 My name is Romy Sanport. I am a coordinator of the Landauk Professional Learning Programme and we also call the Landauk Fellowship. The Landauk Fellowship is a, I'd say, a network of professionals across, from across, such as in Africa, working on land governance issues at NGOs, academic institutes and businesses. Through Landauk, we've been trying to, we've been, we've been in touch with each other and exchanging our experiences and learnings on land governance and land-based investments in particular. Last year we started the fellowship and we started with a group of of 12 people who are still with us. I will give the word in a minute to Anneli Somers, who is, well, I'd say the initiator of this, of this program. So I'm very happy that she's here also to open our session. And after that we will have some of our fellows tell us a little bit something about their work. And after that we will engage in a discussion on, it's a bit like a panel discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 in their countries, but most particularly on their, on the land-based investments and the communities they've been working with. In doing so, we very much will welcome your contributions either through the chat or live, just raise your hand or let us know through the chat that you'd like to contribute to the discussion and we'll make sure to fit it in. We do only have one hour, so I'm gonna hand over the word to Anneli's. But before doing so, I'd like to also welcome Teddy Kisembo. Teddy, are you here? I'm here. Hi everyone. And Teddy is one of the Landoc fellows working from Uganda at the Urban Action Lab at Macquarie University and she'll be co-hosting the session together with me today. Welcome Teddy. Thank you. And then over to Anneli's for an official opening of the session. Thank you. Thank you, Rumi. Happy to be here and I can't wait for the discussion. Thank you. Okay, thanks Teddy. And don't be afraid. I will do it, not an official opening, but maybe some personal reflection since not me who initiated this, this was Landoc initiated. So the only thing that I would like to say that we started with Landoc already quite some time ago and in the beginning we did a lot of research related to land grabbing. There was a moment that we thought, yeah, we want to also have some impact and it was in the context of that that we saw the importance of not only doing things in the Netherlands, etc., but be very much present in the various countries where the issues are often more extreme than in our own context and we wanted, with our colleagues in different countries, to start creating a kind of human infrastructure that could help communities not only to participate or to benefit more from all the investments. By then the discussion was always about participation and benefit sharing, but we found a group of people together who were more ambitious and we thought, well, what should happen is that we go in the direction of profit sharing rather than anything else. So it is a little bit like this, how we developed and I say we, even though that the real work is being done by the 11 fellows with whom we are collaborating now already for two years. And yeah, of course in the beginning it was very much our communications related to the things that they saw in the field and we tried to exchange information between the countries, which was not happening so often, South house communication, but of course now with the COVID-19 and it is not only COVID-19, it is also now the crisis related to the racial crisis, but also the MeToo movement. I think we live in a very confusing time and now we can benefit from the fact that we speak to each other regularly. We know what's happening on the ground and I am very much looking forward to this session with our colleagues and maybe feel free also to come with ideas how we could expand this network because I think this is what could make a difference, having people in different countries that can keep ourselves informed so that we can respond earlier based on facts because we do fact finding and the relevance of us being part of the network, the people in the Netherlands for example, is that sometimes we can contact our own people in the Netherlands and also make the move in new directions. So I would like to close here looking forward to this discussion and any suggestion that we could take up to expand or deepen. Thank you. I will now mute. Thank you Annelies. It's me taking over again. Thank you very much also for reflecting a bit on why this is a very nice and necessary program. So to go straight into it, Chantal, could you share with us the few slides? We'll continue the session with a brief introduction of the fellows who could make it today. We have James Wangu, Teddy Kessembo. We have Zira de Deus joining us as well as Junior, Junior Sabanya from Uganda. And I'd like to ask Teddy first to briefly introduce yourself perhaps let us know why you like to join, why you joined the fellowship and also talk a little bit about your research in Kampala. Okay. Thank you so much, Rumi. My name is Teddy Kessembo. I work in the Urban Action Lab, Makere University, which is a research lab that brings together both the academia and the practitioner. It acts as a platform to engage in action with urban challenges. Why I joined the Land Act professional program is because apparently I had got an interesting land. I had worked on a project called Land Markets in East Africa. And the project worked both in Kampala and Aruba and then other parts of East Africa. And I got a keen interest on land, more so land tenure, security. And then a colleague of mine pointed me to the direction of the Land Act professional program, and I saw what it was looking forward to bring together professionals from different parts of Africa to share experiences to learn on mediation and all that. And that is what was, I was trying to find my routine in land governance and land tenure security mostly. That is how I gladly joined