General

The main purpose of the paper is to inform the development of an advocacy strategy focusing on engagement with Parliamentarians that will contribute to policy influencing on food, population and climate justice issues in five select countries of South Asia. The planned meeting will be the preparatory meeting to set up the Forum which aims to contribute to the outcome of building movements toshare good policies and practices at South Asia level resulting in improved national level policy processes related to climate change and legislation of the Right to Food (linking land rights and water). One way to achieve this is through engaging with formal power structures by forming and scaling up alliances with Members of Parliament (Parliamentarians) from country up to regional level. ARegional Forum of Parliamentarians in South Asia will be set up later on to promote joint lobby and advocacy with key Members of Parliament (MPs) from different SA countries and linkage to civil society. -- The Study is a preparation for the Parliamentarian Forum, which would help people affected by food insecurity, climate change and land grabs in South Asia to have a say - through the improved relations between the NGOs, CSOs representing their rights and the Parliamentarians - in the preparation and implementation of new national laws related to different areas of the GROW campaign - Experiences shared from each country at a regional level will support new ways of reaching government and policy makers to achieve GROW objectives in the other countries

General

Sweden has during 2011-2014 funded Forest Peoples Programmes (FPP) through the contribution "REDD Financing, Human Rights and Economic Development for Sustainable Poverty Reduction of Forest Communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo". The effort has supplemented the national REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) process, by funding activities that helped to support and strengthen the population by providing information about its rights, combined with investment and economic development activities and assistance to self-sufficiency. The initiative has been implemented in 300 communities, spread over the six provinces, Bas-Congo, Equatuer, Orientale, Bandundu, North and South Kivu. Sweden and FPP has now agreed to build on the last three years of cooperation and results, and to extend activities to include two additional provinces (Kasai Oriental and Kasai Occidental). FPP will interact with six local NGOs and 307 villages from each of the 13 REDD pilot areas in the DRC. The initiative has the following objectives: 1. To promote the application of strong REDD safeguards; strong VPA governance reforms, agreements and standards and to strengthen forest community land tenure, governance, regulation and laws. 2. To build the capacities of communities in REDD pilot areas and their support organisations and government institutions with regard to finance, gender, participatory mapping, project management and human rights, as well as the national REDD programme and pilots affecting them. 3. To support the establishment of community Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) systems, and to test and validate MRV on deforestation drivers linked to benefit sharing systems supporting REDD+. 4. To improve application of commodity chain safeguards by supporting the implementation of voluntary social and environmental certification and safeguards in commodity supply chains. 5. To promote dialogue, learning and collaboration in order to institutionalise the successes of Phase 1 outcomes into DRC’s national REDD strategy by sharing lessons; by extending outreach and communication with civil society and the government; by working directly with the Coordination Nationale-REDD (CN-REDD) on FPIC and by the development of benefit sharing mechanisms at the national level. The total budget for this contribution is 4.2 million Euros, approximately 39 million SEK, for the years 2014-2017.

Objectives

The overall objective of the intervention is to promote community customary land rights and livelihood security, economic development and sustainable poverty reduction in REDD pilot areas and key forest zones in the DRC, supporting protection for human rights and sustained investments in economic development activities with forest communities on the basis of their free, prior and informed consent, with specific focus on marginalized groups including indigenous peoples, women and youth.

General

ASCUT: ASCUT is a network of civil society organization and intergovernmental organizations working together to promote secure and lobbying for pro-poor land policies and laws. The alliance has been in existence since 2014 and has working to a number of local policies, laws and administrative systems over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building. ASCUT is hosted on JOINT, League of NGOs in Mozambique. JOINT connect and strengthen the institutions of civil society in order to improve collective action for the common good as well as the dialogue with the Government and Private Sector. Operational strategies [National level]: Partner with national-level responsibility to strengthen the link between activists and the academe, as well as in a direct and positive mode of engagement with government and other intergovernmental agencies. Also organize dialogues with relevant stakeholders, sharing policy positions on land rights and coordinating support for activities on improving tenure security and capacity development on land issues and policies. It is also responsible on pressuring and influencing the parliament [Land Commission] land issues and policies. Geographical location of interventions of counterpartner: National / Central level General terms the interventions strategies that will be applied: Research and influence activities # CSOs increasingly participate in or initiate influencing and advocacy efforts on access to land farmers especially