Following last week’s meeting of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), this piece reflects on a key CFS soft-law instrument. It is an edited extract from the article “International Soft-Law Instruments and Global Resource Governance: Reflections on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure”, Law, Environment and Development Journal (2017) 13(2):115-133. The full article can be freely downloaded at https://lead-journal.org/content/17115.pdf.

The debate on agriculture and development is heated and, apparently, never ending. This is especially true of the role and position of peasant (or smallholder) agriculture, with people either vigorously defending the sector or saying that in time it will (and should) disappear. Prof. Olivier de Schutter is a clear exponent of the former line of thought, as is evident from his contribution ‘We want peasants’ on Land Portal (26 September, 2018).

“We, the poor.” This is how Francisco Chicompa introduces the peasant families who live in Napai II, a village in the district of Mecuburi, Nampula province in Mozambique. The label stuck like glue: poor is what they were called, and so poor is what they were.  Despite this, the land in the region has provided food for him, his wife and his eleven children. The land has provided money to buy clothes and sent the children to school. The land has held memories of his ancestors, which he was of course obliged to pass on, intact, to future generations.

How do we make land-based agricultural investments more inclusive, particularly regarding land rights? This was the focus of the agenda as LEGEND held the 6^th UK Land Policy Forum on July 11 2018, with lively discussions from all involved – including government, DFIs, academics and land-related CSOs.

Uno de los aspectos más difíciles y problemáticos en el Acuerdo de Paz tiene que ver con el ordenamiento social de la propiedad y el uso de la tierra. Las clases dirigentes y el Estado colombiano fracasaron en la implementación de las reformas rurales de 1936 y 1961, con las que se pretendió la pacificación de la sociedad colombiana mediante la articulación de una reforma agraria con una reforma política. ¿Estamos ante la posibilidad de un nuevo fracaso del problema agrario tras el Acuerdo con las Farc?

By Roy Prosterman

Asia’s Tigers, the collection of booming economies that emerged in the East following World War II, are often hailed as economic miracles. There was, though, no “secret sauce” behind that sustained and broad-based economic growth. Rather, as Myanmar is poised to show, the key ingredient for a Tiger economy can be found right beneath our feet.

Autor: Rui Daher

Fonte: https://www.cartacapital.com.br/economia/a-agricultura-familiar-esta-sob...

Caminhamos da burrice à sacanagem informativa, e os oligopólios-patrocinadores ganham força

Autor: Amélio Dall’Agnol

In Ghana, land is an indispensable asset. It’s a source of livelihood and social identity, and men and women should have equal opportunities to benefit from it. But when entrenched patriarchy tips the power scales, and corruption reinforces cultural norms, the impact on women can be devastating.

A recent survey reveals that one in three Ghanaians have been asked to pay a bribe for land-related services in recent years. The study was done by the Ghana Integrity Initiative, the local chapter of Transparency International in Ghana.

By Ian Scoones, Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and the Director of the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex

By Victoria Stanley, Senior Rural Development and Land Specialist at the World Bank

I recently had the opportunity to see the mobile offices run by the State Service for the Registration of Real Estate (SSRRE) of the Republic of Azerbaijan.  These mobile offices provide the same services any citizen can receive in a physical SSRRE office, but they literally come to you.