Major global agreements, such as the Paris climate change agreement, and the SDGs will not come to fruition without local governments

Over a year ago in Quito, after a long negotiation and high involvement of all stakeholders, the atmosphere I could feel in my constituency was that of a promise; a big promise of a different international understanding of the urbanization phenomenon, a new role of cities and local and regional governments in the international governance and a shared vision of the need to rethink models.

Fernando Eguren, Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales

Uno de los aspectos más difíciles y problemáticos en el Acuerdo de Paz tiene que ver con el ordenamiento social de la propiedad y el uso de la tierra. Las clases dirigentes y el Estado colombiano fracasaron en la implementación de las reformas rurales de 1936 y 1961, con las que se pretendió la pacificación de la sociedad colombiana mediante la articulación de una reforma agraria con una reforma política. ¿Estamos ante la posibilidad de un nuevo fracaso del problema agrario tras el Acuerdo con las Farc?

Land is connected to many of our most pressing global issues. For example, a significant body of empirical evidence supports the view that strengthening indigenous and local communities’ legal rights to their land is a crucial strategy for avoiding deforestation and mitigating climate change.

Ahmed Jaradat
Miembro Vía Campesina en Palestina e investigador del Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Traducción realizada por Antonio Parrales

2018 could be transformative for the indigenous and community land rights movement, with unprecedented opportunities for scaling up rights recognition around the world.

It's time to ditch the jargon and tell stories about property rights that create the impact needed for change

In a world bombarded with information, stories are everything. Strong storylines can inspire movements and shift attitudes. The “99 percent” story sparked a global conversation about income inequality, and fueled the Occupy Wall Street movement.

There’s been quite a hubbub in the land community the last month over the reclassification of two land indicators from ‘Tier III’ to ‘Tier II’. So what’s this all about? For the uninitiated, each SDG indicator has to go through a validation process before it gets included in the formal SDG reporting process that will run from 2020 to 2030.

The recent series of devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean has reminded the world, once again, that natural disasters are not equal-opportunity destroyers. The economically marginalized and those lacking secure land and property rights are often disproportionately affected for at least three reasons:

The legal rights afforded to Indigenous communities in Bolivia and Chile differ greatly. Val Reynoso investigates. 

Bolivia and Chile differ significantly in the ways their governments address issues pertaining to Indigenous peoples. These differences are caused by the neoliberal economic system and legacies from the Pinochet era in Chile, as well as the centering of Indigenous issues and redistribution of wealth in Bolivia.   

Those of you who have visited Dubai in recent years may relate to what I am going to say: Dubai is in the middle of the desert, and its land, not that long ago, was really worth nothing. Now it is one of the most vibrant international cities in the world. All this happened in a relatively short time span.

By Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Chairman of the Advisory Board of CCSI, University Professor at Columbia University, and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network