INTRODUCTION

Oxfam is a global movement for change that empowers people to create a secure future, just and free from poverty. We believe that everyone has a right to safety, security, a livelihood, and a say in decisions that affect them. In Uganda, our Vision is to see Uganda free of inequality and Injustice: A society where people, particularly women and young people, claim and exercise their rights and responsibilities and influence decisions that affect their lives. Our work is guided by the Country Strategic Framework (CSF) (2021-2030), organized around four themes: Governance and Accountability, Resilient Livelihoods, Humanitarian preparedness and response and Gender Justice and Women's Rights. All the themes work towards influencing policy and practice, youth and women empowerment, inclusive participation in decision-making at various levels, and capacity strengthening of national and local actors. 

Under the governance and accountability theme; OXFAM looks at ensuring that vulnerable women and youth have increased space for the role in contributing meaningfully to decision making in development process and holding key stakeholders accountable. This program focuses on citizen participation in transparency and accountability drives, addressing inequality in as far as raising citizen’s voices regarding how natural resources including land and minerals are governed (collected and allocated). One critical aspect under this theme is its focus on extractives in which OXFAM seeks to ensure that Citizens, especially women and youth participating and influencing natural resources policies and practices for improvement in social services and goods. The resilient Livelihoods theme on the other hand envisages that vulnerable women and youth are empowered to enjoy their rights to food and income security. The theme focuses on policy gaps with an objective to influence the formation and implementation of pro poor livelihoods and gender-sensitive policies and programs, promote women’s access and control over economic resources like land and engage with small-scale farmers and pastoralists. Lastly, the humanitarian response and preparedness theme, OXFAM seeks to empower Vulnerable women, youth (F&M), to enable them to mitigate, cope with shocks and enjoy their rights to a life with dignity. The theme specifically engages in a context with poor land governance systems, and internal and external conflicts, and targets particularly women, boys, and girls but also smallholder farmers, pastoralists with activities targeted towards ensuring that women are supported to meaningfully engage in decision-making processes for humanitarian response, community capacities are strengthened to cope with shocks and change through disaster reduction.  Some of the decisions that affect both the refugee but also the host community concern land acquisition. 

These four core themes directly and or indirectly engage with core land rights issues such as land acquisition and debates around compensation and require a firm appreciation and engagement with clear land rights interventions. Consequently, all these themes have a strong land rights component to them, implying that land rights are a key factor for OXFAM to achieve its goals.  OXFAM directly and indirectly through some of her partners are already working on land rights interventions that affect her core programmatic areas.  OXFAM has specifically been engaged in supporting key policy discussions such as the recent discussions of consideration of amendments of Article 26 (2) (a) relating to compulsory land acquisition and compensation, the Uganda National Land Policy and the draft Rangelands Management and Pastoralist Policy, and directly and indirectly supporting poor and vulnerable communities whose livelihoods have been affected as a result of the effects of mushrooming investments and coupled with poor land governance.[1] 

The challenge however is that the land rights work is scattered and not consolidated as a cross cutting theme across the core thematic areas. Adequate implementation of land rights requires attention consolidated and consistent efforts across the different themes and requires active and proactive strategic planning and resource and activity direction with actionable undertakings to ensure that the positive goodwill is reflected in the program work.[2]

The Land Rights Strategy (LRS) therefore aims to integrate a land rights-responsive approach into Country Strategic framework through a set of guiding principles and crosscutting strategies for Land Rights-responsive project design and implementation. In addition, the Land Rights Strategy provides a practical guidance to OXFAM-U team and partners in ensuring a stronger land rights lens throughout the design and implementation of all project components, more specifically in application of an approach that ensures both project processes and actual implementation accounts for importance of Land Rights and seek out opportunities to address land rights in all program activities.

