Land Governance
Land is one of the most valuable resources a rural family can own to secure its livelihoods. Without secure land tenure, families and communities are vulnerable to expropriations and face many challenges to access natural and financial resources, markets, and other services.
The Global Donor Working Group on Land (GDWGL) is a network of twenty-nine bi- and multilateral donors and international organisations cooperating on land governance issues worldwide, facilitated by the Donor Platform. The GDWGL was established by the global donor community in 2013 in response to the sharp and volatile increases in food prices that began in 2008.
These spikes, combined with the rapid expansion of land use for biofuels and growing concerns over climate change, led to a growing demand for land in emerging-economy countries. Land was often acquired at large scales from people in rural settings by various international and domestic private and public investors in countries with weak land governance. This prompted many governments and development partners to increase their efforts to address land tenure and resource governance issues in these countries.
A landmark result of this effort was the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2012. The VGGT is the first internationally negotiated and agreed soft-law instrument on the governance of land tenure.
The GDWGL has been a key player in advocating the use of the VGGT, as well as in supporting dialogue spaces where land and development experts can share their lessons on the implementation of the VGGT. In this manner, the GDWGL helps to better facilitate knowledge sharing amongst donors dedicated to land governance and has strongly advocated for a substantial role of tenure issues in the Agenda 2030. The GDWGL praised the inclusion of land indicators under the Sustainable Development Goals to alleviate poverty, enhance gender equality, and promote sustainable cities and communities, and has been instrumental in the process of raising the importance of the indicators from Tier II to Tier I.
The core functions of the GDWGL are to allow for better coordination and knowledge exchange on land governance programmes, as well as to jointly advocate the relevance of land issues in policy processes which affect international development. The Global Donor Working Group on Land is a network of twenty-four bi- and multilateral donors and international organisations cooperating on land-related issues worldwide, facilitated by the Donor Platform and currently chaired by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Downloads
Terms of Reference
Briefs and Notes
-
Update SDG land indicator advocacy (PDF, 698.1 KiB)
-
Policy Brief No. 14: SDG land indicator (PDF, 573.0 KiB) During the last years, the land community has been mobilised to ensure that land rights are effectively addressed in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a member of the land community, the Global Donor Working Group on Land is committed to supporting the inclusion of land tenure security and associated indicators in such an important global agenda.
-
Policy brief no.12: Land Indicator is Critical to Ending Poverty and Must Remain in SDG Goal 1 (PDF, 105.3 KiB) The GDWGL acknowledges that the generally approved land rights indicator under Goal 5 (indicator 5.a.1) is very relevant for women's land rights. However, given the universal nature of tenure rights and large equality gaps also in this area, women will be better served if the land rights indicator remains under Goal 1.
-
GDWGL: Member Code of Conduct on Country-Level Coordination.pdf (PDF, 551.3 KiB)
-
infoNote September 2014: Global Donor Working Group on Land (PDF, 231.1 KiB)
Meeting Minutes
-
GLOBAL DONOR WORKING GROUP ON LAND TELCO 5 FEBRUARY 2021.pdf (PDF, 168.3 KiB)
-
GlOBAL DONOR WORKING GROUP ON LAND TELC0 28 JULY 2020.pdf (PDF, 166.7 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group in Land Telco 13 May 2020.pdf (PDF, 211.4 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land Telco 27 January 2020.pdf (PDF, 220.9 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land 14th Physical Meeting. 25 November 2019.pdf (PDF, 698.9 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land Telco 11 September 2019.pdf (PDF, 481.1 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land Telco 14 May 2019.pdf (PDF, 510.5 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land 13th Physical Meeting. 29 March 2019 (PDF, 688.3 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land 12th Physical Meeting. 18 October 2018 (PDF, 579.0 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land 11th Physical Meeting. 23 March 2018.pdf (PDF, 734.4 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land Telco 20 February 2018 (PDF, 562.0 KiB)
-
Global Donor Working Group on Land 10th Physical Meeting. 11 October 2017 (PDF, 701.8 KiB)
-
Global donor working group on land 9th physical meeting. 24 march 2017 (PDF, 521.7 KiB)
-
Global donor working group on land 8th physical meeting. 21 October 2016 (PDF, 100.5 KiB)
-
Global donor working group on land 7th physical meeting. 18 March 2016 (PDF, 359.3 KiB)

Contact | Member
Javier Molina Cruz
FAO, Chair of the Global Donor WG on Land

Contact | Secretariat
Sylvia Otieno
Intern