[via FAO] This technical guide aims to assist implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines by providing guidance that supports the Guidelines' principle of gender equality in tenure governance. The guide focuses on equity and on how land tenure can be governed in ways that address the different needs and priorities of women and men. It moves away from long-standing debates about gender equality in access to land, towards the mainstreaming of gender issues to achieve more gender-equitable participation in the processes and institutions that underlie all decision-making about land.

The Ethiopian government has committed egregious human rights abuses to make way for agricultural land investments, in direct violation of international law, said the Oakland Institute in a new briefing paper released in New Delhi today. The briefing paper, entitled "Unheard Voices: The Human Rights Impact of Land Investments on Indigenous Communities in Gambella,” calls on Ethiopia to put an end to the illegal forced evictions of indigenous peoples in areas targeted for land investment.

International Food Policy Research Institute

IFPRI's flagship report examines the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions of 2012. By putting into perspective the year's food policy successes and disappointments, it suggests how to move forward those policies that improve the food situation for the poor. Reflecting the expertise and experience of IFPRI researchers and other leading food policy experts, the report considers sever crucial questions:

Friends of the Earth, Europe

Based on newly available data this report sheds lights on Europe’s role as a major user of global land resources.

Europe’s high consumption levels, and insatiable appetite for meat, dairy, textiles and other products that require large areas of land, mean Europe’s 'land footprint' remains one of the largest in the world.

Rights and Resources Initiative

Communities of Grand Cape Mount, Liberia

March 25th, 2013

The International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006. A summary Final Report on the conference can be found Here. Attached are the resources, presentations, and papers from the conference.

European Coordination Via Campesina and Hands Off the Land Network

ActionAid would like to share with you this report that explores and demonstrates empirically, the close link between women’s secure access and control over land and natural resources, and their empowerment and ability to fight hunger. Please click here to access the report on the ActionAid International website.

Please find links below to a recent Human Rights Watch report and video on the human rights impacts of coal mining in Mozambique. Our report shows that almost 60% of Tete province, site of large coal reserves, has been allocated for approved or proposed mining licenses. The report examines how serious shortcomings in government policy and mining companies’ (Vale, Riversdale, Rio Tinto) implementation uprooted largely self-sufficient farming communities and resettled them to arid land far from rivers and markets. 

Happy to be in touch to provide any additional information.

Securing water is critical to achieve food security and improve rural livelihoods, especially for the women and men living in arid and semi-arid areas. But accessing this scarce resource can be difficult for those engaged in rural agriculture, women in particular.

ETC Group has been monitoring the power and global reach of agro-industrial corporations for several decades – including the increasingly consolidated control of agricultural inputs for the industrial food chain: proprietary seeds and livestock genetics, chemical pesticides and fertilizers and animal pharmaceuticals. Collectively, these inputs are the chemical and biological engines that drive industrial agriculture.