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Land grabbing and human rights: Debate 1 February, Amsterdam

On 1 February 2014, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam Novib and ASN Bank organize a debate at De Balie in Amsterdam about land grabbing and human rights as part of the Human Rights Weekend.

The rise of land grabbing has led to increased human rights violations and destroyed livelihoods. Across Africa, Latin America and Asia, hundreds of cases have emerged detailing how investors have unfairly acquired land in the name of economic development.

But in the last 2 years, after a lot of public debate and campaigning, a range of policy commitments have been made by companies and governments to help stamp out this damaging practice. The big question is whether all these policy commitments are on target to achieve real change on the ground. This debate will bring together perspectives from activists, government and the private sector to look at what land grabbing is, and how good intentions can turn into positive action.

This debate will bring together perspectives from Iain Levine (Deputy Executive Director of Human Rights Watch), Farah Karimi (Director of Oxfam Novib), Frits van der Wal (Senior policy advisor food security and focal point land governance at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Jan Burger (Coca-Cola) to look at what land grabbing is, and how good intentions can turn into positive action. Moderator Hansje van der Zwaan-Plagman (Senior advisor sustainability at ASN Bank). Program in collaboration withOxfam Novib and ASN Bank.

Land Governance Donor Programme Database Launched

On January 22 a comprehensive database on land and resource governance programmes funded by members of the Global Donor Working Group on Land was presented during the Platform Annual General Assembly in Paris.

Global scope
Cooperating with the Global Donor Working Group on Land – comprising bilateral and multilateral donors as well as development agencies – USAID led a data collection and visualisation project that gathered information from around the globe. Currently the database retains 445 projects in 119 countries with a total value of 2.8 billion dollars. Project details have already been submitted by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, FAO and the World Bank. The Canadian and Japanese development agencies have recently joined this initiative and are in the process of entering information to the database.

Main objectives of the database
The overall aim of the initiative is to improve donor coordination and to support implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. To achieve this a clear understanding of who is doing what and where in the land and resource governance sector is necessary. The database therefore contains information on the location, duration, funding and scope of each programme, as well as on the specific aspects of the Voluntary Guidelines it supports.

Visualisation and additional functions
The interactive mapping tool clearly displays where different donors and development agencies are working and what they do with respect to land and resource governance. The database allows donors to include links to supplemental resources, such as reports on their programme websites. This information helps various stakeholders identify opportunities to leverage their resources for greater impact in the efforts to improve food security and nutrition, reduce land-related conflicts and promote economic growth.

The database can be accessed here.

Presentation George Schoneveld 16 january 2014

16 January, The Hague
 
On Thursday 16 January, former LANDac PhD George Schoneveld presented his dissertation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Around 50 participants joined the presentation and discussion about his research into ‘The Governance of Large-Scale Farmland Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa’. The work contains a comparative analysis of challenges for sustainability in four African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia. The presentation was attended by a varied audience of researchers, policy makers, NGOs and private sector representatives. George’s presentation can be accessed through the following link: Presentation George Schoneveld 16 January 2014

Global Donor Working Group policy brief ‘land in a post-2015 framework’

The Global Donor Working Group on Land (http://www.donorplatform.org/land/on-common-ground.html?Itemid=9) published a platform policy brief on land in a post-2015 framework. The policy brief can be accessed via this link.

Land rights in Namibia

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) recently published two case studies about land rights in Namibia. Topics are the strenghtening of women’s rights to land and the systematic registration of communal land in Namibia. Both documents are available at the Capacity4Development website:
http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/eu-working-group-land-issues/

Landesa women’s land rights visiting professionals program

Women’s Land Rights Visiting Professionals Program

The Women’s Land Rights Visiting Professional Program is cultivating a network of qualified professionals who are strongly committed to strengthening women’s land rights. The program will boost visiting professionals’ capacity to effectively strengthen women’s land rights, foster motivation and ability to actively participate in this network, and reinforce the commitment to working on women’s land rights.

