All the UN member states have committed to achieve the Sustainable Development Targets by 2030. However, there is a clear gap between what is being committed and the delivery of the commitments. For example, in 2020 National Voluntary Reports only seven countries reported on specific land targets. No country reported on the all three key land targets.

The spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and other countries in the region has again brought to the fore the fact that very dense, under-serviced, mostly informal, settlements are not healthy places to live. They are also places where the spread of a disease is difficult to prevent or manage. 

Partners Event on coordinating a Covid-19 response while monitoring the effect on governance of tenure and determining how to build back better

FAO produces and synthesizes a wealth of information data across all the sectors to help eradicate poverty, eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, reduce rural poverty, enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, and increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises. These information and data are in text, statistical, graphic and map formats that are accessible through a wide number of FAO Knowledge Platforms.

The State of Land Information in South Africa

Challenges finding information in food and agriculture on the Web: what can we do better?

Wednesday, 23 September
(2020-09-23)
15:00 - 16:30 UTC

Panelists will be from FAO, CGIAR, Land Portal Foundation, USDA and Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences.

As COVID-19 has hobbled governments around the world, environmental protections have diminished or disappeared altogether, leaving the door wide open for abuse, corruption, land grabs. Indigenous peoples and their territories are prime targets to pillage during this vulnerable period.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage more than half of the world´s land. These biodiverse ancestral lands are vital to the people who steward them and the planet we all share. But governments only recognize indigenous and community legal ownership of 10 percent of the world´s lands.  Secure tenure is essential for safeguarding the existing forests against external forces. This is specifically true for forests managed by Indigenous Peoples, where much of the world’s carbon is stored.

Wednesday, September 2nd, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM EST (3:00 PM – 4:30 PM CEST)

Three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses, meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans, with Ebola, SARS, MERS and now COVID-19 being examples. Scientists are warning that deforestation, industrial agriculture, illegal wildlife trade, climate change and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics.

This series of three webinars features indigenous and non-indigenous leaders in a virtual roundtable to discuss both the key effects that COVID-19 is generating in their communities as well as possible solutions and the way forward.

Global commitments to women’s land rights have never been stronger, yet there are gaps in rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of particular strategies to strengthen women’s land rights in practice. In this webinar we will host a forward looking discussion on gaps and opportunities for research on what works to improve women’s land rights.

Acknowledging the centrality of land issues to end hunger and achieve sustainable development, countries have agreed to meet ambitious land targets by 2030. Five years into the SDGs, persistent land insecurity, land evictions, threats to land rights defenders and other challenges show that the land promises are not being delivered.