first legally binding regional instrument to impose on states the obligation to assist and protect IDPs.

But still the challenge for UN member states is to develop a legal frameworks and policies with guiding principles and to allocate adequate help to returning IDPs. To solve these problems the fact that the number of IDPs in Africa is not growing can help the UN to find a possible solution. As the UNDP is a solution-oriented, knowledge-based development organization and one of its specific goals is to support post-crisis and socio-economic recovery through the sustainable reintegration of internally displaced persons, the UNDP is the right forum to discuss the topic and to support countries to reach their own development objectives and internationally agreed goals.

If you have any questions, please email us at undp (at) mainmun.de