the Land Act community. So through the time I joined the Land Act professional learning program, I had to come up with a research projects to engage with the fellows. And within the country where there was, I mean, there is a proposed Kampala Ginger Express highway to link the city to the western part of the country. That is how I started engaging on how to look at how this development, infrastructure development will kindly affect people within the urban state. And I narrowed it down to Chinawataka, Islam, an informal settlement through which the right of way or the proposed road will pass. So my research is to look at the impacts of the development on people, mainly women, because according to Uganda National Roads Authority, the proposed road is likely to affect over 30,000 people of which half of the people are female. And when we look at land rights, women land rights are quite a challenge within the country and the region at large. So I intend to look on how their rights will be protected on how the project will affect their livelihoods. Yeah, I haven't yet gone to the field of yet, but I've been doing observation through a local NGO act together, which is one of our partners within the urban actual lab, and engaging in their sitting in the settlement forums and observing how they are linking, bringing up the communities to engage on how to prioritize their needs and bring out their issues. So far, that is what I've been doing, sitting in those forums, I haven't fully gone to do the research. Yes, I think Romeo can start from here for now. Thanks, Teddy, thank you a lot. We'll discuss during the second half of the session a bit more on how COVID-19 has affected the communities that you work with as well as the other organizations activities. So now let me stay in Uganda and ask Junior to introduce himself as a Landak fellow. Junior, please unmute yourself and go ahead. Hi, Junior, please go ahead, we can hear you. Okay, my name is Seba Yajena-Alvis. So I'm currently funded by the U.N. Union and State Fund and that's really good. So like something that actually brought my attention to participate or to be part of the fellowship was the learning. When I heard about the professional learning exchange around land governance, governance and food remediation, I felt like it was actually necessary for me because it was actually trying to be high in which we are in range again because our role is to center the community and mobilize the studies community. Hey, Junior, I think we have a little issue, we have a small connection issue because it's hard to understand. Hi, Junior, perhaps it's only me but I think there's a small connection issue. Can you hear me? Yes, a bit more clear now. Okay, so I was just talking about why I joined the Land Actorship. I hope you had that. Yes, bits and pieces, please continue. Okay, so currently I'm working on a project and my topic is assessing the community's perception around the land-based investment in Chukgamata. Chukgamata, as you're watching in my slides, Chukgamata is a slum area that is actually located just near Lake Victoria where we see a number of slum dwellers participating in a number of activities around the lake shore but also some other informal activities. But currently, most of them, they own some pieces of land within the area but now that we have the city, the area having gained city status, now they feel uncomfortable because earlier on they never had any security of tenure and then now they're trying to rush into situating their tenure through a hospital approach where they are trying to fundraise some monies to collectively halve the land titles, trying to lead to actually deal with the municipal council to ensure that they have the land titles. So my interest was why is that communities or slum dwellers right now that actually started thinking about situating their land titles, given the upcoming city status, okay, given the upcoming land use or land-based investments that are actually in the area. So my interest was to look at why is it that currently they're rushing into getting the treatment of tenure. So I've done some research and I have some findings that perhaps I will share during the course of the session. Thank you very much. Thank you very much junior, much clearer at the end. But just in case, I'll just briefly summarize, junior, you mentioned that you are working on a specific settlement in the city of Jinja, which will have a urban status and which has also triggered a lot of processes of land registration within the slum community, am I right? Yeah, perfect. Okay, we'll get back to you junior. We'll continue asking James to introduce yourself and to tell us a little bit something about your research, which was also a PhD research. We're very lucky to have you. Thank you, Romy. Hello, everyone. My name is James Wangu. I'm a PhD and a land-based fellow. I do my PhD at Etrecht University. My research topic is on inclusive agribusiness and small food and nutrition security. Basically, the PhD project is meant to look into the ongoing land-based investments that are tied to the new or the currently dominant approach of inclusive agribusiness. Basically, inclusive agribusiness means the approaches that try to link or try to integrate low-income population into regional and global markets. And it's perceived as more inclusive or rather more reaching for the small farmers. So basically, that's it. I think we'll be talking more about that. The reason to join Landak is research. Sorry, I meant Landak Fellowship. It's like Romy saying it's an orange exchange platform. And being a researcher, I couldn't think of a better platform to be part of. And that's why I joined the program. Yes, and I think that will be enough for now. We'll continue the discussion later. Thanks a lot, James. We will get back to you also because you're a valuable contributor to our blogs on our website. Thank you so much. Then next up, we are very lucky to also have Nazira, Nazira