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LANDac Conference 2017

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND:

SETTING THE LAND AGENDA TO 2030

LANDac’s Annual International Conference 2017 “Leave no one behind: setting the land agenda to 2030”, took place on the 29th and 30t of June, 2017. This conference looked back over the decade since the land grab “hype” began, analysing the processes of transformations that have taken place in those locations where investments have been made and revisiting our understanding of the implications of these investment flows for food security, rural livelihoods and local development. It also looked forward in assessing new challenges in the field, such as land governance in the context of climate change and increasing urbanisation, and land in relation to the SDGs, using existing knowledge to set the land agenda to 2030 and ensure no one is left behind.

This conference took the all-encompassing SDGs as a starting point to explore how land governance can contribute to meeting these targets, and ultimately help to end poverty in all its forms everywhere (Goal 1). Providing people with secure and equal access to land is fundamental in realising this objective, and in reaching many other targets outlined SDGs.

Topics included land governance in relation to food security, infrastructure development, displacement, migration and mobility, compensation and resettlement, cities and urban expansion, conflict and competing claims, natural resources and environmental protection, gender and generation, land administration and new technologies, climate change and resilience.

Key Note Speakers

Key notes included:

Prof. dr. Eric Sheppard – UCLA
Prof. dr. Helga Leitner – UCLA
Duncan Pruett – Oxfam in Myanmar
Esther Mwaura – GROOTS Kenya
Prof. dr. Bert van der Zwaan – Rector Magnificus, Utrecht University

And there were additional contributions from, among others:

Danielle Hirsch – Both ENDS
Eric Smaling – Dutch MP
Future Deltas – Utrecht University
Wytske Chamberlain – University of Pretoria
An Ansoms – UCLouvain
LEGEND Programme – UK DFID