This policy brief outlines recommendations resulting from a three-year action research programme undertaken by civil society organizations in collaboration with threatened communities of smallholder farmers and fishers.
This project brings the international soft law instrument, the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of the Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests (Tenure Guidelines or TGs) to rural communities and, together with them, uses the Guidelines to strengthen their tenure of land, fisheries and forests. As well, it provides policy-relevant knowledge on how to promote legitimacy and accountability of public authorities involved in land grabs. The goal of the Toolkit is to help users to produce outputs which are politically relevant and useful.
As part of a collaborative project to strengthen the capacity of grassroots communities in Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, this practical guide focuses on accountability and accountability politics in the global rush to grab land, water and other natural resources. Through action research, threatened communities can determine causes, conditions, and consequences that will inform collective action and advocacy, in particular by using the CFS/FAO Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (Tenure Guidelines or TGs).
Undemocratic politics, policy making and law making interpretation and implementation, prove to be drivers of land grabbing in the four country studies presented here. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (CFS/FAO) Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (Tenure Guidelines or TGs), albeit “soft” law, are being used by local communities for bottom-up accountability against land grabbing. Land deals are marked by highly contested political processes – usually between the central state, local communities and the corporate sector.
Grassroots organizations do not need to wait for the state to implement Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (Tenure Guidelines or TGs). Rural communities can take governance into their own hands and use TGs as a tool for investigation, reflection and action. The challenge is how to take the next step: under what conditions can TGs provide the rural poor with resources to organize and mobilize?
Understanding and interpretation of the CFS/FAO Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (Tenure Guidelines or TGs) is a key factor in communities’ capabilities for collective action, especially through the organization of land pressure groups. TGs help people to engage critically with existing legal frameworks. In this study, community knowledge was enhanced regarding customary as well as statutory laws which protect rights, while enabling people to identify shortcomings/gaps/bias in the existing laws working against them.
In recent decades, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have pursued national water permit systems, derived from the colonial era and reinforced by “global best practice.” These systems have proved logistically impossible to manage and have worsened inequality in water access. A new study conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Pegasys Institute, with support from the UK government, traces the origins of these systems, and describes their implementation and consequences for rural smallholders in five countries – Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Accessibility to clean and sufficient water resources for agriculture is key in feeding the steadily increasing world population in a sustainable manner. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer a promising contribution to enhance availability and quality of water for productive purposes and human consumption, while simultaneously striving to preserve the integrity and intrinsic value of the ecosystems. Implementing successful NBS for water management, however, is not an easy task since many ecosystems are already severely degraded, and exploited beyond their regenerative capacity.
El Estado y el sector privado requieren la valoración de los derechos de tenencia por una amplia gama de motivos, a menudo fundamentando y sentando las bases de las transacciones, la tributación, la compensación y la contabilidad. Si bien el valor y el proceso de valoración tienen repercusiones jurídicas y económicas directas en nuestra vida cotidiana, suelen estar envueltos en misterio y no se los comprende con claridad.
Access to safe water and sanitation and sound management of freshwater ecosystems are at the core of sustainable development. This is the aim of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which includes approaches to water management such as environmental flow requirements, international cooperation, capacity building and stakeholder participation.
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