Vedeus with us today who, yes, there you are, Nazira, working from Mozambique. Will you be able to introduce yourself? Thank you. Thank you, Romy. My name is Nazira Dils. I'm from Mozambique. I would like to share my project. In Mozambique, we feel that the pressure on the land is increasing. So big investments is coming to Mozambique and they're taking a large portion of land from our small farmers, our communities. And in Mozambique, not different from other countries. Women are the majority that works on the land to produce food. And these lands are being taken to produce monoculture. So my project aimed to understand how women can participate in a negotiation when the projects come to our country, comes to our communities, and also trying to see what are the roles that women do, what are the roles that women can do during this process. So I am working in Angpula province in two districts where we already have big investments there and with the approval of the government. And so I spent also with this project to have more context, more evidence to help women to defend their land, defend their territories, and also that they can be able to raise their voice and participate and decision-making space of dialogue. So thank you, Romy. This is what I try to share. Sorry, I already shared with Romy that I'm not very well. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot, Nazira, for joining us, even though you're not feeling well. And please feel free to also contribute to the discussion through the chat to lessen the burden on your throat. Take care. Thank you for joining us. So next up, during the year, each of these fellows, and we're very sorry to already notice some of the impacts of COVID-19 on our session, because some of our fellows are stuck in the field with very limited internet connection. Salah Abu Qashara is in the area in which he's researching gold mine investors and wasn't able to make it today, as well as our colleague from Senegal and our colleagues from Ethiopia. Thank you for showing, Chantal. And in Ethiopia, there's quite a bit of unrest and insecurity going on in its capital. So I hope these fellows will be able to join us next time again. So continuing, last year we've been exchanging a lot on fellows' researches. And one of the main things that I could draw from the initial conclusions was that there's often, when it comes to land-based investments, there's always winners and losers, people who are included in programs and people who are excluded from the programs and being left out. And as also was mentioned during the plenary webinar before, it's mostly the most vulnerable groups and the most people who are poor and already vulnerable who are experiencing the worst effects of such a crisis. So continuing, on the impact of COVID-19 on these land-based investments, I would first like to ask Teddy, going back to you, on the impacts you have noticed in the urban areas, for example. Teddy, over to you. Sorry, Teddy, you're muted. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you so much, Romy. Sorry, I didn't get the question right. Romy, can you repeat the question for me, please? Yes, Teddy, you've been working on a land-based investment or you will be working on land-based investment in the urban areas, on the urban infrastructure project. And before you shared with me some of the impacts of COVID-19 in these urban areas and slums, and perhaps later on, Junior can also reflect on this. But just a brief reflection on how COVID-19 is affecting poor and vulnerable groups in Kampala. In Kampala, okay. Thank you so much. So COVID-19 has affected many people, both the poor and the rich and the middle income in various ways. But the mostly affected people, I should say, are the urban poor and mostly people that live in informal settlements. So if we're to look at the areas that are within my focal area that I'm looking at in the research, which is Chinawataka, these people have been affected in a way that their daily income has been affected, they haven't been able to have that daily cash coming in game as a result of the lockdown when we went into the lockdown, I think at the beginning of March. So most people were put out of work, which meant there won't be for people who depend on daily cash flows will be affected in form of money coming in food to put on the table and also access to healthy services since most transport systems during the lockdown were shut down. Public means were not allowed. The border borders or motorbikes to carry people are not allowed to carry people. So meaning women who had issues, more so pregnant women to access hospitals were having issues in regard to that. And then women who worked in the market during the lockdown were told to sleep at their market stalls and then issues with hygiene within the market stalls also brought in other health issues because the sanitation wasn't good. In one market, women were complaining that the toilets are few they have to share with the men, which is also brings in another issue. And then also mosquitos that are being exposed to mosquitos. So malaria was becoming an issue and then also had issues of domestic violence during the lockdown because most people were not at home, the men were at home. So is it things that would trigger quarrels within home where an increase during one month of the first lockdown within one month, the Uganda police registered over 3,000 new cases with over six deaths within a short period of time and within my neighborhood, just in the next neighborhood after my neighborhood or a man killed a wife and two of his kids just quarrel, I think of a text message he found on the wife's phone. So such issues have covered, people have lost livelihoods. I would give an example of saloon people, because saloons were put in the lockdown, they're still up to now unable to work and people in informal settlements have little saloons that keep working. So some people have lost livelihoods, others have come