International Land Coalition (ILC)

Perspectives on current and emerging land governance

challenges and ILC's responses

Briefing session with IFAD Executive Board - 18 September 2013

I. International Land Coalition

ILC - Who are we? Where are we coming from?

Specific emphasis: Need for "Revival of land and agrarian reform" on the national and international agenda :

Building public awareness and opening space for policy reform and CSO engagement

1995: Conference organised by IFAD on Hunger and Poverty : The Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty

Empowering the rural poor by increasing their access to productive resources assets (esp. land, water)

Enhancing knowledge sharing about best practices for fighting humger/poverty;

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PCHPSecretariat

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AoMEntebbe

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Evolution of ILC membership

ILC - Who are we? Where are we coming from?

A globally diverse membership

ILC - What brings us together?150 MEMBER ORGANISATIONS, INCLUDING:

10 IGOs (FAO, IFAD, WB, UNCCD, UNEP, WFP, IFPRI, IWMI, ILRI, ICRAF)

100 Southern-based FOs (AFA, FUNDAPAZ, EAFF) and CSOs (ANGOC, CEPES, LN-WA)

40 global and Northern-based CSOs (Oxfam, SNV, WRI, LANDESA, CIRAD, IIED)

In addition: 5 Strategic Partners (MFA-Netherlands, SDC-Switzerland, EC, Sida-Sweden, AU-LPI)

HOW DO WE WORK?:• advocacy• dialogue• knowledge sharing• capacity building

and empowerment.

WHO? A global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations

WHAT PURPOSE? Promote secure & equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men

Goal of ILC 2011-2015 : To enable poor rural women & men to gain secure and equitable access to and control over land in order to increase their food security and overcome poverty & vulnerability

THE RURAL POOR MEN AND WOMEN - A LARGE DIVERSITY

II. Land in the emerging geopolitics of food

Understanding the current context

Food Self-sufficiency paradigm

Food Security paradigm ?

Food price indexGlobal food production

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sources: UNESA 2013, FAOSTAT 2013, FAO 2011, HLPE 2012, MEA 2005, Rockstrom et al 2009

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global cereal production

global extension of cultivated land

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2010-2020 : A turning point for land (& water) governance?

A turning point ?

Elements of the new geopolitics

Expanding demand for land for food: • Rapid population

growth• Nutrition transition• Energy and climate

mitigation demand for land/water

Constraints to expanding food supplies:• Climate change and variability• Reduced yield gaps• Closing land and water frontiers

in traditionally high performing grain producing regions, etc.

• Japan Syndrome

Structural dimensions of current/emerging food security problems: • Land and water -- reaching the resource limits (planetary boundaries)• Japan syndrome: A densely populated fast-growing and industrialising

countries, experiences the shrinking of its grainland, translating into increased dependency on imports (Bown, 2004).

• Syndrome was experienced by Japan, South Korean, Taiwan

5, 3 M ha (17 M agr))

The Japan Syndrome (Shimizu, 2011)

3, 6 M ha (4.5 M agr)

- 32% since 1960s

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Trends in arable land in South Korea (Honma & Hayami. 2007)1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2004

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-20% since 1980s)

China and India : Threats of the Japan syndrome and implications for global food security

Trends in arable land in Taiwan (Honma & Hayami. 2007)

-50% since 1970s)

What solutions for the future? Centrality of landA. Avoiding the Japan Syndrome: China: Loss of arable land: 8.2 million of arable land between 1997 and 2010 (Hofman & Ho, 2012)

Loss of food self-sufficiency: Net food importer from 2004 bottom-line of 120 million hectares of arable land that need to be safeguardedIndia: Industralisation (SEZs), infrastructure, urbanisation => Risk to food-self-sufficiency Sanctuarisation" of the grainland: Possibility to "classify" the remaining arable land

to prevent its conversion to other usesB. Increasing productivity of existing arable land (1.5 billion ha) Closing the yield gap Breaking the yield frontierC. Expanding the arable land: Approach based on perception that there is a substantial amount of unused and

underused land that is suitable for agriculture (Deininger, 2011)

o Estimate: 445 million ha (equivalent of 30% of existing arable land) o Mainly (3/4th) in LA (28% : 123,000,000 ha) and in Africa (45%: 200 million

ha): ==> Africa's savannah region: "Sleeping Giant" of 400 million ha of "unused/underused" land (WB, 2009)

III. Securing land rights for the poor - a bigger challenge

Severe land degradationLack of investment in agricultural modernisation

Lack of investment in water control

infrastructure

Poverty - hunger

A generation gap: loss of farmer pride; youth outmigration

How representative of Africa's 33 million smallholder farms (that produce 90% of food consumed in the continent)?

Importance and challenge of securing land rights for the poor

Keeping track of large-scale transnational land dealsMarked spatial disconnect between:

o Regions/countries w/ highest future food demand is anticipated: South/SE Asia: China, India

o Regions/Countries with the financial capital / tech know-how to develop land/water:Global North, emerging economies, oil-rich countries

o Regions w/ highest land & water potential food production : Africa & L-America

Key features• Escalation following food and energy price crises of 2008/9• Drivers: Both food, energy security and profit• No single predominant investor type: Top ten countries of origin include both emerging and

developed economies• A large proportion small-scale landgrabbing within countries, but often unnoticed.• Lack of transparency

ILC response: Key assumption: Greater transparency allows wider involvement of stakeholders in decision-making, and enables better decision-making on trade-offs• Facilitating greater citizen involvement in promoting transparency in land and investment• National multi-stakeholder pilots, bringing together government with civil society• Global Observatory of the Land Matrix a tool that allows wide participation in decision-

making, based on publicly available information• www.landmatrix.org

Addressing need for gender equality in land accessThe issues• Glaring gender inequalities in land access, while context of increased feminisation of

agriculture• Rationale for correcting gender inequality is primarily a rights issue: women and men need

to be treated equally in resource access• Economic/efficiency rationale: It helps improve agricultural productivity: If given the same

level of access and tenure to land than men women would increase yields on their farms by 20-30%, with spill over effects on poverty reduction efforts

ILC response: • Awareness raising, information generation and sharing• Monitoring the status of women's land rights and

fulfilment of claims (e.g. CEDAW shadow reporting)• Contributing to enabling environments:

o at national level : selected focus countrieso in regional and international forums (e.g. CSW)

and land-related policy processes (VGGT operationalisation)

Highlights on other areas of relevance

Securing rangelands Indigenous peoples' land and territorial rights

Land rights defenders

Virtual platform for knowledge/experience sharing

• Voting on Food Sovereignty at the Assembly of Members

Land increasingly recognised as an essential element of sustainable development, peace and stability

President Otto Perez Molina at ILC AoM - 2013 Antigua

Prime Minister Sali Berisha at ILC AoM - 2011 Tirana

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal at ILC AoM -

2009 Kathmandu

A unique multi-stakeholder and multi-perspectives platform

Thank you!