Those of you who have visited Dubai in recent years may relate to what I am going to say: Dubai is in the middle of the desert, and its land, not that long ago, was really worth nothing. Now it is one of the most vibrant international cities in the world. All this happened in a relatively short time span.
By Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Chairman of the Advisory Board of CCSI, University Professor at Columbia University, and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
When more than 1,200 land rights experts converge on the World Bank’s Washington, DC headquarters today for the 18th Annual Land and Poverty Conference, participants from government, civil society groups, private sector and donor agencies will focus on how they can use data and other evidence to reform land policies, identify strategies for expansion and find ways to monitor progress.
Posted: 11/24/2014
Source: Huffington Post
By Tim Hanstad, President and CEO, Landesa
If we want to empower rural women in the developing world, there is no better first step than providing them with secure rights to land.
Women play important roles in all smallholder farming systems. Advocates for women farmers often claim that “women produce 60-80% of the world’s food.” Occasionally, we are told that this statistic refers to food produced in developing countries, or food crops in sub-Saharan Africa; the reference point is vague. But the idea is clear – women produce more food than men.
Government should address informal settlement housing backlog in the country. Addressing challenges posed by informal settlements will help government to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals such as providing access to basic water and sanitation. Underlying socio-economic causes of informal settlements should be tackled. When addressing challenges posed by informal settlements, government should provide the urban poor with cost effective access to urban environments.
However, the road there was not easy.
Five weeks ago ‘A land rights storm brewing in Barbuda’ was reprinted on this portal. This told the sorry tale of the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda using the catastrophic damage wrecked on the island by Hurricane Irma as the excuse to get rid of the collective ownership of Barbudans of their island once and for all.