up with other ways of bringing in income. The most people have not been shared into self-affold food because markets were not shut down and so and trucks were told to were okay to operate to bring in food in the city. So most people have been shared into that as a way of keeping themselves, having money to come into that. Thank you, thank you Teddy. So you mentioned a few different things, sanitary issues, access to healthcare, food security. I want to switch over to Junior. Junior, you've been researching quite the processes of land registration in this community in Jinja. My question to Junior, during the COVID-19 crisis and as we speak now, what is happening in the community when it comes to land? Is a lot of land being sold, traded, even though we've already understood from the plenary session from Jimmy that officially you're not allowed to trade in land? Could you reflect on this Junior? Okay, thank you very much Rami. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Yeah, so I have a number of impacts of COVID. One has been the processes of acquiring land titles within Uganda has been put on hold since the lockdown was actually set up and the reason has always been that the offices there, the land offices have always been closed. So people did not have any access to any of these as to to register or get the necessary land titles. And that event has also a pay for exp... I'm sorry Junior, we're losing you again. Especially those that do not have... Can you hear me? Yes, better. Yeah, so I was saying that the land offices have always been closed. So there has not been any processes of registering land and people getting land titles. And that has affected or hindered a number of people, especially the slum dealers who have gotten land, but they don't have enough monies perhaps to push for registration of land titles to acquire the land titles. So the city tycoons and other people have gotten enough monies to acquire land titles to bribe the land court. So they've taken this advantage now that people not have any cars to drive to the offices and even the offices are closed. So that is one point. Then the other one is that people within the villages have sold off their land. Why? Because the impact of COVID has forced them or led them to losing their jobs perhaps in the urban areas. So this has forced them to go back into the areas to get some kind of startup kits. And in the event, they don't have any capital. So they have always been just resorting to what they have in the villages, the small they have. So they sell off their lands to get some little capital to start up a small livelihood activity within the villages. So that one has led to increase the urban and rural migration of the slum dealers. Then the other one has been the loss of saving. Just like I said, it also has a bearing to selling people losing their land because they want to recover some startup kits or capital to start up new businesses. So as act together or SDI, our core mandate is to organize community, okay? So as they keep on saving for a common purpose. It might be house, it might be a house, it might be an end project. It might be animal husbandry within their neighborhood. But now that we have COVID-19, people never had, now that we had a lockdown, so people were not going to work for quite some time. So they resorted to actually using the savings that they were actually using to facilitate their businesses to actually live or multiply more incomes or profits. So that has led to loss of their savings. And right now they don't have anything to start up, which is why most of them that is going back to the villages start small agriculture but also selling their lands. Then the other one has been there just movement or monitoring of- One more minute. Is that okay, junior? Yes, it's fine. So right now, or even way back since the lockdown was actually set, people were unable to move to go and actually monitor their agricultural products, cedar suburb or even away from father, away from the cedar suburb. So that has actually even led to the flooding of food. For example, bananas. We've seen people cutting banana. It's red day, but they don't have where to sell it because they don't have any transport to actually transport that food. So those are some of the impacts of COVID-19. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, junior, for sharing your experience, especially when it comes to land. And I think also in the plenary, there was a quick question on the, could you say, de-organization people moving back from the cities into the villages because mostly because of the land, which is, which might be still available for them. Brian, Brian Nahamiah is a fellow for one day and perhaps we can convince him to become a fellow after today as well. Would you like to share some additional experiences from Uganda? Okay, thank you Rumi and the fellow members and the other participants that are in for this discussion. So adding to the discussion from Junior and Teddy, it's very important that I can bring in the community perspective. Otherwise, thank you very much for having Junior and Teddy from Uganda. I like it and I think I'm motivated to be part of the program. For the case of Uganda, I just focus on the Neuro-Regional and Greater Masaka, the areas that focus on oil, that have oil projects and the mining activities in the country. So I don't go much back to what I discussed. I will just focus on land in the Neuro-Region, slinging measures in Uganda in terms of the violations of land rights especially in communities, hosting oil and mining activities. We have seen that the Minister of Lands came in and made a statement that during this period, there should be no land transaction and there should be no land evictions, but to our surprise, various land evictions continue to happen. For instance, of recent, just of recent in Masinli, about 1,000 residents were evicted, all about utilizing this period for the community to not mobilize and