An executive summary and recommendations are followed by 5 chapters: on the land question, reform and farm workers; the scope and process of fast track reform; the impact of land reform on farm workers’ livelihoods; food security, vulnerable groups, HIV-AIDS and coping strategies; and after the ‘promised land’ – towards the future. Study reveals that by early 2003, only about 100,000 of the original c.320,000 farm workers were still employed on the farms, the others are jobless and landless and have lost their entitlement to housing, basic social services and subsidised food.

Commission on Human Rights
59th Session

Item 10: Economic, social and cultural rights

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It is in the remote parts of Myanmar that the worst abuses of the right to food continue. Within recent weeks, the Asian Legal Resource Centre has spoken with persons travelling in some of these areas. They have told of thousands of people displaced from their lands, some for years, starving in the jungle. One who carried an emaciated child to a Thai town just across the border spoke of the utter shock and disbelief among medical staff at the child?s condition...

How does the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) affect the livelihoods of rural women in Asia? This paper, prepared on the occasion of the WTO-AOA review in 2003, analyzes the impact of the new trading rules imposed by the WTO on Asian peasants. It illustrates the inherent imbalances in the WTO-AOA's trade liberalisation policies which, among other things, flood local markets with highly subsidized agricultural imports from developed countries to the detriment of domestic agriculture.

This paper aims to learn from the household survival strategies in Ethiopia that have evolved to manage diverse disaster hazards with a view that such strategies can inform more effective disaster preparedness, relief, recovery and prevention, policies and interventions.This report describes the systems that are in place that are designed for the early detection of crisis, the nature of humanitarian responses these systems have induced, and the outlook for the coming year.Recommendations arising from the research include:early warning/monitoring information systems need to operate independe

This first background paper from the CGIAR Water for Food Program seeks to identify research needs to increase crop water productivity, such that food security can be ensured and farmers’ livelihoods enhanced without increasing water diverted for agriculture.The paper proposes a number of priority topics for research on crop water management in the challenge Program on Water and Food, which will be amended during the development of the Program.

This paper explores gender and issues of land access and administration in rural development. It argues that increasing social, economic and technological changes are requiring a re-examination of the institutional arrangements used to administer who has rights to what resources and under what conditions.

With an estimated 40 percent of people in Africa, South America and Asia living in drylands, land degradation poses a significant threat to food security and survival. This report looks at the relationship between gender and dryland management based on an analysis of field experiences in Africa and Asia. Highlighting the roles of women and men in dryland areas for food security, land conservation/desertification, and the conservation of biodiversity, it makes available key findings on a number of projects and programs in the regions.

This paper is motivated by the observation that children in land-rich households are often more likely to be in work than the children of land-poor households.The vast majority of working children in developing countries are in agricultural work, predominantly on farms operated by their families. Land is the most important store of wealth in agrarian societies and it is typically distributed very unequally. These facts challenge the common presumption that child labour emerges from the poorest households.

This PhD thesis provides an econometric analysis of various aspects of the rural economy in Northern Ethiopia.The thesis consists of five papers:an in-depth analysis of poverty, its distribution, dynamics and its correlates within the framework of the role of economic reforms on poverty reduction in a remote, unstable and environmentally troubled regionlooks at the issue of the efficacy of a micro-finance program in reaching out to the poor and measures the impact of program participationexamines the efficacy of food-for-work (FFW) programs in targeting the poor by emphasizing the role of F

This shadow report, produced by NEWA and EWLA, offers a critique of the Ethiopian government's CEDAW report by looking at three broad areas: economic and socio-cultural status of women, equality in marriage and family relations and violence against women. The report acknowledges the considerable efforts made by the Ethiopian government to address its CEDAW obligations, but cites weak enforcement, poor policy guidelines and a lack of institutional commitment as ongoing problems.

This economic literacy pack, the third in this series, is a tool for educating local women's constituencies on trade rules and negotiations. It explores four main themes, firstly 'How the WTO Treats National Health Emergencies in the Rubric of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)'. This section demonstrates how the agreement protects the patent interests of private pharmaceutical firms based in developed countries, while jeopardizing the public health of the poor in developing countries.