UN-Habitat helps in solving land disputes

After the death of their father about 10 years ago, Celestine Buhoro believed that she would at least get a portion of land as part of her inheritance. This was not to be and the brother hogged the whole piece left behind. When the brother also passed on, his son- Celestine’s nephew- also held on to the land.

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“It was a long process where both sides in the dispute were invited to give their submissions. I gave my side of the story and finally a resolution was reached. I am happy because now I have a plot of land where I grow my own vegetables and I can take care of myself,” Celestine Buhoro.

CDM is one of the many NGOs working with UN-Habitat in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo to solve land conflicts, which is the leading cause of fights in Africa’s second biggest country by size. UN-Habitat works with organanisations like CDM through the ‘Community Participatory Land Use Planning programme’

This DFID-funded programme implemented by the UN-Habitat country office in DRC seeks to promote the concept of integrated land use planning at community scale to mitigate the risk of land disputes while unlocking the potential for increased socioeconomic development in the three provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri.

“We have been in this for the past seven years and I must say it is through well wishers like UN-Habitat that we are able to carry on with our work. We normally try to solve conflicts immediately they erupt otherwise if they drag for long they become more difficult to solve,” CDM Director Kodakala Puruzi.

UN-Habitat’s help has been in form of staff training, office furniture provision as well as availing transport to CDM transport whenever they are going to the field. He however says that after UN-Habitat closed the office in Minova, CDM has been undergoing a lot of challenges and wishes the organisation would re-open the office.

Source: Reliefweb. Read full article here.
27 June, 2017