organize to defend their rights. So it is at this point that the residents were evicted from their land and this is the investment, this is the land that before was in the hands of Uganda Investment Authority, but Uganda Investment Authority started leasing land to different companies. So currently, like many food companies limited came in and also acquired some land, but the most unfortunate thing is that the land in Uganda, the evictions happen with support from the state. UPDF police support the, there is different people, different stakeholders, so the people who come to evict people are protected. That is one case and I may make one quote that if the state doesn't have interest in protecting the land rights for the citizens in this country and the entire one, it means that the community will suffer and this experience that women and children suffer more compared to another different category. Women, children, you look at elderly and persons with disabilities, they face more challenges during this process. We have heard of the cases in, in Chiriya and Longo, where also many people were evicted. That's what I do think, I think I can share, but another issue is that they are affected, but the lawyers who are going to the community, how civic space is shrinking in our country, the lawyers who are going to the community to interact with clients, you must go casually or informally, because when you go and open they are likely to imprison you. An unfortunate thing is that yesterday they even put in prison, though seven lawyers who were interacting with the people who are in the camp, they were previously evicted from their land. So they were put in prison and the good thing today they have been released, which are some of the issues that are coming up within our country. That takes us to the process that our country and in response to COVID, they did not take legal aid and justice system serious that victims of land evictions can be supported. So meaning that the lawyers are not able to move, civil society, for example me, I work with the Global Alert. We work towards promotion of human rights in oil and the entire extractive industry in the country. I'm sorry, Brian, just one more minute if that's okay. Just one more minute. I'm looking at the time and we're running short. Okay, thank you. So there are various land eviction issues here that are happening and even like people on 200 landing sites were evicted and we are looking at land registration. The dangerous thing is that even the people who had acquired a land title under Bukuka community land ownership association, they are also evicted and they are the same people affected by Kingfisher oil project. You look at the people who have been affected by the East African crude pipeline. These are the people who didn't receive compensation on time. They are still living in that situation and no information from government or neither from the from the oil companies or from civil society because for civil society our space is limited. We are not even part of the district forces that are moving into community. So those are some of the issues that are coming up but I don't know whether we have read on the issue of recommendation but I would think we need to join efforts and we engage communities. We need to empower much communities in that they can demand for justice on their land rights. Thank you Romy. Thank you very much Brian. We will be lucky to have you as a fellow and thank you also for highlighting these important issues of the unlawful land evictions that have been continuing during this COVID-19 crisis and which we as a fellowship also discussed during our many conversations. Teddy are you still with us? Yeah I'm so much still. I am realized I am over time in facilitating this discussion and I'm handing over the stick by now and perhaps you'd like to continue with the input also from Brian as well as James over to Kenya and Zira in Mozambique. Okay thank you so much for this, for facilitating this Romy and thank you so much for Brian for bringing in my impact. So the unlawful land eviction just to be a devil's advocate for Ministry of Lands. The reason why Ministry of Lands here in Uganda decided to close all land registries and said all evictions, pending evictions should not take place in the country was in their own thinking they thought they would protect people from being evicted but people have used that as an advantage again to evict more people but from what I have gathered the anti-corruption unit in the State House is looking into most evictions that have occurred during the lockdown and their father investigating that and also away from the evictions are people just grabbing land of recent on a woman had to take to Facebook how a neighbor was encroaching on her land because during the lockdown and also another one who whose land was was in court they were disputing over a property in court and during the lockdown he found the other party already putting a structure and they couldn't go to court for that so those are the things within land governance how COVID has affected land governance. Away from Uganda I would love to Anzira Anzira are you still with us? Yes daddy I am here. Oh yeah can you talk about the impact this COVID has had on women in Mozambique? Okay I think that you already mentioned that women are the ones who suffered more with this pandemic they are the ones that have a precarious jobs works and the situation that didn't allow people to go out for work as the recommendation to prevent infections affected their work so I can mention regarding to production food production that the major impact was the commercialization of the products women produce because they didn't stop to go to the farm to do the mashambash mashambash is a small family farm and they continue to go there but they were not able to sell or put in the market all the production so this was the first I think the first impact that we saw. The second one that I can