Citizen monitoring of land governance

General

The project aims to improve small farmers# participation in land governance through piloting a community-based monitoring mechanismthat will be adopted into subsequent national policy documents. This mechanism will build on Oxfam and Landa#s experience in community consultation on the Land Law and engagement in direct community projects, with the aim to increase domestic support for implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National FoodSecurity (VGGTs). The overall goal of this project is to secure land rights of small-scale farmers and ethnic minority communities through evidence-based advocacy towards a more transparent and inclusive land governance legal framework, with meaningful participation of the citizens in to the processes in order to help reduction of land use related conflicts in Vietnam. This project contributes to Vietnamese Government priorities by operationalising Article 199 of the 2013 Land Law on apilot basis in three provinces, documenting and disseminating results, and linking to development of policies and guidelines to implement citizen monitoring provisions of the Land Law nationwide. To achieve this, Oxfam and Landa will engage with MONRE/GDLA and other government agencies immediately from the start of the project. Successful implementation of the action will contribute to the overall goal of MRLG of securing the rights to land access of small holding farmers. This project will be primarilyimplemented in regions inhabited by ethnic minority groups. The engagement of the small farmers at grassroots level throughout project implementation will be facilitated through various capacity building and awareness raising activities. Furthermore, they will not only be consulted on the suitability and appropriatenessof the guidelines on citizens monitoring of land governance, but also engage directly in certain stages of monitoring. This continuing process of engagement will form a solid foundation forproactive action of smallholder farmers in claiming their rights. The project#s ultimate beneficiaries are small-scale farmers (particularly ethnic minorities and women) who obtain and preserve access to land through different land re-allocation, pro-poor participatory land planning, and other progressive policies. The minimum target inthis Innovation Fund project will be that 300 farmers in each of three provinces, or 900 farmers in all, of which at least 50% are ethnic minorities and 50% women willactively engaged in monitoring different processes of land governance.