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A guest post by Dr. Paul Munro-Faure, Deputy Director, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Last month, the 40th Session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was held at the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Land governance and responsible tenure were a strong thread of interest and discussion throughout the week-long meeting.

CFS Week provided important opportunities to review the achievements of various stakeholders in implementing the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (commonly referred to as the Voluntary Guidelines), which were endorsed by the CFS in May 2012. During the plenary session on October 9, the FAO Secretariat, members of civil society and the private sector, and representatives from the government of Brazil presented updates on their progress in supporting implementation of various aspects of the Voluntary Guidelines.

On October 7, FAO hosted a side event on progress in supporting implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines. There, FAO presented details on its programme of support for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines. Carlos Mário Guedes De Guedes, President of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) discussed Brazil’s enthusiastic take-up of the Voluntary Guidelines and their mainstreaming in the context of the International Year of Family Farming. Ángel Strapazzón, Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indígena, speaking on behalf of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) working group on land, provided an update on the activities undertaken by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in support of the Voluntary Guidelines. Strapazzón noted how, with the support of FAO and the European Union, CSOs are developing capacity building material on the Guidelines, specifically dedicated to CSOs, social movements, and farmers’ organizations. Jorge Muñoz, Land Tenure Advisor at the World Bank, reported on the World Bank’s assessment of the Voluntary Guidelines’ importance and how the World Bank is mainstreaming the Voluntary Guidelines in its work.

On October 9, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) hosted a side event on land tenure and property rights in a post-2015 agenda. The presentations and discussions centered on indicators for secure land tenure in the post-2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) framework. Representatives from DfID, USAID, Landesa and the Global Land Tools Network (GLTN) and around 70 participants discussed the need for a robust and measurable target for land tenure security and property rights and how best to galvanize support towards incorporating a land tenure and property rights goal into the post-2015 MDG agenda.

The final day of CFS Week, October 11, saw an important, but separate meeting: the first formal meeting of the Global Donor Working Group on Land, which is currently chaired by DfID. Formed in the wake of the Voluntary Guidelines negotiations, the Working Group is tasked with improving coordination of donor-funded tenure-related initiatives and activities. The group is working to create an inventory of all donor-funded land governance programs and to enhance donor communication and coordination. As the Working Group gets underway, these efforts will make a real difference in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of land governance programs and maximizing the impact of available resources.

Why are secure property rights and good land governance fundamental to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? Earlier this month, a group of experts provided answers to this question – and worked to build support for a prominent role for land tenure security and property rights in a Post-2015 MDG framework – at a side event at the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

According to Dr. Gregory Myers, USAID Division Chief, Land Tenure and Property Rights, “the United States views land tenure and property rights as a critical element of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Secure property rights play a central role in supporting balanced and sustainable economic growth, encouraging investment, improving agricultural productivity, limiting conflict and instability, accelerating women’s economic empowerment, enhancing democratic governance and human rights, and improving natural resource management and biodiversity conservation.”

The international community has shown an increasing recognition of the centrality of land tenure and property rights to critical development issues. Earlier this year, the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda proposed a target on “secure rights to land, property, and other assets” as a building block for people to lift themselves out of poverty. They also placed a particular emphasis on land and property rights for women.

Landesa, a USAID partner in addressing land tenure and property rights issues, recently launched a new website devoted to advocating for the inclusion of secure land and resource rights in the Post-2015 MDG framework. Landesa, one of the leading advocates for this issue, also published an op-ed last month on Why Land Rights Should be Part of the Post-2015 Agenda.

According to the op-ed, “in the past, secure land rights were often overlooked by the development community, in large part because they are an invisible infrastructure. They are a critical foundation for building peaceful and prosperous societies, but hard to see and a challenge to measure. When these rights are secure however, other development interventions can take root. Moreover, they are a gateway right: communities, families, men and women who enjoy them can use them to realize other broader and often more tangible rights and goals.”