bring here it was regarding to have the I'll say that in Sumo have seeds and other conditions to continue to produce unfortunately our government didn't respond on time they respond on certain regions to give conditions for women to produce farms I can mention generate the farms to continue production but in other areas they didn't they were not able to give them these conditions so many of them couldn't produce and others suffered with the how we say that today my head is like it's blocking but you know when we have this praga when comes and the insects that coming and take all the production so they were affected they didn't have they were not able to prevent the the the insects to to come but the other thing that I think that is interesting on all of this is that some of the women mentioned that they are suffering with the climate change because coffee is not the climate change but climate change yeah so we had a contest of lack of of rain and it affected the the production that is very it's a contradiction with last year where we had a lot of of rain and we had these two cyclones that were were so bad and the the population was in the context of recovering for this climate crisis that we had last year two cyclones are in the center in the north of Mozambique so all of this affected the chain of commercialization production and commercialization and and it put the communities in a very vulnerable condition and situation maybe I can stop here as a part of what I can see and I can hear from them at the community and the farms okay thank you so much in Zira for for the thing out that COVID is not the only issue that we are facing we are also facing climate change and other issues and we shouldn't we shouldn't fully put concentrate only on COVID and all that but also embrace other challenges that are affecting us um if we can go cross over to Kenya James are you still around can you please give us the effects of COVID from Kenya's perspective um so first I would like to reflect on on the research the PhD research where we look at the contribution of inclusive agribusiness and food security amongst more than farmers in a general summary I would say that we found that most actually all of these inclusive businesses tend to be biased to ones farmers that are more capable in terms of production so specifically when you look at the physical resources resources that is land and water farmers who have more of these resources tend to to be the ones included in the include in the so-called inclusive agribusiness investments I would also like to say that this is not necessarily the fault of the companies that are involved because the the time inclusive agribusiness or business implies that profit is is involved and the mere success or for the inclusive business and businesses to be successful they have to make profit otherwise it's not really going to work now reflecting on this in the context of COVID you find that um that um the farmers that are well sorry the farmers that are much poorer are also left like when they are left out in these assisting programs or interventions when they are compounded now by the impact of COVID you realize that they they're in a very difficult position now I'd like to reflect on the impact of COVID in Kenya from two perspective perspectives one is the market disruption so what we've seen and I think this some of these issues were raised in the penalization is for instance the restriction of movement of goods of course food is still allowed to move around but with some level of restriction and that also increases the cost of moving food so the the the impact on the value chain means that the the end producer is not making as much profit as they used to do even thought they even get to have their food moved I mean so there's a issue of market closure especially the open market because of the you know the government institute and this measure where there's no gathering that is is allowed in the country therefore I mean most of these open markets tend to be very crowded and nowadays most of them have been closed that means there's no avenue for for selling food that used to be sold through these channels there's also the closure of restaurants and schools which tend to be among the primary off-takers of smaller and group business produce and so this this in the long run and well I'll also try to mention that because of the COVID has had an impact on income or generally people's livelihood in general in rural areas in urban areas people have less money to spend and therefore they are also spending less on food and in that case this tend to look like a business cycle the farmers are producing food yes but this food is not making it or if it makes it to the market it's not getting the bias because they tend to buy the less expensive for instance if you if you think about the horticulture product they are very expensive to produce and if you don't have market for them it means that you you're likely to experience some significant losses so basically the market disruption relates to the movement of food closure of open-air market schools restaurants people spending less and I would also like to mention that there is an impending actually it's already happened in the past but we're expecting more of that the issue of locusts I think this is something that actually most Kenyans are scared of that there was this innovation of locusts and we expect that this will continue in the coming months and therefore another button for particularly smaller farmers but also for food consumers in the country and for countries that are relies on Kenyan exports then on the issue of production the main main comment that I'd like to make is generally we know I think in this particular session I think everyone here is aware that smaller farmers suffers or experience some level of constraints when it comes to production be it in the in the inputs be it in the services be it in access to market and these often are improved by