BACKGROUND

Uganda’s population has grown tremendously over the past few years. This population growth rate is not commensurate to the available natural resources. The average number of people per household is 4.59 persons (Statista 2021)1.[3] The large family size means people struggle to access and sustain their livelihood from the limited natural resources which exacerbates environmental degradation, encroachment on wetlands and deforestation among other challenges. Forest cover has reduced from 24% in 1990 to 9% in 2012, due to pressure exerted by factors such as population growth, urbanization, and large land-based investments.  65% of forest degradation takes place on private land (NFA, 2015).[4] The development of the extractives industry with intense mining activities of natural resources such as sand, gold and other minerals escalate the pressure on land and natural resources while at the same time deepening inequality because of disproportionate land access, control, use and ownership among the poor (majority of whom are smallholder farmers) and the rich.[5]

Land, which is a very valuable natural resource and one of the factors of production, is bedeviled with limited access for vulnerable and marginalized communities, especially women and youth. Powerful and influential people grab land from the vulnerable poor, who have limited access to justice, thus affecting their main source of livelihood. Furthermore, land inequality exists and is aggravated by the negative social norms that discriminate against women and girls from accessing, owning, and controlling land and yet land is a key productive resource for women and youth economic empowerment. The land tenure system especially the customary land tenure system is entangled by patriarchy through male dominance hence limiting women’s economic empowerment. 

Inequality has played a major role in upscaling the exploitation of the vulnerable and poverty. Inequities in land ownership and access have persisted in Uganda for centuries. Big agribusinesses are growing exponentially in Uganda, some are national while others are foreign or conglomerates. This has increased the demand for land to establish their operations. The land these agribusinesses require falls under any of the following four (4) tenure systems, mailo, leasehold, freehold and customary. More than 8060% of land in Uganda is owned customarily and supports the majority (nearly 6575%) of the households in Uganda who are smallholder farmers who continually face unfair treatment in the form of displacements by large-scale agribusinesses and public projects. Poor land management has led to unclear ownership of land and a high rate of occurrence of disputes and conflicts. About 11 per cent of agricultural output is lost due to land disputes.[6]

Pastoralism and Rangelands Management. Rangeland in Uganda covers an estimated area of 84,000 Km2. This is about 44 per cent of the country’s land mass commonly known as the cattle corridor. It stretches from the south through the central region to the northeastern part of Uganda.[7] Pastoral and agropastoral communities are inhabiting the cattle corridor. Pastoralism remains an important land-use practice in the rangelands of Uganda. It contributes significantly to the livelihoods of Ugandans and socially benefits the local communities as well as contributes towards the national revenue and needs to be preserved.[8] The 1995 Uganda Constitution mandates the Government to enact laws and formulate policies from time to time, to regulate the use of land. The regulation of land use is done through physical planning as a tool that guides the harmonization of diverse needs for human settlements, production, and conservation. It emphasizes the adoption of best practices in land utilization to promote growth in various sectors such as agriculture and industry while considering population trends and ecological conservation.[9]

Since 1995, the government of Uganda has undertaken a series of ambitious legal and policy reforms regarding property rights and resource governance. Even though these actions intended to bring about fundamental reforms in rights, tenure management and control of land the Country is still struggling with unfair land management systems and rampant displacement of vulnerable persons, especially women food producers. In Uganda, despite land being a very important resource in production, its estimated that only 15%–20% of the land is formally registered.[10] Unfair land displacement is further plunging smallholder farmers and landowners into abject poverty as they (smallholder farmers) continually lose their land which is a key entry point (land as a means of production) into global agribusiness value chains. This is exacerbated by the impacts of extensive land degradation for larger plantations, making climatic conditions unfavorable and thus affecting multiple aspects of farmers’ livelihoods such as production, agro-processing, and value additions. Furthermore, even though the UN Commission on the Status of Women noted in 1998 that land rights discrimination against women is a violation of human rights and the presence of the current legal and policy system on land governance, women still have unequal access to rural land and associated natural resources which reduces their capacity to participate in profitable agribusiness hence further increasing the inequality gap.[11]

Oxfam in Uganda in 2019 developed a land rights strategy to speak to the above issues in its programming as guided by the then Oxfam Country Strategy (OCS). The strategy, however, expired when Oxfam in Uganda adopted a new Country Strategic Framework (CSF) - (2021-2030).[12] Based on the above background, there is a need to develop, review, update and incorporate emerging issues and address land rights/use pressures for sustainable land utilization and development of the Country.

