​The Land & Accountability Research Centre (LARC) at the University of Cape Town commissioned the vivid documentary film This Land as a way for rural people to bring the untold story of their struggle for rights and accountability on communal land into urban forums of legislative, political and corporate decision-making.

As 2018 came to a close, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary named “justice” their Word of the Year. It was a top search throughout 2018, and for good reason. Justice remains out of reach for billions of people worldwide.

We have a chance to change that in 2019. That’s why we’re naming this the Year of Justice. 

Many women around the world are working to improve their land rights. Yet the access to their land is often insecure. During this evening, you will hear stories by women who are involved in different initiatives at the grassroots level – from the Netherlands to Malawi. What lessons can we learn and how can they generate ideas that lead to more action on the ground? 

Kick-off event: meet female land rights champions, make your work more effective and join the festive launch of a photo exhibition

There are high hopes that the process of drawing up an international human rights instrument for the promotion and protection of peasant rights will soon be crowned with success: In September, the Human Rights Council decides whether the newly negotiated UN Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas will be sent to the United Nations’ General Assembly in New Y

The rapidly improving accuracy of satellite navigation in mobile devices can help to democratize land surveying throughout the developing world. How can field practitioners best utilize this tech to implement community mapping initiatives and formalize property rights?

Around the world, insecure property rights prevent families from feeling confident about the future, businesses from investing, and communities from becoming more productive. Hundreds of millions of us lack property security. This makes the world poorer, less free, and less just.

Africities is the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa’s flagship pan-African event that is held every three years in one of the five regions of Africa. We mobilize communities and local authorities in African countries, as well as financial institutions, civil society groups and development partners at continental and international level.

International Data Week 2018 (IDW 2018) will be held on 5-8 November 2018 in Gaborone, Botswana. Hosted by the Botswana Open Science and Open Data Forum, IDW 2018 will bring together data scientists, researchers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and data stewards from all disciplines and geographies across the globe.

World Cities Day aims to promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, enhance cooperation among countries and cities in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contribute to sustainable urban development. The overall World Cities Day theme is Better City, Better Life and this year’s particular theme is Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities. The main event will be celebrated in Liverpool, UK.

The 2018 Urban Conference will follow on from the 2017 event which focused specifically on communication and engaging with urban stakeholders on the content of the IUDF. At this follow up event, the aim is to further embed the IUDF agenda by focusing on what implementation means in practice. A series of sessions will focus on the themes and sub-themes and will be designed so that there are theoretical and evidence-based inputs but also space for thinking through what practical implementations of the IUDF means for the various spheres of government and in different sectors