either government intervention or NGOs and other civil society organizations now due to covid a lot of these for instance services are not happening or if they're happening they are partially happening on top of that some of the farmers who relies on let's say loans I think Flinda in the previous session mentioned that the cost of accessing finance to finance your food or agricultural production has gone up now compounded by the fact that farmers don't have access sorry farmers are already experiencing struggle with with respect to income this becomes very real problems that I think even though they might not have current like even though they might not have impact currently in the wrong land there will be some serious issues and I think there's no it shouldn't be something that people involve like policy makers and us as researchers it should be now that we were like leaning the bells that's what they said to make sure that these issues are taken up at this point and not later in time and that also really touches on the movement of input and services I think I've already mentioned some of these things but with respect to restricted movement there's also the element that people will have problems you know like most of the pharmaceutical best designs and all the chemical compounds that I use in agriculture are not necessarily manufactured in Kenya and so the cost of rights might I'm sure they'll go up and that would also like pile up on the producers and price of accessing this produce then for now I oh yeah overall food security and I think I think this if you follow this little reflection you you can realize that people are struggling to meet their food needs food is not the only needs that the farmers are facing right now with I think there is an issue people in their urban areas all of them depend on income for everything so paying rents having enough food able to access enough food or nutritious food it's a problem I think I would like to stop there and take it back to Tandy thank you thank you so much James for from the Kenyan perspective and the closure of schools and restaurants how it has affected the value chain and how just to give a little the closure of schools in Uganda has been a little problematic our parents are quarrelling kind of complaining about kids being at home and of recent in news there was someone who a kid committed a suicide because of chores at home and they were asking the government that they shouldn't take kids back to school because they're facing lots of abuses at home and and also sexual abuses so it's something that is that that is not only in Kenya but also in Uganda so quickly mentioned something else I realized we have a block coming on food security impact of COVID-19 and yeah it will be on the Landac website so I think some of these issues if you want to read them in details you can find them there after the after the session okay as we come to an end only on the road to recovery this is what I want to post to the fellas and James before you mute yourself now what are the priority areas you think should the government or also even NGOs focus to support the the vulnerable people who have been affected more so in this season of COVID so what I know at least in Kenya there is a stimulus package for the vulnerable now the question remain who are the vulnerable in this context I know that generally people with disabilities very old people have often been categorized as vulnerable so I'm worried that this is the only category of people that the government is catering for with respect to supporting them we haven't seen any support for like people working in agribusiness sector or any other business sector so and I think that will not be happening as far as I know so this will remain in my opinion a problem because a lot of people have closed their food businesses because they cannot afford to keep keep up anymore even right now the restaurants are open but only the very capable ones the ones that have higher capital that can manage to hire and do regular testing for their stuff to keep open the smaller farmers I think the same routine that has continued should go on like continue supporting farmers whether with information input this is something that we know that helps but based on our research actually on inclusive agribusiness we think that that's just that is that that has a limit it's becoming clear that because land are becoming smaller and smaller some farmers cannot break even when they participate in agribusiness or smaller farming and then for that for these category farmers we propose more supportive program like social protection and safety nets we don't really have those in Kenya we do have them but they only applies to they're very vulnerable like I said these are disabled people and and they're very elderly who have no social like they don't have a social capital around them to support them and so yeah I mean my my suggestion would be what has been done in the past with respect to supporting smaller farmers should be uh should be like improved uh like it should be more than actually what's what has already been happening a bit more and also recognition that farmers comes in a diverse manner their farmers were uh if they are supported by just access to market they do just fine but there are farmers who go need more than that there are farmers who need more than information and there are farmers who actually don't need support because they are nearly landless and they need a different kind of approach than because there's there's a tendency to view hey James and tell me yeah I'm almost done I'm so sorry but for the sake of time we have um uh Jahar uh from the audience who'd like to also contribute and we still have a question in the air from the chat um so perhaps yeah we can move to the okay okay sorry I got caught up okay oh okay um Rumi did you say uh there was someone in the chat who yes Jahar yes are you with us yes yes but I was not uh opening down my I'm