Reflections on the limited impact of the VGGT in sub saharan Africa and opportunities for its future with lessons from Nigeria and Sierra Leone

Despite the widely lauded and much needed adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT), along with numerous implementation guides, and complementary international, regional, and sector-specific instruments (e.g. the Framework and Guidelines for Land Policy in Africa, and, the Sustainable Development Goals), key outcomes like tenure security at scale have not been achieved. The literature documents some important impacts of the VGGT on reform processes and highlights illustrative or “one-off” results. Yet, too many individuals, families and communities in rural areas of African countries, for example, still do not have recognized or secure land rights. And where they do have rights recognized by law, too many have trouble defending and leveraging those rights for economic gain or to achieve food security. The reality that significant improvements in security of tenure at scale in rural Africa are still needed nearly a decade after the adoption of the VGGT suggests a need to explore its limitations and consider what it would take to realize its objectives. This paper contributes by considering three questions: (1) has the VGGT had a measurable impact on improving tenure at scale in Sub-Saharan Africa; (2) are there country-level cases of VGGT application that might be demonstrative of ways the VGGT could be used or revised to have desired impacts on tenure at scale; and (3) what lessons can be drawn from these cases contextualized with reflection on the development and negotiation of the VGGT, that could improve the VGGT and its application (or be applied to future UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) products)? For Sub Saharan Africa, noting the lack of evidence to rigorously estimate the impact (or lack thereof) of the VGGT on tenure security, we analyze the available quantitative and qualitative information. This supports our observation that there has been little change in the outcome of tenure security and a widely held view that tenure insecurity persists. We illustrate innovative approaches to using the VGGT with case studies from Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This learning feeds into broader reflection on the VGGT process and critical thinking about how the VGGT might be better used going forward throughout Africa; considerations for how future international instruments are developed also emerge. We conclude that what is needed is revision of the VGGT, development of a VGGT 2.0 or other actions to address challenges and replicate successes.