RATIONALE

Land use pressures arising out of the country’s quest for economic development, high rate of population growth, the climate crisis is hitting, and poor land use planning practices are straining the land and land-based resources. This has led to inappropriate decisions in the allocation of land use activities that are manifested through, land degradation, soil erosion, loss of vegetation cover, loss of biodiversity, wetlands degradation, pollution, urban sprawl, conflicts over land use, reduced land productivity, among others. The demands placed on the environment to provide resources for human consumption will continue to grow with the rising population and increasing per capita consumption. Given that Uganda is largely dependent on land resources, the future can only point to increasing pressure on these resources. Inefficient land use planning affects productive land uses leading to poor performance of productive sectors, hence constraining national economic growth.

The development, review and development of the Land Rights Strategy is justified because of several reasons, one of them is that implementation of land and land rights is very critical for the overall implementation of Oxfam - Uganda programs considering that land problem affects all development programs, and that land is the most critical resource for both men and women and has multiple values and functions.  As a material and productive resource, land enables survival, livelihoods, and agricultural production. Implying all the four core programs of Oxfam requires secure rights to land and or an understanding and appreciation of land rights. Proper understanding and appreciation of land rights issues are considered one the ways of tackling several social problems affecting poor communalities in Uganda like food insecurity, lack of access to education, poor education, ill health, unemployment, powerlessness, the vicious cycle of political instability and violence, domestic violence, etc. Positive land management on the other hand has a positive effect on a range of development goals, like poverty reduction, food security; improved health conditions and economic growth, etc. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

The main objective of the consultancy is to Develop, review and update the 5-year Oxfam Land Rights Strategy. 

Specific Objectives

  1. To undertake a consultative and inclusive review of the progress made during the implementation of the Oxfam in Uganda land rights strategy.
  2. To align the new land rights strategy with the new Country Strategic Framework (CSF) and Resilient Livelihood Program Framework paper. 
  3. To incorporate emerging land rights/governance/administration/management issues into the New Land Rights Strategy visa viz land law and policy. 
  4. To integrate gender, refugee rights, pastoralism and rangelands management, conflict sensitivity, food systems, and climate-smart initiatives into the new land rights strategy.
  5. To align the Oxfam land rights strategy with national, regional, and international frameworks like the African Union Land Governance Strategy, African Union Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa, The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (OECD Guidelines), Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT), etc. 

SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of work will include:

  1. Conduct stakeholder mapping of key Government Agencies, Academia, Civil Society Organizations, cultural institutions, landowners, and other relevant stakeholders both at national and local levels.
  2. Review relevant national and international policies, laws, guidelines, standards, and regulations on land rights/governance/management/use.
  3. Review relevant regional and international protocols, conventions, charters, and agreements on land rights/governance/management/use. 
  4. Compare best practices both nationally and internationally, to identify areas where improvements can be made, and innovative approaches can be adopted regarding land rights/governance/management/use. 
  5. Conduct consultations with Government Agencies, Academia, Civil Society Organizations, cultural institutions, landowners, and other relevant stakeholders both at national and local levels.
  6. Analyze data and information on land rights/governance/management/use patterns, trends, evolving needs, and challenges to inform new land rights strategy.
  7. Identify current policy gaps to be addressed in through the new land rights strategy that will inform our advocacy interventions. 
  8. Harmonize and integrate the principles of the National Land Policy with other existing government policies and laws to ensure coherence and alignment with the new land rights strategy.
  9. Develop a Gender Responsive, food systems, refugee rights, Conflict Sensitive and Climate Smart Land Rights strategy. 

6.0 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

  1. Overall supervision of the Consultant shall be done by the Land Rights Coordinator at Oxfam in Uganda. 
  2. The Consultant shall on a weekly basis report to the Land Rights Coordinator the progress made on the consultancy assignment.
  3. The Report/s of the Consultant shall be submitted to the Land rights coordinator and the Monitoring and Evaluation coordinator shall be put in copy. 
  4. The Consultant shall be responsible for facilitating stakeholder consultative meetings.
  5. Oxfam in Uganda through the Land Rights Coordinator will be responsible for supporting the Consultant in: 
    1. Ensuring timely delivery, quality control and approval of the required deliverables.
    2. Provision of introductory letters to stakeholders.
    3. Coordination of communication flow between the consultant and the stakeholders.
    4. Provide the Consultant with all supporting documents and legal frameworks required for the execution of the assignment. 
    5. Avail any relevant information from within his docket to the consultant necessary for the development, review, and update of the land rights strategy I.e. Country strategic framework (CSF), Resilient livelihood framework paper, Governance and accountability framework paper, Humanitarian response and preparedness framework paper, the Gender Justice and women’s rights framework paper etc

