Building an informed and inclusive response to the

global rush for land

Madiodio Niasse, DirectorMichael Taylor, Programme Manager

International Land Coalition Secretariat

World Bank Annual Conference on Land Policy and Administration

Washington26-27 April 2010

International Land Coalition• A global alliance of 82 civil society and

intergovernmental organisations working together to promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue and capacity building.

• Members include IGOs, farmer organisations, research centres, trade unions, NGOs, CSOs

Is there a global land rush?Yes

ILC members report pressures from the following drivers:

• Food

• Agrofuel feedstock

• Timber

• Carbon sequestration

• Tourism

Distinctives of the current rush

1. Scale of land acquisitions

2. Role of home and host governments

3. Lack of transparency

4. Context of liberalisation of markets, FTAs

5. Regional distinctives:– L. America: concentration thro market– E. Europe: post-collectivisation markets– Asia: National elites and intra-regional– Africa: Allocations of ‘state land’

Responses• Research

• Regulation

• Resistance

Research • IIED/FAO/IFAD: 5 countries in Africa (2009)

• World Bank: 20+ countries globally (2010)

• GTZ: four countries in Asia and Africa (2010)

• FIAN: 2 countries in Africa (2010)

• SNV: 5 countries West Africa (2009) + 6 countries (2010)

• Club du Sahel with ILC: West Africa region (2010)

• ROPPA/IDRC: 5 countries in West Africa

• ILC 35 studies cross-sector (2010)

ILC Research project• Collaboration between civil society,

research organisations, individual experts

• Common conceptual framework developed by Agter

• Technical coordination by CIRAD• Studies and synthesis report to be

launched November 2010

ILC research project: thematic1. Land acquisitions for food and agrofuel feedstock production

(IIED)2. Forest concessions (RRI)3. Allocation of the commons to investors –Wily 4. Impacts on women (MOKORO) 5. Land values and conversions (GM)6. Legal instruments to foster responsible investment in

agriculture: a human rights, agricultural trade and investment law perspective (WTI)

7. Existing non-legal instruments to protect poor people against companies grabbing their land for food production (Oxfam Novib)

8. CPL in historical perspective – Huggins

ILC research project: paradigmatic

9. Study on Special Economic Zones, India (SDF/Satavahana University)

10. The land concentration process, Peru (CEPES)

11. Madagascar case study, (Observatoire du Foncier)

12. Elite land grab, global with specific focus on Kenya (KLA)

ILC research project: Africa13. Pression commerciale sur le littoral

béninois, Benin (VADID)14. Socio-economic impact of commercial

exploitation of river valleys, Rwanda (RCN)

15. Commercial Pressures on Land in Ethiopia: a case study of the Bechera Agricultural Development (EDC)

16. Social impacts of commercial pressures on land in Zambia (ZLA)

17. AGRI-SA CONGO negotiations (CIRAD)

ILC research project: Asia18. Corporate Farming in Pakistan (SCOPE)19. Expansion of Oil Palm Plantations (AGRA)20. Palm oil and indigenous peoples in South-East

Asia (FPP)21. Mapping of actual and potential areas affected,

Philippines (ARNow!)22. Commercial pressure on agricultural land in

Kathmandu valley of Nepal (CDS)23. Highly extractive fishing activities and privatization

of foreshore lands (NGOs for Fisheries Reform24. Video documentary on the Sumilao campaign and

CARPER law campaign (SALIGAN)

ILC research project: Latin America25. Dinámicas de transferencia y cambios en los usos y

valoraciones de la tierra en un contexto de expansión minera, Peru (CEPES)

26. ¿Cómo lograr una gestión concertada y sostenible de las tierras indígenas chorotegas en un contexto de presión y de liberalización comercial que afecta a los recursos naturales?, Nicaragua – (Agronomes et Vétérinaires sans frontières)

27. La competencia por la tierra de los productores familiares lecheros del Uruguay y sus estrategias para enfrentarla, (Centro Cooperativista Uruguayo)

28. Empresas extractivas, territorio y conflictividad social en el río Cenepa, Peru (SER)

29. A Intervenção no desmatamento como fator de desestabilização na propriedade da terra: estudo comparativo entre duas modalidades de regularização fundiária na Transamazônica, Brazil (ICRAF)

ILC research project: Regional overviews

30. West Africa Regional Study (OECD/SWAC and SNV)

31. Asia regional overview (ANGOC)32. Africa Regional Overview

(RECONCILE)33. Latin America Overview (CISEPA and

CEPES)

ILC: Commercial Pressures on Land portal

ILC Commercial Pressures on Land Blog

www.landcoalition.org/cpl-blog • Tagged articles, research papers, multimedia (>1100)• Events, processes• Biweekly mailout

