Download The UNPD committee has assembled to address to major problems

Eric Mack
Ghana
United Nations Development Programme
Land Reform
The UNDP has been assembled to tackle a very serious issue within most of the
continent of Africa. This issue is land reform. There are many reasons that multiple
countries are in need of land reform. For one there are many instances in which a small
group of individuals own a large amount of land. This disproportionate owner ship of
land between the rich and the poor has created problems in many areas. Also land reform
is needed to provide security to poor landowners so their land will not simply be taken
away. In many nations the government has exercises power over land ownership. For
example in 1997 in Zimbabwe the local government unjustly took most of the land so
high ranking members of the government could prosper while the common man was left
landless. Also old problems still persist from the time African nations where still
colonized. For example, under the Lancaster House act Zimbabwe could only buy land
from willing British sellers. Even after the act expired the corrupt government bought
land only for itself and not the people, also demonstrating how the rich control too much
of the land in some areas. However efforts have been made by the United Nations to help
with this land reform. For instance the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) seeks to
reduce poverty by one third by 2015. One of the ways they hope to do this is through
land reform. There have been efforts already implemented in order to solve this problem.
For example land reform efforts in Zimbabwe have been supported by the World Bank,
Commonwealth Secretariat, and the European Commission. Their plan was to asses the
situation and provide a solution to the land reform problem. Other agencies all over
Africa also have been assessing the problem and are attempting to solve the problem, but
it is clear that more needs to be done.
Different blocs have different opinions about the land reform that should be done
in Africa. Africa supports the redistribution of property and methods to improve the land
through out the continent. However Africa lacks the economic assets to implement these
measures. The United States feels that there should be redistribution of property and to
reduce poverty through access to trade. Latin America feels there should be a balance
between poor person land ownership and large corporation land ownership. Asia
believes that there should more securities for tenants that work the land. Europe also
feels that land should be disputed fairly and equally.
Ghana, being a very impoverished nation, seeks to reform its land policies and
decrease the technological gap between it and other nations. Five out of the ten regions
in Ghana had more than 40 percent of their population living in poverty in 1999. Ghana
wishes to change this statistic through working with the UNPD. Ghana wishes to
intervene upon its mining and foresting industries. These industries practice unjust land
owning policies that Ghana wishes to regulate. Some mining companies have just started
mining in areas that people still live on and have not compensated the people in anyway.
The rampant surface mining in Ghana poses a serious threat to her agricultural economy.
The forestry industry has caused a large loss of forests, harming Ghana’s cocoa economy,
which is a very important part of our economy. Ghana seeks to give property rights to
her people and prevent large corporations form abusing the land and the people that live
on it. Also to prevent nation’s governments form unjustly seizing large portions of land
from her peoples, as well as create effective framework for land development and
distribution in our nation. This will help give the people back there land and hopefully
stimulate the economy bringing Ghana out of poverty.