Five years after the World Food Summit, and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, The State of Food and Agriculture reflects on some of the main challenges faced in eliminating world hunger and poverty. The task may be daunting, but so are the numbers of hungry and undernourished people whose fate is dependent on decisive and accelerated action. I am convinced that, with a renewed commitment and determined, concerted effort, the goal of the World Food Summit can be met.

Documento de trabajo sobre tenencia de la tierra 10. El presente documento de debate ha sido elaborado por la Unidad de Gestión y Tenencia de la Tierra de la FAO con el fin de obtener opiniones y comentarios acerca de las Directrices Voluntarias para la gobernanza responsable de la tenencia de la tierra y los recursos naturales. Una gobernanza frágil en la tenencia resulta en la pérdida de vida y de medios de subsistencia y disuade las inversiones, el crecimiento económico y el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales.

The Inter-Agency Working Group on the Principles of Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources (PRAI), composed of FAO, IFAD, UNCTAD and the World Bank, held a Side Event entitled on Thursday, 18 October, during the 39th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at FAO Headquarters in Rome.

FAO and its development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, the private sector, civil society, academia, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practice and associated technical guidance, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

Land Tenure Working Paper 14: Growing land scarcity and concern about land-related conflicts and rising levels of rural impoverishment have brought land to the fore once more. The main difference with the recent past is the wide spectrum of actors who want to take part in the elaboration of the land policies, as well as the more and more recognized need to root the proposals in the particular context of each specific country. The paper, focused on African experiences, starts by discussing the importance of Land Policy Issues at Regional Level.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

Land Tenure Working Paper 1. This document analyzes the implications for land tenure and land policy of biofuels. It examines the current and likely future impacts of the increasing spread of biofuels on access to land in producer countries, particularly for poorer rural people. It aims to pave the way for future empirical research on the links between the spread of biofuels and access to land, through developing a conceptual framework for such research and through taking stock of data available in the literature.

El acceso a la tierra es indispensable para la producción de alimentos y la generación de ingresos. Asimismo, constituye un bien social y económico decisivo, que reviste una importancia crucial para la identidad cultural, el poder político y la participación en el proceso de toma de decisiones. Las creencias sociales y culturales suelen dar lugar a discriminación contra las personas por motivos de género, clase social o grupo étnico.

Land Tenure Working Paper 18. Presents the main themes that characterize the governance in land tenure and analyses the aspects related to the evolution of agricultural policy issues in various Central American countries. It also offers some examples and lessons learned from new models of land administration and land access mechanisms that Central American governments and International Cooperation have fostered over the past fifteen years in the Region. Available in Spanish