Enterprises involved in agricultural supply chains can create employment, raise labour standards and bring the technology to increase agricultural production or reduce pollution. But their activities can also contribute to food insecurity by leading to the eviction of local communities from their lands. Child labour and abuses of migrant workers and women are regularly reported. The production of some agricultural commodities leads to soil degradation, water resource depletion and deforestation.

This Guide aims to inform companies that hold land or purchase land directly from companies that hold land. It provides operational guidance for companies confronting “legacy land issues” and clarifies a company’s roles and responsibilities in dealing with legacy land issues in their existing holdings, while also providing direction on where to look for more detailed information and tools.

The “Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security” (VGGT), endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2012, set out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices and is the first comprehensive intergovernmental global instrument on tenure and its administration.

The Tenure Guidelines aim to serve as a reference, providing guidance to improve the governance of land, fisheries and forests so that it can contribute effectively to securing the right to adequate food. The Guidelines thus constitute an internationally agreed upon normative standard that assesses the actions and omissions of states, UN agencies as well as international organisations with respect to the way they regulate land, fisheries and forests in specific situations. See box 1 below.

Tenure cuts across many economic and social issues. Here we present a few of the key considerations that a company should internalize in order to act consistently with the intent of the VGGT.

This training package provides an introduction to the important, complex, and sometimes daunting theme of improving land governance as a means to enhance gender equality and grassroots participation in land matters.

About the e-learning courses

All our courses are designed for self-paced learning, and offered free of charge.

E3/Land designs and implements training activities that build the capacity of USAID, the United States Government, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders to better understand and address land tenure issues. In-person trainings can be Washington D.C.-based as well as regional, and some trainings are online, such as the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). If you have any questions about trainings and MOOCs or if you cannot locate a specific activity that you are looking for, please contact E3/Land.

Self-paced

Self-paced courses are delivered online and can be accessed using a computer. Self-paced courses allow learners to access content at their pace, and from anywhere at any time. This type of course is mainly interactive and can include video, audio or animations to enhance the learning experience.

This study aims to assess the applicability of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forest in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) in urban and peri-urban areas. The study also aims to facilitate decision-making on the next steps needed to ensure the application of the VGGT in urban and peri-urban areas, including informing the implementers on how they can anchor the VGGT in their activities, i.e. to apply or use the VGGT in their work in urban and peri-urban areas.

This video highlights the events of the training of trainers on "Increasing the use of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forest (VGGT) among CSOs and Grassroots Organizations in the Philippines" held on 11-14 July 2016 in Tagaytay City, Philippines.