Viable partnerships are the prerequisite for a successful land reform programme. However, all stakeholders, comprising beneficiary communities, government and investors, need to play their part to ensure the long-term sustainability of these joint ventures, said Peter Setou, Chief Executive of Vumelana Advisory Fund.
12 August 2022: Land reform – Viable partnerships are the prerequisite for a successful land reform programme. However, all stakeholders, comprising beneficiary communities, government and investors, need to play their part to ensure the long-term sustainability of these joint ventures, said Peter Setou, Chief Executive of Vumelana Advisory Fund. Vumelana is a non-profit organisation that works with land reform beneficiaries to make their land profitable by facilitating partnerships between communities and investors.
Setou made these remarks at the 9th annual Agrico conference recently hosted by The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM).
Vumelana is a non-profit organisation that provides advisory services and administrative support to communities to structure and maintain partnerships with investors at no risk to the community. It does this through mobilising private capital for the implementation of sustainable post-settlement partnerships, thus reducing the burden on the state to capitalise or recapitalise projects.
Setou told delegates that successful partnerships should be anchored on commercially sustainable activities where the benefits are clearly defined for everyone, the risks are carefully allocated, and the agreements entered into can withstand legal muster.
“As a pioneering organisation that delivers the services that we do in the land reform programme, we have amassed a lot of institutional memory over the last 10 years that has given us the opportunity to fine tune an offering. We believe that community private partnerships could contribute immensely to successful land reform and our proven model could go a long way to bucking the trend of land reform failures and help the programme to turn the corner,” says Setou.
In addition, Setou said asymmetry in power in these partnerships should be properly managed and oversight should be decisive.
Referencing the factors that are cited as the primary drivers for the collapse of partnerships in the land reform programme, Setou says it is incumbent on communities to find workable ways of managing conflict and implement effective governance structures to oversee these joint ventures.
Government, Setou added, can improve the success of the land reform programme through implementing unambiguous and clear policies and enhancing speed of execution. He said that government at all levels should demonstrate political will and improve the level of commitment to the land reform programme.
In his presentation, Setou argued that investors and other private partners can help or hinder the success of the land reform programme, depending on the level of social commitment, the extent of experience, the attractiveness of returns and the appetite to go with the process. Advisors, on the other hand, depending on their level of experience and the degree of support they provide, can also hamper or stimulate the success of the land reform programme.
“There is no one solution that can be singled out to change the trajectory of the land reform programme. Land reform is a complex, multi-stakeholder programme that calls for a fine balancing act of various interests, some of which may be in direct contradiction with one another. As challenging as this process can be, the failure of the land reform programme is something that this country and other African countries cannot afford politically, socially and economically. Successful land reform is crucial for stability, social cohesion and food security for the region,” said Setou.
He concluded by inviting potential investors, claimant communities and interested stakeholders to work with Vumelana to help in supporting initiatives to drive the success of the land reform programme as part of efforts to drive a partnership-driven model for land reform at scale.