“The e-consultation… was useful. However, more efforts are needed for its follow up, including lessons learned from its successes and weaknesses.”

European Commission

//  Conference on Land and Poverty 2011

The annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty – held 18-20 April and seen now by many as ‘the’ annual event in the land sector — brought together participants from bi- and multilateral organisations, foundations, private sector and civil society.

Three themes were discussed:

  • Land governance at country level;
  • Challenges of land acquisition, urbanisation and climate change; and
  • Research, capacity building and new technology options.

This year’s aim to increase awareness of the successful implementation of innovative approaches brought a wealth of examples from many different countries. Opening the conference, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank, stressed that attention to land tenure is critical to put a valuable resource to its best use and make it contribute to the local economy rather than to rent-seeking and conflict. Her remarks on the importance of women’s rights to land and girls’ ability to inherit were timely and relevant. For good governance and business start-up, “opaque systems of land administration and irregularities in allocating or managing public land” pose major challenges. The private sector will play an important role in fostering agricultural development in the future and will be instrumental in overcoming decades of underinvestment in the sector.

The various international efforts which were prominently discussed at this conference point to a growing momentum towards a new era in international law on land rights, among them the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure (VG), the African Union’s new Land Policy Initiative (ALPI), and the Principles on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI).

In her closing remarks, Anne-Marie Leroy, World Bank’s Legal Vice President called for the Bank’s engagement on land to strengthen, mature and diversify since land and property rights are core to the Bank’s agenda: “We cannot afford to be paralyzed by risk aversion”. She stressed that engagement in land carries special sensitivities. The absence of a clear, formal commitment and consensus at the international level around some basic principles concerning land greatly weakens the efforts of all to improve land governance and to strengthen land rights (especially for the poor and vulnerable). “Land (like it or not) is an issue that simply can’t be avoided”.

Presentations and abstracts

 

//  Rising interest in farmland

To advance the debate on land governance, the World Bank study "Rising Global Interest in Farmland" has collated and processed empirical evidence World Bank report cover

“Rising Global Interest in Farmland:
Can it yield sustainable and equitable benefits?”

Download the full report | 6 MB PDF  //  or Read it as a widget

// eDiscussion on interest in farmland

13 Sep - 8 Oct 2010.  To gather recommendations from key stakeholders for next steps on a planned land governance initiative, the Platform – joined by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) – hosted an eDiscussion on the World Bank report “Rising Global Interest in Farmland: can it yield sustainable and equitable benefits?”

Recommendations from participants

  • Enhance protection and recognition of existing land rights, including through better registration, land tenure reform, developing master plans and creating an international fund to preserve land. The African Union’s Land Policy Guidelines is an important tool for introducing legal and institutional policy measures to protect land rights.
  • Increased investment to smallholder farmers, including through contract farming and outgrower schemes, as an alternative to large-scale land acquisitions.
  • A human rights approach should guide action and responses to farmland investments. Farmland investments should be linked to the realisation of the MDGs.
  • Stronger reflection of water issues in any discussion about investment in agriculture. The EU land policy group highlighted the fact that many of the “land grabs” are also “water grabs.”
  • Pay greater attention to the plight of pastoralists, including through customary institutions that manage common property such as grazing land and by enacting legislation specific to pastoralist’s needs.
  • Improve transparency on large-scale investments in agriculture, including land transactions. A “Land Transparency Initiative” modelled on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) would be a good starting point.
  • Value existing voluntary private sector standards and principles, particularly the experience of FSC certification. Improvements in governance and access to information are needed as well as guidance on which standards are working best. IFC guidelines and performance standards are a good starting point, but there is a need to improve implementation.
  • Strengthen local capacity building and participative land use planning mechanisms through bilateral development assistance.
  • Partner with civil society as watchdogs, strengthen their capacity and establish alliances at local, national and global levels.

Participation

The facility was open for one month, starting with the launch of the World Bank report in September 2010. It included a week each of moderated debate for civil society, the public sector (governments, donors and international organisations) and the private sector. Two moderators per stakeholder group supervised the inputs, facilitated by IISD.

// Stats

  • 2606 contacts informed - including governments, donors, intergovernmental organisations, private sector and civil society
  • 3362 downloads of the report
  • eDiscussion attendants from 118 countries
  • Active participants from 33 countries including: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, EU, France, Germany, Ghana, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Qatar, Samoa, Senegal, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom and the USA
  • Nearly 100 subscribers to the daily newsletter
  • 96 comments posted over a period of four weeks

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// Upcoming

First telco of the Global Working Group on Land

Online 22 May 2013 - 22 May 2013

Landscape Forum Steering Committee telcos

Telco 23 May 2013 - 24 May 2013

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// Interviews

  • Opportunities in decentralisation

    Opportunities in decentralisation

    Philip Mikos, EC DG Dev


    The European Commission’s Philip Mikos looks back at the EU’s track record in rural development in LDCs — and forward...