The Post-2015 MDG framework will guide global and national development priorities and help to galvanize development efforts for years to come. As a fundamental building block to much that the MDGs seek to achieve, secure land tenure and property rights should be central to the development agenda.

USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPR) Division has released a new suite of tools and methodologies created under the recently completed Property Rights and Resource Governance (PRRG) Project. These tools were designed to enhance the understanding of LTPR challenges and improve programming to advance the global development objectives of the United States, including food security, global climate change, conflict mitigation and women’s economic empowerment.

The tools are intended to help USAID technical staff as well as other U.S. Government personnel and development practitioners understand:

1) USAID’s programming approach to land tenure and property rights issues,
2) Recommended interventions for different asset and social classes,
3) Considerations for sequencing interventions in order to maximize impact, and
4) Assessment and evaluation of LTPR issues and projects.

LTPR and other development professionals outside the U.S. Government are also likely to find the tools useful in their own context for the reasons listed above.

How to use the tools

The suite of tools guide users through the assessment of issues and constraints regarding LTPR and resource domains, specifically minerals, trees and forests, freshwater lakes, rivers, and groundwater. Users should begin with the Land Tenure and Property Rights (LTPR) Framework, which introduces themes, definitions, and the LTPR matrix. The matrix helps users identify the “universe” of possible LTPR constraints and interventions and the causal linkages between them. There are five matrix overlays that guide users through additional constraint and intervention considerations. These matrix overlays can be used alone or in coordination with one another to understand how LTPR issues impact projects.

• Overlay 1: Land Tenure and Property Rights Matrix;
• Overlay 2: Freshwater Lakes, Rivers, and Groundwater Matrix;
• Overlay 3: Minerals Matrix;
• Overlay 4: Trees and Forests Matrix; and
• Overlay 5: Women, Land, and Resources Matrix.

In addition to the matrices, there are two tools that offer methodologies to guide USAID mission programming. The LTPR Situation Assessment and Intervention Planning (SAIP) Tool helps USAID missions assess LTPR issues and determine how these contribute to or impede realization of development objectives. The LTPR Impact Evaluation Tool provides a methodology for designing evaluations around the outcomes and impacts of land and natural resource tenure and property rights programming.

USAID and other USG staff that have a need for LTPR technical assistance, may contact the Land Tenure Division. Development professionals seeking a more general understanding of basic LTPR issues should refer to USAID’s LTPR Issue Briefs.

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The 2014 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty will take place at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on March 24 – 27, 2014. The theme of the 15th annual conference is “Integrating Land Governance into the Post-2015 Agenda: Harnessing Synergies for Implementation and Monitoring Impact.”

USAID and the World Bank are committed to strengthening land tenure and property rights to address the challenges affecting emerging economies. As in past years, USAID will serve as a conference partner and sponsor. According to Tim Fella, USAID Land Tenure and Conflict Advisor, “USAID invests in and is committed to the success of this annual conference because it is the premier land event, and one of the best opportunities to influence ideas and practice in property rights.”

Papers are invited for presentations at the conference in seven thematic areas:

• Securing and protecting land rights from a gender perspective
• Managing urban landscapes
• Attracting responsible land-based investment for local benefits and common resource management
• Maximizing benefits from spatial data
• Strengthening country level institutions
• Fostering transparency in land ownership, use, and administration
• Research on key aspects of land governance

Those who are interested in presenting at the conference should submit an initial 800 to 1,500 word abstract by November 17, 2013 (or November 10 for a group proposal) and should be willing to review up to four other abstracts. Final papers are expected to be between 6,000 and 12,000 words.

The World Bank conference will echo other global conferences this year that have featured discussions about making land tenure and property rights a central theme of a global post-2015 development agenda. Last week, a conference on community land and resource rights was co-organized by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, International Land Coalition (ILC), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Oxfam, and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) in Interlaken, Switzerland. Thomson Reuters Foundation reported that attendees demonstrated “support for increased dialogue between conservation groups and local communities, whose interests can clash, as well as for crafting indicators to measure progress on strengthening community land rights as part of the post-2015 development framework now under discussion.”

