Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors.
In a new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects (“land investments”), the Colombia Center on Sustainable Investment grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict.
Read more.
Posted: 7th July 2021 by Coordinator
Report – LAND at Lunch: Investments and conflict in Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique
April 2021
By Charlotte Stam, LANDac research intern
Since a few weeks the Cabo Delgado region in northern Mozambique has been in the news as insurgents have attacked Palma. Already thousands of people have fled the region and a humanitarian crisis is emerging. The news headlines especially focus on Islamic extremism, though increasingly bring to the fore other causes that may underly this conflict, such as investments in natural resources. On the 15th of April 2021, LANDac organized an online LAND at Lunch meeting to discuss this topic. About 15 people joined us and listened to the reflection of the situation in northern Mozambique by Emilinah Namaganda, a PhD candidate at Utrecht University and Alda Salomão, General Director at TINDZILA Land Governance Resources Centre and Senior Legal Advisor for Centro Terra Viva. An open discussion followed, which raised the question ‘What can we do from our position?’. This report summarizes the LAND at Lunch meeting, discussing the different viewpoints on how to explain the situation in Cabo Delgado region.
Read the full report.
Last Updated: 22nd June 2021 by Charlotte Stam
Food Security and Food Sovereignty during and after Covid-19
Webinar on Food security and food sovereignty during and after Covid
June 29, 2021, 3:00 pm (CDT)
Click here to read more about the event!
Livestream on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/UTLLILAS/
Speakers
Raj Patel, LBJ School of Public Affairs
https://rajpatel.org/
Alejandro Argumedo Swift Foundation
https://bit.ly/3uI8wpA
Sofia Monsalve, FIAN
http://www.ipes-food.org/about/experts/Sof%C3%ADaMonsalve
Peter Rosset, ECOSUR
http://www.ecosur.mx/academico/prosset/
Maria Luisa Mendonça, CUNY
https://pcp.gc.cuny.edu/people/
Posted: 21st June 2021 by Charlotte Stam
Seminar on Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs)
“Debating ESIAs: Effectiveness, concerns and prospects”
Sharing the results of a literature review and expert interviews as part of the LANDac applied research project into ESIAs “Ten-years after: A reality check on impact assessments of infrastructural projects”.
On June 23, from 15:30 – 17:00 PM CEST, LANDac organizes a seminar to discuss Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs).
The project aims to improve the positive contribution of environmental and social impact assessments, by reflecting on what might be done to close the gap between real and projected impacts of investments in infrastructure. The seminar will focus on the following questions: What have we learnt to date about how well ESIAs are working? Does it help to mitigate the negative effects on people’s livelihoods, especially when these involve the displacement? Is there a future for ESIAs?
We kindly ask you to register for this seminar. After registration you will receive the Zoom-link for the seminar. Register here!
Posted: 21st June 2021 by Coordinator
IGAD Women’s Land Rights Conference
28th – 30th June 2021
Even though women are the primary users of agricultural land in most African communities, the system of patriarchy which dominates social organization has tended to discriminate against women when it comes to ownership and control of land resources. Although most legal frameworks (including the Constitutions) for the IGAD Member States are progressive towards gender equality, challenges remain, ineffective implementation and enforcement of the laws and policies by the agencies provided with such responsibility. Even in countries where good laws exist, women frequently do not enjoy their rights to access and control productive resources. Implementation is too often hindered by sociocultural norms and attitudes. As such, women’s land rights are not well promoted and protected because attitudes towards women’s land rights at family, community level, and institutional levels have not shifted in a manner that enables the translation of policies into practice. It is critical that the land policy and laws be reviewed where there is clear manifestation of discrimination while, emerging policies, laws and programmes integrate gender perspectives in terms of ownership, access to and control of land. But it is now more crucial to look beyond legal and policy reforms and adopt broad based social change towards women’s land rights.
It is against this background that the IGAD Land Governance Programme and International Land Coalition-Africa (ILC-Africa) are organizing this conference.
Click here to register!