Will become Commercial Pressure on Land Page on new Land Portal, online late 2010

CPL Page Parternship with ActionAid, FAO, CAPRi, RECONCILE, AGTER, CIRAD, Oxfam-Novib, Universities of Bern and Groningen

ILC: Land acquisition matrix and map

Global Matrix of investment-related land transactions over 500Ha

• Logging reports, verification, spatial representation

• Online from late 2010 on CPL Land Portal

• Crowd-sourcing from 2011• Partnership with CIRAD,

Oxfam-Novib, University of Bern and in-country partners

Regulation: Governance

1. FAO’s Voluntary Guidelineson Responsible on Responsible Governance of Land and other Natural Resources

2. Framework and Guidelines for Land Policy in Africa

Characteristics:• Focus on wider land governance, but incl land

transactions• Developed through participatory processes, broad

legitimacyChallenges: • Investor interest highest where governance is weakest• specificity

Regulation: Investment

1. WB/FAO/IFAD/UNCTAD: 7 Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources

2. IFPRI: 5 Key elements for a code of conduct for foreign land acquisition

3. BMZ: 6 Basic Principles on the Purchase and Leasing of Large Areas of Land in Developing Countries

Characteristics• Focus on agricultural investment• Non-enforceableChallenges:• Articulation with existing frameworks, eg Equator principles,

Roundtables on sustainable biofuels & palm oils, EITI, Santiago Accord, Equator Principles

• Acceptance as normative reference depends on extent of support

Regulation: Human rights

1. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: 11 Minimum Human Rights Principles Applicable to Large-Scale Land Acquisitions or Leases

Characteristics:• Appeals to existing human rights mechanisms

Challenges:• Gaining acceptance or influencing investment-

related principles

Resistance

FIAN, LVC, FOODFirst, etc: Campaign to stop landgrabbing

Characteristics:• Large-scale agriculture inherently socially,

environmentally and economically damaging

Challenges:• Meaningful influence on ongoing investment

processes

Overall challenges in responding1. Using the “land grabbing” phenomena as a

springboard for coordinated efforts to scale up and advance efforts to strengthen collective land rights and economic opportunities of the rural poor

2. Understanding the social and political dimensions of land in addition to economic factors, shaping rural societies

3. Balancing urgency (of protecting rights or facilitating investment?) with need for information and inclusion in identifying solutions

Diversity of initiatives on evidence-gathering• Diversity of studies covering :

– Various parts of the world– Using various methodological approaches– Conducted at different times:

• Before the issue of land grabs started to catch global attention: GRAIN study as key to drawing attention to the magnitude of the phenomenon

• At an early stage when the phenomenon started to be at the spotlight• In the following months• Studies underway

– Holes in each of the studies– By different types of organisations: CSOs, farmer organisations,

Academic institutions, Intergovernmental orgs.• Putting all gathered evidence on the table helps reduce

the holes in geographic coverage, and attenuate biases

Diversity of responsesPrinciples• Scepticism on the efficacy of voluntary regulatory

responses• Call for immediate end to “land grabs”and outright

rejection of any code-of-conduct type of principlesMajor interest groups (including those who use

and/or own the land, govs in the receiving countries, public and private investors) left out from the search for responses

No meaningful open debates among the proponents of the various responses, and among all relevant parties

Global Dialogue Initiative• Objective

– to enable a wider diversity of stakeholder groups to influence the nature of global responses to large-scale land acquisitions and to consider their alternatives

• Expected outcome– Increased awareness of what is happening in terms

nature of the deals, initial impacts on the ground– Improved understanding of the arguments behind what is

being proposed by various parties

Positions and responses by the various parties and more informed by available evidence and by the alternatives perspectives on the phenomenon

Governance of the Dialogue• Initiating Committee

– A global CSO: Action Aid International– A Global IGO-CSO coalition: ILC– Three farmer organisations: AFA, COPROFAM, ROPPA– Role:

• Improve the concept of the Dialogue• Engage in broad consultations to set in place the Convening Committee

• The Convening Committee– An expansion of the IC into a ten-member Committee– Diverse and representative enough to guarantee an open dialogue in

which all parties are equally treated– Role:

• Finalise the Dialogue concept into a dialogue proposal• Mobilise needed financial resources in a manner that does not

compromise the independence of the Dialogue• Identify and invite participants to the Dialogue• Oversee and coordinate the dialogue process• Disseminate the results of the Dialogue

Format of the Dialogue process (initial thoughts)

A two stage-process• CSO-FO Phase, with the aim of levelling the playing field• Open Dialogue Phase

– On the evidence– On the responses being proposed (principles and alternatives to

principles)

• Dialogue modalities:– Regional consultations– Global consultations (meetings and electronic consultations)

• Linkages with other global and regional processes• Expected to be concluded by end 2010