A similar consensus is expected to emerge from the 40th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which will be held in Rome, Italy the week of October 7, 2013. One side event to watch will be “Land tenure and property rights in a Post-2015 Agenda – What’s best for food security, growth and poverty reduction?” hosted by the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID) with participation by USAID, MCC, Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and Landesa. According to Dr. Gregory Myers, Division Chief for the Land Tenure and Property Rights Division at USAID, “the United States Government views land tenure and property rights as a critical element of the post-2015 development agenda. Property rights are a building block to help lift people out of poverty – especially women.”

Farmers in Burma are increasingly organizing to push for recognition of expanded rights to land and how they use it. Despite the passage of the Farmland Law in 2012, grievances and conflicts over land remain widespread and farmers face continued restrictions of their farming choices.

Farmers participating in a two-day conference last month presented a list of demands to legislators, calling for an amendment of the 2012 Farmland Law. The farmers want an end to arrests of farmers protesting forceful expropriation of and eviction from their land, as well as fair compensation for any land takings. According to one member of the group quoted in Radio Free Asia, it is difficult to resolve land disputes in court, because farmers are “treated like criminals when businessmen or developers sue them. They feel that they are being discriminated against.”

Radio Free Asia reported that the group intends to draft a more comprehensive statement on “land grabbing” within 15 to 30 days and send copies to parliament, relevant government ministries, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, and the international community.

Last month’s conference follows a “Farmer’s Forum” that took place earlier this year in Yangon, Burma to draw up a charter to submit to the government. The agreed-upon charter included rights to reasonable compensation for land expropriated by government or occupied by the military, to freely establish and register farmers’ associations, to have a voice in the amending of land laws, and the right to grow crops of their choosing.

USAID’s land tenure and climate change specialist, Peter Giampaoli observes, “The increasingly organized and public voice of farmers in Burma is an important step in raising awareness, developing alliances, and attracting the attention of government as they seek to expand and secure the land rights of smallholder farmers.”

Download USAID’s profile of land tenure issues in Burma.

Land tenure impacts investment, credit availability, poverty rates, land values, and agricultural productivity, which are all linked to economic performance. When land tenure and property rights are secure, individuals can make investments, secure credit, sell land, and make longer term decisions about agricultural practices. On the other hand, in developing countries that have a large informal sector, and in which land tenure is insecure, people lack opportunities to invest in or profit from land, and their transactions are not protected by the state. In order to increase GDP, governments should formalize property rights to encourage more of these transactions.

Formalization does not mean that everyone holds a legal title to their land or home. USAID endorses the principle of “secure enough” tenure, in which there is a continuum of rights that can be strengthened through a variety of affordable and sustainable approaches. These approaches may include public recognition of customary or indigenous rights to an area, certificates that secure the rights to use or manage resources, a community-managed titling process, or more formal strategies such as land titling or creating public land registries.

When governments seek to stimulate economic growth through outside investment in large land areas, the lack of secure tenure presents a problem for the existing individuals or community holders who occupy that land but are not recognized as rightful holders of property. These people are at risk of displacement and being denied fair, prompt and adequate compensation for resources and livelihoods lost. For this reason, USAID supports the United Nations-negotiated Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and forthcoming Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment. When applied correctly, these guidelines will improve the security of property rights for all, facilitate the development of more economic opportunities for small, medium and large-scale producers, and contribute to food security and economic growth.

In rural areas, secure land tenure may lead to economic growth by: allowing farmers to invest in better seeds or tools, see returns on those investments, and pass land to their heirs; making it easier to gain credit to finance investments in agriculture or other entrepreneurial activity; freeing farmers to choose whether they want to use their land for agriculture or lease it to someone else and pursue an alternate livelihood; and attracting external investment necessary for broad-based economic growth.

In urban areas, municipalities need to invest in infrastructure and public services in order to meet the needs of rapidly growing populations. However, the rate of urbanization in cities around the world is too fast to meet the demand for housing or basic services, and public spending is curtailed by weak city and municipal tax bases. One way to increase both the tax base and land tenure security is by recognizing informal settlements and incorporating them into urban plans. This approach has been used successfully in a pilot project in Afghanistan, for example, and USAID continues to work there to build capacity in land use planning and land registration systems.