For more information:
IGAD Regional Women’ s Conference Brief
IGAD Women’s Land Rights Conference_June2021
Posted: 15th June 2021 by Coordinator
LAND-at-scale Knowledge Management Launch
Knowledge management and learning is at the heart of RVO’s LAND-at-scale program. For this reason, RVO is excited to announce a partnership with LANDac and the International Land Coalition for the implementation of an integrated knowledge management component as part of the program.
LAND-at-scale has kicked off with projects in 14 different countries. Through our knowledge management strategy, we aim to achieve maximum impact of those country projects by gaining a deeper understanding on the conditions required to create structural and positive change.
Join us at a LANDac conference pre-event on June 29th at 2 PM CEST to learn more about our approach and to give us your feedback. Click here to register for the event*.
We hope to see you there!
*Registration for the LANDac conference is not required to attend the launch.
Posted: 15th June 2021 by Coordinator
PhD Dissertation “In the Aftermath of the Jatropha Boom: Exploring socio-political and ecological dynamics in ‘failed’ jatropha spaces in Ghana”
We are happy to share that Richmond Antwi-Bediako has recently and successfully defended his LANDac-related PhD dissertation “In the Aftermath of the Jatropha Boom: Exploring socio-political and ecological dynamics in ‘failed’ jatropha spaces in Ghana”. His dissertation is now available online here.
Abstract
The thesis addresses the knowledge gap in research on large-scale land investment, focusing on investment failure and their aftermath. It provides an in-depth analysis of how investment trajectories transformed jatropha spaces in Ghana, and what happened to these spaces after the investment failed. The thesis gives an overview of how the heightened global interest in jatropha resulted in large-scale land investments in many developing countries especially: Mexico, India, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana. In all of the countries studied, promoters, including government and private investors, took a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, hoping for an economic boom. Consequently, when jatropha investments failed, the promoters were unprepared to deal with unexpected social, economic and environmental impacts of the failure. The thesis further zoomed into three case studies of former jatropha spaces created by large-scale investments in Ghana. The results provide a clear view of impacts of investment failures on local ecology, livelihoods and governance, as the investment failures led to total abandonment and/or to investment diversification. Overall, the case studies show that the investment trajectories from jatropha boom to bust have affected vulnerable migrants and common pool resource users. The challenges were rooted in underlying social inequality, resource entitlement, rural development capacity and resource distribution. The thesis in conclusion emphasize the importance of building land investment strategies based on solid understanding of local contexts and discusses opportunities to critically evaluate investment failures in order to integrate inclusive sustainable development strategies in land investments.
Last Updated: 15th June 2021 by Coordinator
Handbook of Translocal Development and Global Mobilities
Edited by Annelies Zoomers, Professor of International Development Studies and Maggi Leung, Kei Otsuki and Guus Van Westen, Associate Professors, Department of Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
This timely Handbook demonstrates that global linkages, flows and circulations merit a more central place in theorization about development. Calling for a mobilities turn, it challenges the sedentarist assumptions which still underlie much policy making and planning for the future.
Download the flyer here.
Posted: 31st May 2021 by Coordinator
CCSI: Transparency for Whom? Grounding Land Investment Transparency in the Needs of Local Actors
Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors.
In a new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects (“land investments”), the Colombia Center on Sustainable Investment grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict.
Read more.
Last Updated: 31st May 2021 by Coordinator
CCSI: More Contracts and ESIAs: OpenLandContracts.org
CCSI: More Contracts and ESIAs: OpenLandContracts.org
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s online database of contracts and associated agribusinesses, forestry and renewable energy projects, OpenLandContracts.org, has greatly expanded. The database now includes:
Posted: 31st May 2021 by Coordinator
IHS – Course on Sustainable Urban Management (Scholarships available)
Course dates: 3 January – 25 March 2022 (dates are still subject to change)
Scholarship OKP application date: 13 June 2021
Today more people live in cities than ever before. This creates opportunities and challenges which requires experts with combined skills in infrastructure, economic development, affordable land and housing markets, sustainable planning and resilience to climate change in order to manage increasingly complex cities.
The course on Sustainable Urban Development gives you the opportunity to merge an academic specialisation course with a multidisciplinary project where you apply theory into practice.
More information