Sahar yeah because I don't know something when I change but not my name I am from Palestine and I had lead the land administration projects financed for the work and for 10 years in Palestine and launched the systematic registration currently I am literate university but my country based on the bilateral project and launching of the systematic land registration during the last 10 years before COVID-19 they undergone a huge systematic registration process around 120 communities was undergoing the systematic land registration this is before COVID-19 so nothing has been started most of the area was under a systematic registration of this which is called settlement so to give land titling because many our land as had the registration had been stopped since 1967 and we start the processing of this lately in 2009 so when the COVID-19 started as like 120 communities open and other going the land registration so a lot of the youths was in bliss adding to that having the COVID-19 which in in carriage had an effect on the people to return back from the urban areas to the rural areas so they return back to find their lands to return back to to farm their lands while it was really used by other relatives or other women or other women's who kept in the villages so a lot of disputes had been raised at that time in addition as it is similar to other cases that we heard from Africa the land market the central land market is stopped while there is a lot of production so the food is produced but no market in addition to the restriction from our government after they announced the closure for three times since the COVID-19 we have another you know more critical restriction it is the checkpoints by the Israeli occupation so the people sometimes go and start to blend their lands but they can't get it out when it is ready to get the troops they are prohibited and some people sometimes shoot it so we have a lot of these issues came together at one time which is really Jahar I'm sorry I'm going to have to stop you here but you raised some important issues also on the on the security situation as well as the the land registration that's been halted yeah it is an issue yeah thank you very much for your contribution I'm afraid that we're going to be cut off in a few minutes it's a good thing that we can continue the discussion for a long time but there are still some questions in the in the chat which I will ask Teddy and the other fellows to respond to in the chat perhaps that's the the best way Teddy are you still with me yes yes I am okay yeah I will I think we'll be cut off in in two minutes but there are some questions for the fellows to reflect on please uh read through them uh in the chat okay uh yes sorry go ahead Teddy yeah Ian asked about informal land transaction if there have been uh ongoing in the country yes there have been illegal land transaction uh in both in the within the country because when they they looked as they looked us down what whether government did it left construction ongoing and then hardware so that gave a leeway for people to informally uh transact any business online illegally or even land grabbing so that that has been there uh and then what does this imply for people's livelihood um the implication is that um the people that have illegally been put out of place or out of land uh cannot appeal as of now all they can hope for is uh wait till um they can lodge their case uh I'll give an example of people who are in the swampy area in around Lake Victoria they were illegally okay they they occupied the place illegally yes but they were also illegally evicted within the lockdown so as such of the most of them have been their livelihoods have been put out uh and then the other question uh was Rumi can you help me with some of the question I say not to be you oh I have to scroll up for that um but I think we will be cut off in a few minutes so perhaps all questions I've um I've sent my email address in the in the chat um so if anyone has specific question on the program or for a particular fellow please send them to me and I'll redirect you uh so that we can continue to stay in touch perhaps expand our our network and fellowship and then reconnect next time again would that would that be a good idea sorry I did not get the point oh sorry I have said I have sent shared my email address in the chat please if you have any additional questions just let me know and I'll connect you to uh the fellow to which you can direct your question or give you some extra information on the program we're working on together okay tell me anything from your side I know uh just um I can also share my email so that um uh it can be yes I think oh I think you sent it to me privately complicated yes sorry about it I've made the same mistakes just uh just before okay oh okay well then let us close you by thanking everyone just one you don't see this do you see it now in the chat yes but I didn't see your email I'll send it again did the email oh and then Jemson and Farida's blog on food security is also in the chat there's a link for everyone who can read it or access it we'll keep you informed on the fellowship through the London website and yeah let let us close by thanking everyone and the fellows in particular Teddy's thank you so much for co-hosting the session with me thank you thank you so much and for everyone for bearing with us even though we uh took a bit more of your time than expected thank you thank you thank you bye bye all right and thank you Annalise for opening how are you going now yeah thank you Shantel for hosting yeah thank you Shantel thank you Annalise thank you Rumi for coordinating everything thank you to our newest member Brian yeah for your contribution as well thank you and I hope to see you soon oh yeah too early time thank you Jem thank you thank you okay see you later team see you I'm off enjoy the rest of your evening okay you too thank you Shantel for the for the blog no problem hope to see you once again