Learn more about how economic growth and land tenure are connected in the new Land Tenure, Property Rights, and Economic Growth Issue Brief.

No-take fishing zones in the Caribbean’s near-shore and reef areas may be an important strategy for sustaining marine ecosystems and conserving fish populations, according to preliminary research. Meanwhile, the increasing use of no-take reserves calls for recognition of the vital role that local communities play in natural resources management and their rights to benefit from that management. Shared management of ecosystems and resources requires equitable and appropriate distribution of both responsibilities and benefits among all stakeholders.

In order to protect the Caribbean’s highly threatened near-shore and reef ecosystems, local communities must be engaged in decision making and stewardship of natural resources. If the community is not consulted, there can be significant local opposition and non-compliance because no-take reserves prohibit the main livelihood of these communities. In order to continue to earn a livelihood, fishermen have been known to sneak in at night or dynamite the reefs in order to push fish to the surface.

On the other hand, with sufficient resources, no-take areas have the potential to serve as tools of empowerment for the adjacent community. If the right to manage marine resources is recognized and local people are consulted in the establishment of reserves, the community can be an active partner in effective monitoring of human activities and ecosystem conditions. The state may help communities restrict access and enforce prohibitions by deploying coast guard, marine police, or other resources to patrol extensive open waters and coastlines.

This has worked in Jamaica, where subsistence fishers represented by organizations such as the Bluefields Bay Fishermen’s Friendly Society advocated for the establishment of a reserve in Bluefields Bay with strict enforcement of no-take restrictions.

When effectively monitored, no-take reserves provide an area for populations to recover free from fishing pressure. In the above cited study, fish grew bigger and laid more eggs and coral grew faster within the reserve. Rebounding populations then expanded into habitat outside the no-take areas. In the mid-1990s in St. Lucia, the total catch around an extensive closure of coral reef fishing grounds increased significantly, in some places by as much as 90 percent.

The gain in fish harvested and lives improved around the no-fish zones depends on government authorities working side-by-side with community leaders to agree on strategies for implementing codes of enforcement and rules of engagement.

Read more about a related USAID project: The Indonesia Marine and Climate Support (IMACS) is a four-year project that aims to improve marine resources management in Indonesia.

A new opinion piece describes how secure land rights can improve agricultural productivity and food security. In Why Strong Land Rights Advance Food Security, Eric Postel, USAID’s Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and Environment and Tjada McKenna, Feed the Future’s Deputy Coordinator for Development, explain what development practitioners can do to improve land rights and food security in a multitude of development projects.

This past July, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah unveiled the Feed the Future Progress Report on Capitol Hill as part of an event hosted by the Senate Hunger Caucus. The results were measurable—the U.S. Government has supported over 7 million farmers and 12 million malnourished children in just under 3 years. In order to fully realize food security goals going forward, we must address the lack of secure land tenure and property rights in many countries. Clear land use rights lead to increased investment in agricultural inputs and incentives to employ sustainable farming practices–both of which result in higher yields and ultimately improved food security. According to Dr. Gregory Myers, Division Chief for USAID’s Land Tenure and Property Rights Division, “In order to lift the next one billion out of poverty, we cannot rely on public resources alone – we must leverage private sector investment in agriculture. For USAID, private investment can be small, medium, or large, but it must be responsible and the rights of local communities must be recognized. Globally, we need more data on the impact of large-scale land investments.”

Recognizing this need, USAID is striving to build knowledge around land tenure and property rights, including large-scale land investments, through the Evaluation, Research and Communication (ERC) project. USAID’s Bureau for Food Security (BFS) leads the Feed the Future initiative and supports Agrilinks, a web site that captures new learning in food security and agricultural development, disseminates it among practitioners, USAID mission staff, and other donors, and connects those actors to each other in order to improve development outcomes around the world. Using a knowledge-driven approach to food security and agricultural development, Agrilinks aims to extend and multiply the impact of the learning and innovation developed through agricultural development research and practice.