METHODOLOGY

The consultant will triangulate several methods to carry out the development, review, and update of the land rights strategy. These may include:

  1. Desk research: Review existing literature, policies, reports, and studies related to land rights/use/ planning/management/governance.
  2. Fieldwork: Conducting site visits into project implementation areas observe interview stakeholders
  3. Collection of spatial and socio-economic data.
  4. Stakeholder consultations: Organizing workshops, focus group discussions, and interviews with relevant stakeholders to gather input and feedback, especially Oxfam land rights partners.
  5. Data analysis: Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected during the review process.

DURATION OF THE CONSULTANCY

The duration of the Consultancy for the development, review and updating of the Land Rights Strategy is expected to be completed within 6 weeks from the commencement date. The following timeline provides an overview of key activities:

  1. Inception phase (desk research, stakeholder mapping) – Week 1
  2. Fieldwork: Conducting site visits into project implementation areas observe interview stakeholders – Week 2&3
  3. Collection of spatial and socio-economic data – Week 2&3
  4. Data analysis: Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected during the review process – Week 4,5&6
  5. Report preparation and finalization – Week 6

DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

  1. An Inception report: A detailed report outlining the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, work plan, and data collection tools.
  2. Weekly progressive reports clearly stating the status of each activity, tasks and deliverables, issues encountered and how they have been addressed.
  3. Draft 1 of the Oxfam in Uganda Land rights strategy with proposed updates based on the objectives and scope of the assignment. 
  4. Final Oxfam land rights strategy: A well-structured strategy summarizing the entire development, review and updating process, proposed updates, and recommendations.

THE CONSULTANCY TEAM COMPOSITION

The consultancy team should at least include the following experts. Having most of them is mostly preferred but will not affect any applicants that do not possess all these in their team:

  1. Team leader
  2. Policy/Legal Expert
  3. Environmental Management Expert
  4. Economist/Sociologist
  5. Rural Development Expert

QUALIFICATIONS

The consultant (Team leader) should possess the following qualifications:

  • Advanced degree in law/economics/human rights/land governance/management/administration/use/planning, urban and rural development, environmental management, or a related field.
  • Proven experience in conducting strategy development, policy reviews or similar assignments in the field of land governance/management/administration/use/planning or related areas.
  • Strong analytical skills with the ability to analyse complex data sets and identify key trends.
  • Excellent communication skills with experience in facilitating stakeholder consultations and preparing high-quality academic documents.

11.1 Summary of Qualification for the key Experts

Team Leader: Team Leader should have a master’s degree in law/human rights/Social sciences/Development studies and any related discipline

Experience:        

  • Demonstrated experience working with a multitude of stakeholders from various disciplines and backgrounds including Government, civil societies and communities, private sector, development partners and donors.
  • Demonstrated analytical, reporting and communication skills.
  • Must be fluent in English both spoken and written.
  • A minimum of 5 years practicing policy/law with at least 5 years’ experience in land administration in Uganda.
  • Experience in advocacy efforts in the land sector.

Policy/ Legal Expert: Should have a master’s degree in policy or any related discipline

Experience:

  • Proven professional experience in policy analysis and development and analytical reports in policies and laws or another related field.
  • A minimum of 5 years practicing policy/law with at least 5 years’ experience in land administration in Uganda.
  • Must be a registered professional in Uganda.
  • Demonstrated experience working with a multitude of stakeholders from various disciplines and backgrounds including Government, civil societies and communities, private sector, development partners and donors.
  • Demonstrated analytical, reporting and communication skills.
  • Must be fluent in English both verbal and written.

