[IATP Blog] In mid-September, I had the pleasure to attend a two-day consultation run by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), housed at Rutger's University (which, by the way, I was told boasts a freshman year this year that includes no less than 46 percent first generation university students. Kudos!). The consultation was the third that the CWGL has held with U.N.

The food and financial crises of 2008 ignited a massive round of “land grabbing” in the Global South, with foreign agribusinesses leasing and buying large tracts of land to produce both food and fuel crops for export. Despite the canceling of a few highly controversial leases, these land deals have continued largely unabated, with international institutions increasingly trying to re-frame them as potential development opportunities.

[This is an update on this event] Papers of the Expert meeting on Enabling rural women's economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities and participation - 20/23 September 2011 - are now available. They include:  

This lesson brief explores the multiple independent phenomena that affect relationships between farmers and herders, as well as the nature of their conflicts over natural resources in Mali. It is part of the Focus on Land in Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool.

The current trend in foreign land acquisition has raised considerable public concern. It gives rise to heated political debate and controversies, in the shadow of an ideological divide, whereby ―land grabbing‖ is seen as ―bad, and whereby international investments in agriculture are necessary and good.

One year ago, the African Union declared 2010-2020 as African Women's Decade. The theme of this year is “Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV/AIDS”. This decade is a promise from African governments and the African Union to promote women's rights and achieve gender equality in Africa.
The African Women’s Decade is quite significant and unique. It officially puts women at the centre of every initiative or work that will be undertaken in Africa by the African Union, and its member states in the next 10 years.

Given the growing interest in African farmland and its associated impact on livelihoods of rural communities, the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI) through the support of Oxfam’s Pan-Africa Economic Justice Desk in Tanzania undertook this exploratory study on the current state of the so-called ‘New Land Grab’ in Africa.

The report considers the causes, processes and impacts of rangeland fragmentation on pastoralists in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Causes and processes include privatisation of resources, commercial investment, invasion of land by non-native plants, commercialisation including growth in individual enclosures, and conservation/National Parks. The impacts include increasing wealth divides and a growing inability to overcome and vulnerability to drought.  

Conservation business is booming in East Africa, but is threatened by major long term wildlife declines. Pastoralist rangelands are among the highest-earning and fastest-growing tourism destinations, but their populations have mean incomes and development indices consistently below national averages. Governments and conservation organisations see green development, often through community-based conservation (CBC), as building sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in EA rangelands.

Initiative conjointe d'Inter-réseaux et SOS Faim, les Bulletins de synthèse Souveraineté alimentaire visent à produire une synthèse sur un thème lié à la souveraineté alimentaire, à partir d’une sélection de quelques références jugées particulièrement intéressantes. Ils paraissent tous les trimestres et sont diffusés par voie électronique.

Ce quatrième numéro (en pièce jointe au message) s’intéresse aux Organisations de Producteurs face aux pressions foncières en Afrique de l'Ouest.

This is a guide for civil society organisations (CSOs) to the Committee onWorld Food Security – known as the CFS.It explains what the CFS is, why it is important, and how civil societyorganisations worldwide can monitor, influence or get involved in the work ofthe CFS at the global, regional and the national level.The guide is written in plain language for social movements, communitybasedorganisations (CBOs), civil society (CSOs), and local orinternational non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on foodsecurity and nutrition issues (see Box 1), including food sovereignty and theright