In 2013, the International Land Coalition (ILC) marked a historic expansion in its membership, reaching 152 member organisations in 56 countries, representing diverse interests and entities from national civil society organisations (CSOs) and grassroots movements to international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies, all with a common agenda to work together on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people to make tangible progress in achieving secure and equitable access to land.
As a result of our strategic actions and the unified voice with which we speak on land issues, ILC is becoming increasingly influential and is gaining recognition as one of the leading actors in land governance debates globally.
Notably, at the Global Land Forum and Assembly of Members (AoM) held in April 2013 in Antigua, Guatemala, ILC members unanimously approved the Antigua Declaration, in which they agreed to a series of commitments on people-centred land governance, expanding our common agenda to promote meaningful change.
In 2013, ILC scaled up its efforts (which began in 2011) to support the creation of consultative platforms in 20 focus countries to develop and implement National Engagement Strategies (NES), bringing together our members and other stakeholders at a national level to create a force for political change.
At a global level, ILC ensured that land issues were considered in important platforms, such as the G8 Land Transparency Initiative and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and also raised the profile of members’ work at the World Bank Annual Conference on Land and Poverty and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
ILC has also become a leading advocate for transparency and open knowledge on land governance issues. The Coalition and its partners have launched a new and improved version of the Land Matrix Global Observatory, an online database of large-scale land acquisitions, which has gained critical acclaim and received widespread coverage in the world’s media.
We believe that we have found the right combination of supporting national initiatives while marshalling our influence to support them. We will build upon and replicate these efforts to overcome longstanding inequity in land rights.
Sincerely,
Rowshan Jahan Moni
Co-Chair, Civil Society Organisations
Jean-Philippe Audinet
Co-Chair, Intergovernmental Organisations
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