Landesa’s experience working with multicultural programs suggests that a hands-on, intensive program working alongside peers from different countries and with different fields of expertise will be beneficial to all parties. It will create a fertile ground for learning and will promote the level of group cohesion required to sustain the long-lasting network of professionals we aim to develop.

The Women’s Land Rights Visiting Professionals Program is an intensive six-week session for practitioners, activists, and government professionals conducted at Landesa’s office in Seattle. This experience is intended to boost their capabilities by:

  • Enhancing their understanding of the challenges to strengthening women’s land rights by identifying what the problems are and how they fit into the larger picture, both in relation to other development issues and what is taking place in other geographic or political regions;
  • Expanding the set of options, approaches, and potential solutions they can consider by learning from what has been tried in other settings, by learning from solutions to different-but-related problems, by becoming part of a network of colleagues who can act as a resource, and by being encouraged to think creatively; and
  • Improving their effectiveness at addressing the challenges of securing women’s land rights by strengthening their leadership, managerial, and written and verbal communication skills.

Landesa will continue the knowledge transfer and mentor engagement with each visiting professional on a project for up to one year after they return to their home countries.

The application process for the 2014 Visiting Professionals Program is now open until February 14. For more information about the program and the application process, please visit the Landesa website.

Start of the new LANDac LANDforum

Start of the new LANDac Land Forum

On 7 and 8 November 2013 LANDac organized the first LANDforum meeting: a group of policy makers, practitioners, private sector representatives and researchers gathered at Utrecht University and discussed new ways to optimize the links between land-related investments, food security and inclusive sustainable development. This meeting in Utrecht was a first step towards the establishment of a multi-stakeholder network and think-tank that will meet again in 2014 and 2015.

The LANDforum is organized by the Netherlands Academy on Land Governance (LANDac). LANDac is a network of Dutch organizations[1] and their Southern partners working on issues regarding land and development. LANDac was established in 2010 and has been involved in a wide range of activities where researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the area of land governance are brought together. In 2010, LANDac started a number of PhD trajectories and a series of short-term research projects. Building upon this research, LANDac has developed and consolidated a platform function. The LANDforum emerged from this dialogue, stressing the open and flexible character of the consortium. See www.landgovernance.orgfor more information about LANDac and its activities.

The LANDforum provides a platform to learn from each other’s experiences: it sets out to facilitate the exchange of information between countries and between different sectors in a systematic way and for a longer period of time. The forum will be conducted for three years in a row and will also be represented at the annual World Bank Land & Poverty Conference. It guarantees continuity of exchanges by means of its series of three meetings between 2013 and 2015 and by linking to the World Bank Land & Poverty Conference. Therefore, the LANDforum aims to contribute to building bridges: linking people between countries and between sectors that are often not connected to each other and work separately. Representatives of various groups such as the private sector, policy makers, development practitioners and researchers are brought together on a longer-term basis. This offers opportunities for cross-fertilization as well as for developing a community of practice. The starting point is a comparative approach: several developing countries that have recently been targeted by European and other investors in land–related projects are compared in the deliberations, as are the roles of different types of actors. In addition to ‘north-south’ investment relationships, attention is also given to increasing ‘south-south’ investments.

Participants of the first LANDforum hailed from Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Uganda and the Netherlands and all have a professional interest in investments in land and agriculture in their work at universities, knowledge centers, civil society organizations, farmer’s organizations, governments, donor organizations, farms, enterprises and investment funds. The central aim of the first meeting was to explore the current situation in each of the selected countries, to set the agenda, and to identify the topics for research and debate. Participants discussed the current situation in the different countries within country groups: what can others learn from the experiences in your country and what do you see as the main challenge for realizing and optimizing the impact in terms of sustainable and equitable development? On the second day, experiences were exchanged between the different countries in four sector-based working groups: business, civil society, public sector and research. They also discussed their potential roles in fostering positive outcomes. At the end of the second day, the country teams presented priority themes and proposed possibilities for follow-up activities in the countries.

