Plurality of Knowledge: The future of land governance in shifting global contexts
Utrecht, the Netherlands | 2-4 July 2025
As the LANDac contribution to the LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme draws to a close, we are pleased to use our Annual Conference 2025 as a space to share the rich learnings over five years of collaboration, and to use these learnings to inform how land governance can contribute towards equality and justice in an increasingly polarising world. We will offer two days of thought inspiring keynotes, panel sessions, round tables and other sessions for which we welcome your suggestions. Prior to the conference, on 2 July, we host a pre-event with an educational focus, providing space for PhD and MSc students to present and exchange their work.
Conference Programme
Please note that the programme is provisional and thus is subject to change. For the latest version of the programme, please regularly check the Conference Page. Times are displayed in CEST (Central European Summer Time).
Format
The 2-day conference kick-offs on Thursday morning 3 July with a plenary session with prominent keynote speakers. This is followed by several rounds of parallel sessions in 1,5 hour slots on Thursday and Friday 4 July. The conference closes on Friday afternoon with a keynote plenary. As in previous editions of the conference, we welcome a variety of formats: paper presentations, panel discussions, round tables for these two days. On 3 July we will close the day with drinks and snacks, offering ample opportunities for networking.
Prior to conference, on 2 July, we host a pre-event for early career researchers, providing space for PhDs and MSc students to share their knowledge, think about how to present this knowledge to other stakeholders, and to inspire each other.
The conference will be concentrated on-site, at Janskerkhof 2-3 Utrecht. We aim to stream keynote sessions. We will have the possibility to host a limited number of sessions in hybrid format.
Keynote speakers
Opening Plenary Day 1
Esther Mwaura-Muiru
Esther Mwaura-Muiru is currently the Global Advocacy Director for the Stand For Her Land (S4HL) Campaign at Landesa. Previously she worked at the International Land Coalition as the Global Women Land Rights Manager. Esther is also the Founder of GROOTS Kenya (Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood), a grassroots women movement of more than 3000 organised groups from rural and urban communities living in poverty across Kenya. Over the years, Esther has demonstrated deep expertise in development and management of initiatives that influence good governance and delivery of public services in sectors like health, housing, land, water, climate change and agriculture. “Transformative development is only possible if those impacted by inequality and oppressive systems are on the leadership and at the centre of the solutions towards a positive change”.
Raymond Cardinal
Ray Cardinal grew up in Alberta, primarily at Sucker Creek First Nation. One of six children, he is the son of the late Harold Cardinal and Maisie Cardinal. Ray earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan and his Master of Arts at the University of Arizona. A proud father to one son, his professional passions include monitoring, engagement, workforce training, and emergency preparedness. Ray holds leadership roles in several organizations, including Indigenous Chair of IAMC-TMX and member of the IAIA-WNC Executive Committee. He is also a proud member of Sucker Creek First Nation.
An Ansoms
An Ansoms, professor at UCLouvain, leads research on environmental and climate change in Central and Eastern Africa. Her team explores climate and resource conflicts using interdisciplinary, art-based, action-oriented methods. Working in DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi, she also specializes in research ethics, focusing on emotional and ethical dilemmas in challenging field contexts.
The opening plenary will be moderated by Barbara Codispoti, Global Land Programme Lead – Oxfam Novib.
Closing Plenary Day 2
Jahin Shams Sakkhar
Jahin Shams Sakkhar is a PhD researcher at the University of East Anglia’s School of Global Development, specializing in land rights, gender equity, and climate resilience. His research investigates whether the transfer of Khasland (public land) to women in Bangladesh can enhance their adaptive capacity, strengthen their agency and build resilience in the face of social and environmental change. With over a decade of experience in the NGO sector, Jahin worked with Uttaran, a grass-roots NGO in Bangladesh, where he led climate change and humanitarian programs in Bangladesh. His initiatives focused on water governance, Tidal River Management, Landscape governance, land rights, nature-based solutions, agro-ecology, climate change resilience, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid. His impactful work in the field earned him the Change Maker Award from the Start Network. Jahin is also involved in the CLARE SURF-IT project, which uses AI and satellite data to improve early flood warning systems, supporting his commitment to integrating technology into climate adaptation strategies.
Elizabeth Daley
Dr Elizabeth Daley works as Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor of the Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) programme. She is also Chair of the Board of the Land Portal Foundation and has worked as an independent consultant on land tenure, gender equity and social inclusion for over 20 years, including as Team Leader and instigator of the WOLTS (Women’s Land Tenure Security) project since its inception in 2015. Elizabeth has worked with multilateral and bilateral development partner agencies, international and national NGOs, and national governments, philanthropists, private sector companies and local communities. Her roles have included legal and policy reviews, project and programme evaluations, design and implementation of training and capacity building programmes, technical advisory inputs to land administration projects, and rigorous academic and technical fieldwork-based research on a host of land-related issues. As GESI Advisor for SPARC, Elizabeth supports local researchers across the consortium to elevate gender issues and strengthen understandings of normative change in pastoralist communities, for improved resilience and empowerment outcomes. See https://www.sparc-knowledge.org.
Marco Lankhorst
Marco Lankhorst, of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) holds a Master of Laws (legal anthropology) and a PhD in economics (economics and trade law). Having previously served as Head of Research, in The Hague and as Programme Manager Sahel, in Bamako, Marco currently holds the position of Chief of Programme Development, Monitoring and Reporting, within IDLO’s Programmes Department in Rome. He also coordinates the organization’s work on law and economic development. Before joining IDLO, Marco worked as country manager for a justice NGO in Rwanda, as a researcher in academia, and as a consultant carrying out evaluations and impact assessments in the African Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel. He specializes in criminal justice, land governance, land dispute resolution, customary law, and inclusive economic development. Marco is involved in several networking and learning activities and is a member of the advisory committee of the LAND-at-scale programme.
Conference Description
Over the five year period, we have seen changes in global and local contexts. Complex and interrelated crises threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to the LAND-at-scale learning agenda have seen shifts: land and housing rights are increasingly insecure (2024 PRIndex Report), climate change more and more affects people’s ability to build livelihoods from their land, increasing numbers of people are displaced due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, and despite many efforts, women still experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is starting to renege on its efforts to curb climate change, its (financial) support to the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels. In this rather grim reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, contribute with our plurality of knowing, of seeing, of imagining, to a more just, inclusive and sustainable land governance?
Knowledge management is a way to bring these different stakeholders together with the aim to strengthen the implementation of land governance projects and programmes and inform policy in both the Global South and North. Dedicated components aim to work on generating, managing, disseminating, and using knowledge, with a focus on learning and adaptive programme management. This conference will zoom in on how plurality of knowledges have shaped and changed the implementation of land governance activities. With an integrated KM-strategy, implemented with and by LANDac and its partners, knowledge management and learning have been at the heart of the LAND-at-scale programme since its inception. The aim was to contribute towards the impact both at global programme level, and of the local in-country projects. The LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme brought together academia, practitioners, CSOs, policy makers and donors. This has taken shape in several collaborations such as between LANDac partners and the donor, and between the knowledge management partners and implementing organisations across the different countries. At country level, practitioners from different backgrounds and with different ways of thinking jointly worked towards shared outcomes. At the LANDac conference, we want to reflect on: What lessons can be learned from such collaborations, what has been the impact? At the same time, we want to look forward to see how these experiences can inform future land governance interventions in a glocal world where interconnected global and local issues are being reshaped.