Environmental Management Expert: Should have Master’s degree in environmental sciences

Experience:

  • Minimum of 5 years working as an environment officer/expert with any reputable organization.
  • Demonstrated experience working with a multitude of stakeholders from various disciplines and backgrounds including Government, civil societies and communities, private sector, development partners and donors.
  • Demonstrated analytical, reporting and communication skills.
  • Must be fluent in English both verbal and written.

Sociologist/Economist:   Should have Master’s Degree in Sociology or related field              

Experience:

  • Minimum of 5 years working experience as a sociologist with a reputable organization.
  • Demonstrated experience working with a multitude of stakeholders from various disciplines and backgrounds including Government, civil societies and communities, private sector, development partners and donors.
  • Demonstrated analytical, reporting and communication skills.
  • Must be fluent in English both verbal and written.

Rural Development Expert: Should have advanced university degree in agriculture, rural development, land management, land administration, economics, natural resources management or related fields         

Experience:

  • At least five years of relevant experience.
  • Relevant experience in rural development, community development, governance and access to natural resources, land consolidation, land market development and with implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT).
  • Extent and relevance of experience in the formulation and implementation of policies and programs for rural development, including community development planning and territorial approach, as well as for land tenure, including land consolidation, land market development and access to and responsible governance of natural resources.
  • Demonstrated analytical, reporting and communication skills.
  • Must be fluent in English both verbal and written.

Work Arrangements

The following are work arrangements to ensure the successful delivery of the assignment. The team of consultants.

  1. Is expected to work from their own office premises.
  2. Must ensure that they are able to work in all regions in Uganda.
  3. Must be flexible and be able to accommodate any changes to the tasks and timeline.
  4. Must use its own equipment and resources to deliver the tasks set out under the Scope of Services.

Payment

The consultant/s will be paid in 02 instalments i.e. 20% will be paid after approval of the inception report and 80% after approval of the final report.  The consultant/s will be responsible to remit taxes that relate to the study.

Submission of Technical and Financial Proposal: 

Interested candidates are invited to submit the following application documents:

• A technical proposal detailing:

   -  Their understanding of the ToR and how they plan to execute the assignment.

   - Consultants’ relevant experience.

• Financial proposal showing:

o Availability and financial considerations.

   - A copy of the CVs of the consultant/s who will be assigned to conduct the work.

Please send your applications with the subject, “LAND RIGHTS STRATEGY CONSULTANCY” by 18th September 2024 to ugandalogistics@oxfam.org

 

FOOT NOTES

[1]"COMPULSORY LAND ACQUISITION, VALUATION AND COMPENSATION IN UGANDA ...." https://sird.ealawsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Compulsory-Land-Acquisition-Valuation-and-Compensation-in-Uganda-Principles-and-Challenges.pdf.

[2]"Land Rights Issues in International Human Rights Law - IHRB." https://www.ihrb.org/pdf/Land_Rights_Issues_in_International_HRL.pdf.

[3]"Demographic, Population, and Social Change in Uganda 1990–2019 - Springer." 27 Jun. 2023, https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_206-1.

[4] "Uganda Population 1950-2024 | MacroTrends." https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/UGA/uganda/population.

[5]"Transforming Extractive Industries for Sustainable Development." https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_extractives.pdf.

[6]"World Social Report 2020: Inequality in a Rapidly Changing World." https://desapublications.un.org/publications/world-social-report-2020-inequality-rapidly-changing-world.

[7]"Total Economic Valuation of Pastoralism in Uganda." https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/3732.

[8]"Assessing the Dynamics of Agropastoral farmers’ Adaptive Capacity to ...." 01 Jan. 2023, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096323000712.

[9]"CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA, 1995. Arrangement of the ...." https://ec.or.ug/docs/Constitution_1995.pdf.

[10]"Uganda Economic Update: Uganda Can Achieve Greener, Resilient and ...." 08 Jun. 2021, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/uganda/publication/uganda-economic-update-uganda-can-achieve-greener-resilient-and-inclusive-growth-by-investing-in-sustainable-land-manage.

[11]"A Quick Guide - Gender and the UN Commission on the Status of Women ...." 22 Mar. 2024, https://research.un.org/en/CSW.

[12]"The future is equal | Oxfam in Uganda." https://uganda.oxfam.org/.

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