The discussions focused on identifying examples of positive land investments, i.e. cases of positive business results that also yield clear benefits for local people; ways in which others can learn from the experiences of different countries; and the main challenges for optimizing the development impact of investments in land and agriculture. The discussions set the agenda for the LANDforum meetings in the coming years. Although it is too soon for conclusions, the open atmosphere and frank exchanges of this first LANDforum gathering looks promising for future discussions on new and innovative approaches. The country teams have been asked to think of follow-up activities based on the two-day discussions and in preparation for further sessions. And the LANDforum secretariat, in collaboration with members, prepared a proposal for a round table discussion around a priority theme identified: experiences with benefit sharing arrangements in the different LANDforum countries, to be organized for the Land & Poverty Conference at the World Bank in March 2014. The outcomes of this round table will provide a starting point for the next LANDforum meeting in 2014.

For more information about the LANDforum, please contact Gemma Betsema (g.betsema@uu.nl)

[1]International Development Studies – Utrecht University (leading partner), African Studies Centre – Leiden University, Agriterra, Disaster Studies – Wageningen University & Research, HIVOS, Royal Tropical Institute, Triodos Facet, and the Sustainable Economic Development department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Government of Ethiopia partners with the G8 to improve land governance

Government of Ethiopia partners with the G8 to improve land governance

The Governments of Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Germany announced agreeing to enter a land country partnership to work together to improve rural land governance for economic growth and to protect the land rights of local citizens in Ethiopia.

 

This partnership builds on existing programmes and represents an important vehicle for increased coordination and collaboration among the Government of Ethiopia and its development partners. The announcement came after the representatives of the heads of state from G8 member states gathered in London to mark the handing over of the G8 Presidency from the United Kingdom to Russia.

 

The partnership with Ethiopia will support improved rural land tenure security for all, including through appropriate land use management in communal and pastoral areas. It will strengthen transparency in land governance, including by promoting responsible agricultural investment through an improved legal framework and practices.

 

Further details on the partnership will be communicated over the course of next year through the G8 and the Global Donor Working Group on Land, which was recently established by bilateral and multilateral donors to improve coordination of their respective efforts in the rural land sector. The website of the Global Donor Working Group on Land is based at the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development and can be accessed by following this link.

Call for proposals: agricultural investment, gender and Land in Africa

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), the Future Agricultures Consortium, and the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) of the African Union, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, are jointly organizing a multi-stakeholder conference to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2014.

The Conference aims to promote open exchange of experiences and evidence-based knowledge on the implications of public and private agricultural investments for rural livelihoods, gender relations, social differentiation. The conference will feature research findings by a range of institutions and networks, that document and analyse diverse land-based investments and the related business models, investment partnerships, community impacts and community responses. The purpose is to critically review existing investment practices as well as relevant policy and institutional set-ups in order to identify good and bad practices, promising strategies, approaches and policy measures that can be promoted and adapted to national contexts to foster inclusive, equitable and socially responsible investment that respect the rights of local communities and promote economic growth within a framework of social and gender equality.

Text of the call for participation:
Individuals and institutions from different sectors, including academia, government, private sector, civil society, rural organizations, and donor and development agencies, are invited to submit proposals to participate in the conference. We especially call for positive experiences and examples of investment in agriculture and African farmers, including public-private partnerships. Abstracts for presentations of papers and convening of discussion panels should be no more than 300 words and should explicitly mention how gender is addressed. Proposals for contributions in a variety of formats – including short papers, movies, poster presentations, toolkits and checklists, book launches, and others – will be welcomed. Please send your proposals to Tersia Warries at PLAAS on tmwarries@plaas.org.za by close of business South African time on Wednesday 8 January.

More information about the objectives, context and themes of the conference can be found through this link.

New publication: a critical review of the policy debate on large-scale land acquisitions

In the new publication ‘Africa for Sale. Positioning the state, land and society in foreign large-scale land acquisitions in Africa’ (Evers, Seagle, Krijtenburg, eds), Professor Annelies Zoomer contributed a chapter entitled ‘A critical review of the policy debate on large-scale land acquisitions: fighting the symptoms or killing the heart?’. The chapter is available online.