Become a member of Agrilinks and take part in working groups, facilitated online discussions, closed e-consultations, #AskAg Twitter chats, and Feed the Future stakeholder meetings with other food security and land/resource tenure professionals.

The G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition aims to lift 50 million people out of poverty in ten years through a partnership between G8 members, African nations and the private sector. In order to increase production at a rate needed to achieve food security, the New Alliance seeks to accelerate responsible investment in African agriculture and commit to coordinated policy reforms. Each of the nine New Alliance countries (Benin, Malawi, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania) have developed Cooperation Frameworks with G8 and private sector partners that outline their shared commitments and responsibilities.

The New Alliance recognizes that good land governance is critical to improving food security and nutrition; each country’s cooperation framework details commitments to strengthening land tenure and resource governance. Under the New Alliance, partners commit to support the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and develop pilot programs for their implementation. The cooperation frameworks and key policy commitments related to land governance in each of the New Alliance countries are below.

Burkina Faso’s key policy commitments include providing incentives for private sector investment in agriculture; establishing and operating rural land agencies and village land commissions in 302 rural districts; drafting transparent procedures for access to land in state or local government-developed areas; delineating and registering the land areas already developed; and issuing documents relative to land use rights in all the developed areas, including for women.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework (English) / French
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Burkina Faso

Cote d’Ivoire’s key policy commitments include securing rural land tenure and facilitating access to land for smallholder farmers and private enterprises; demarcating village lands and issuing land tenure certificates; extending and operationalizing the land information system (SIF); and strengthening the capacity of all agencies involved in implementing the Rural Land Act.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework (English) / French
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Cote d’Ivoire

Ethiopia is committed to developing and implementing a transparent land tenure policy; strengthening land use rights to stimulate investment in agriculture; extending land certification to all rural land holders, initially focusing on Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) districts (woredas); refining land law, if necessary, to encourage long-term land leasing and strengthen contract enforcement for commercial farms; and further developing and implementing guidelines of corporate responsibility for land tenure and responsible agricultural investment.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Ethiopia

Ghana’s commitments include providing incentives for private sector investment in agriculture and developing a database of suitable land for investors.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Ghana

Mozambique’s key policy commitments include developing and improving the transparency and efficiency of land policy and land administration; developing innovative methods for increasing the availability and access to credit by smallholders; reforming land use rights (DUAT) system and accelerate issuance of DUATs to allow smallholders (women and men) to secure tenure and to promote agribusiness investment.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework (English) / Portuguese
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Mozambique

Tanzania’s key policy commitments include developing and implementing a transparent land tenure policy; providing certificates of land rights (statutory or customary) for smallholders and investors; and developing an instrument that clarifies roles of land implementing agencies.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Tanzania

Nigeria’s key policy commitments include adopting a Systematic Land Titling and Registration (SLTR) process that respects FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Nigeria

Benin’s key policy commitments include facilitating and safeguarding access to and use of land; extending the development of rural land ownership plans to cover the entire country; and setting up a trustworthy information system on rural land ownership.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework

Malawi’s key policy commitments include improving access to land, water and basic infrastructure to support food security and nutrition. The Government of Malawi has also committed to enact a new land bill by June 2015.
New Alliance Cooperation Framework
USAID’s Land and Resource Tenure Profile for Malawi

There is growing recognition among governments, civil society organizations and the media that clear, secure land tenure and property rights are a necessary condition for achieving food security and better nutrition. Devex is currently hosting a month-long campaign–“Land Matters”–which examines why and how land tenure and property rights are related to a variety of critical development issues, beginning with food security. According to Dr. Gregory Myers, USAID Division Chief, Land Tenure and Property Rights, “secure property rights create positive incentives that enable more efficient and effective investment in land, labor, capital, and improved practices in food production and nutrition.”

Visit the Land Matters campaign site