USAID Launches New Land Administration to Nurture Development: LAND Program

Addis Ababa—Sileshi Getahun, State Minister of Agriculture, and Dennis Weller, Mission Director of USAID Ethiopia, officially launched the “Land Administration to Nurture Development” (LAND) program today at a national meeting  of land administration officials in Addis Ababa. 

The program builds on previous USAID land administration and property rights projects from 2005-2013 and will operate in six regions of Ethiopia, on the federal level, and in collaboration with Ethiopian universities. The program will bolster land administration capacity in the country and will expand land certification for smallholder farmers in Agriculture Growth Program woredas. The new program will also work with pastoral communities on access to grazing land and water and to build resilience in drought-prone areas.

USAID Mission Director Dennis Weller discussed the strategic importance of land management to national development at the event: “Transparent and well-planned administration of land is critical to investments in food production, to equitable growth in the agriculture sector, to conservation of natural resources, and, last but not least, to peace and progress for the vast number of Ethiopian women and men who reside and work in rural areas.”

Under the U.S. President’s Feed the Future initiative, the LAND project is implemented by TetraTech-Associates in Rural Development with local partners including Haramaya and Bahir Dar Universities. It has an estimated value of 11 million USD.

This article originally appeared on the USAID Mission Ethiopia website.