Date: Thursday, May 21, 2020 

Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM CEST/1.00-2.00 PM EST

Access to Land is the epicenter of SDGs for Zero hunger just as the right of ownership goes with economic fortunes and  empowerment .When Small holder Farmers are empowered with the rights and access to own land, it triggers the speedy pursuit for Zero hunger  as 2030 SDG target approaches. Although,
multicultural diversity abounds and limits land ownership rights for the small holder farmer in various countries, this presentation argues for a transnational democratization and digitalization of Land rights to drive sustainable agriculture. Following the on-going COVID19 impacts, it is obvious that SDGs 2 and 3 are critical to future sustainability, as many countries leverages on the capability of their agricultural and health sector for resilience to the pandemic. Open data mapping is also critical to a measurable target of SDGs, and for agriculture, data about land rights, obviously, will empower the small holder farmer to sustain productivity beyond COVID19. Cursory, investigation indicates that adequate food interventions for the citizens as palliative measures during Pandemic such as COVID19 is also dependent on the availability of land, its ownership rights and accessibility for agricultural sustainability. Consequently, there is need for a proactive and strategic action for a post-COVID19 empowerment for small holder farmers anchored on Land rights and Open data access.

Overview:

1. Introduction- Foteini Zampati, Data Rights Research Specialist,GODAN/KTBL

2. Impacts of COVID19 on SDGs and its implication on Smallholder Farmer Land Rights-  Uchechi Anaduaka, Lecturer in the Dept of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Economics at Lingnan University, Hong Kong

3. Mapping COVID19 for Zero Hunger and Smallholder Farmer Land Rights Empowerment- Victor Sunday, Lecturer in Geoinformatics, University of Port Harcourt and Community leader for Open Data Mapping, GeoForAll and Participatory Citizen Science in Nigeria. National Coordinator of Unique Mappers Network (UniqueMappersTeam)

4. Promoting Access to Land Right Data for Smallholder Farmer Empowerment in Post-COVID19- Laura Meggiolaro,Team Leader at the
Land Portal Foundation