[{"bbox": [72, 108, 1157, 160], "category": "Text", "text": "1.1.2. Areas of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems under a) protection b) sustainable management with EU support (ha) (EURF 9)"}, {"bbox": [72, 186, 1029, 213], "category": "Text", "text": "It also contributes to the two Team Europe Initiatives in Kenya: Inclusive Digitalisation and Green Deal."}, {"bbox": [72, 270, 301, 303], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2. RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [87, 334, 220, 361], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1. Context"}, {"bbox": [83, 404, 1145, 537], "category": "Text", "text": "In Kenya, land has a major historical, social, economic, cultural, political and spiritual significance. Land has been the main factor of production and investments, among other uses. Given its importance, access to and availability of land is critical in ensuring real and long-lasting improvement in the general well-being of the people of Kenya. Consequently, land has been made a policy priority all the way from the Constitution of Kenya to decentralised government levels (see section 1.3)."}, {"bbox": [83, 563, 1146, 772], "category": "Text", "text": "In terms of domestic politics, the government has made the issuance of land titles an important part of its delivery in the current mandate, linked to its commitments to improving the business and investment environment. This will guarantee the full buy-in of Kenyan partners in the implementation of the programme. The action will put the EU at the centre of the country political agenda in the next years, as with this action it will remain the largest donor working with the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning (MoLPP) and National Land Commission (NLC). Although elections will take place in 2022, it is not expected that a new government would consider a reversal of this high-level commitment, given the strategic importance of land governance in Kenya and embedment of the same in policies and laws."}, {"bbox": [83, 801, 1145, 962], "category": "Text", "text": "Overall, the development of affordable and accessible housing, settlement of the landless households, slum upgrading, food and nutrition security, and public and private investment are dependent on proper planning for prudent and sustainable land use. However, there is need to seek to balance between the need for food and nutrition security, human settlements, environmental protection and climate change, as well as other economic development pursuits. Also land uses need to take cognizance of social, cultural, economic, political and spatial dimensions of development as well as equality and rights considerations. These will all be considered in the proposed programme."}, {"bbox": [83, 986, 1145, 1067], "category": "Text", "text": "The proposed Digital Land Governance Programme takes into consideration the numerous challenges that impede sustainable administration and management of land in Kenya. Some of these challenges (some stipulated in the NLC-2021-2026 and MoLPP- 2020-2024 Strategic Plans) include the following."}, {"bbox": [121, 1068, 1146, 1175], "category": "List-item", "text": "* 68 % of Kenyans are without land documentation or tenure security. Less than 30 % of Kenya's total land area of 582,650 square kilometers has been registered since independence translating to approximately 11.1 million registered titles countrywide since independence (the bulk of the unregistered land being community land)."}, {"bbox": [121, 1176, 1146, 1310], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Less than 2 % of land is owned and registered to women and groups living in vulnerable situations. Despite the existing legal framework that provides for the same inheritance rights for women and men, in practice women often do not inherit land and in the rare cases in which they hold a land title under their name, men tend to have control over it. Women also face additional challenges when they want to claim for their property rights, including poor legal literacy and expensive legal proceedings."}, {"bbox": [121, 1311, 1146, 1390], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Indigenous communities' land rights framework has been improved since the Community Land Act of 2016, however, they still often lack awareness of the law and process. In some cases, these communities are still facing forceful eviction from their lands."}, {"bbox": [121, 1391, 1145, 1445], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Corruption, manual and paper based land records, inefficient land transaction processes, poor access to land information and data all contribute to a high cost of doing business;"}, {"bbox": [121, 1445, 1146, 1605], "category": "List-item", "text": "* In terms of corruption: The Kenya Bribery Index that has previously ranked the Ministry of Lands at 4th and 13th respectively between 2006 and 2007, and indicates that 65.7 % of the people visiting the Ministry of Lands could be asked for a bribe and that 36.3 % of declinations resulted in service denial. In terms of costs: land transaction costs such as purchase, transfer, registration, related approvals and taxes consume 25-40 % of development costs in urban areas making construction of affordable housing very expensive especially since end-user pricing becomes too high."}, {"bbox": [121, 1606, 1145, 1660], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Delays in access to justice, with 90 % of the many land cases in Environment and Land Court taking longer than expected, locking land out of productive use."}, {"bbox": [1051, 1663, 1158, 1687], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 26"}]