SLLAP Provides Technical & Financial Support to Update Land Committees’ Records and Knowledge

The Sierra Leone Land Administration Project (SLLAP), in collaboration with the National Land Commission and key project partners, has commenced a series of capacity-building, profile updating, and refresher training sessions for Village/Town Land Committees (VLCs/TLCs) and Chiefdom Land Committees (CLCs) across the project’s pilot implementation regions, including Bo District, Bombali District, Kenema District, Port Loko District, and the Western Area.

The primary purpose of the field engagements is to conduct profile updates of existing Village/Town and Chiefdom Land Committees, while also strengthening and refreshing their operational knowledge ahead of the scale-up of mapping, recording, and land registration exercise scheduled to commence within all SLLAP pilot communities this month.

The profile updating exercise is intended to ensure that committee structures remain active, representative, inclusive, and properly aligned with the project’s implementation framework and community land governance responsibilities.

The engagements also form part of ongoing preparations to enhance local participation, improve transparency in land governance, and promote inclusive, environmentally responsible, and conflict-sensitive land administration systems across the pilot regions.

During the sessions, committee members were trained and refreshed on several key thematic areas critical to the successful implementation of the project. These included Gender and Social Safeguards, Environmental and Social Risk Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms, stakeholder engagement, committee roles and responsibilities, and the practical use of digital data collection tools, particularly the KoboToolbox platform, which will be utilized for field data gathering, land documentation, and registration activities.

Facilitators emphasized the importance of gender equality, social inclusion, and community participation in land governance processes, ensuring that women, youth, and vulnerable groups are adequately represented and protected throughout the land mapping and registration exercise.

The practical refresher sessions on KoboToolbox provided committee members with hands-on experience in digital data collection and reporting, enabling them to accurately capture committee and land-related information and support efficient, transparent, and accountable field operations during the upcoming registration exercise.