Land policies are of fundamental importance to sustainable growth, good governance, and the well-being of, and the economic opportunities open to, both rural and urban dwellers - particularly the poor. To this end, research on land policy, and analysis of interventions related to the subject, have long been of interest to the Bank's Research Department, and other academic, and civil society institutions.

If 2009 was the end of the hinterland and the beginning of a new globalized forest era, 2010 was a year of pushback. Worldwide, the news was full of reports of forest communities and Indigenous Peoples pushing back at land grabs and shaping policy at the national and global levels, and of governments countering and trying to contain community rights. Some governments and private investors accepted or even embraced the new players at the table and began to promote fairer business and conservation models.

This paper explores the phenomenon of land grabbing in Africa, including the key drivers and policy responses.

This brief produced for the Dialogue Initiative on Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and their Alternatives provides an overview of the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI), developed by the World Bank, FAO, UNCTAD and IFAD in response to calls for guidelines to regulate the phenomenon of large-scale investment in land, or land grabbing.

This brief produced for the Dialogue Initiative on Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and their Alternatives provides an overview of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform to facilitate and coordinate work to ensure food security and nutrition for all.

You can get involved in the CFS through the Civil Society Mechanism. Check out http://cso4cfs.org/ to connect with your constituency and sub-regional focal points.

 

This brief produced for the Dialogue Initiative on Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and their Alternatives provides an overview of the  Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Other Natural Resources.

This lesson brief explores the struggles women face in benefiting from their customary rights. It is part of the Uganda module on the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool.

This lesson brief focuses on four issues - compulsory acquisition uses; procedures for exercising this authority; compensation; and redress - which are central to balancing private land rights and compulsory land acquisition for public purposes.It is part of the Uganda module on the 

This lesson brief examines the law and practice of allocating land in the protected estate for private investment. It is part of the Uganda module on the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool. Private investors need land to conduct their business.

This paper - from the International Food Policy Research Institute - strives to introduce a discussion of the gender dimensions into the growing debate on large-scale land deals.

The Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) is a community-based organisation established in 1997 in Tanzania. It was founded to promote the development of Maasai pastoralist women and children by facilitating their access to education, health, social services and economic empowerment. It seeks to address women’s marginalisation in patriarchal Maasai culture, as well as the poverty among the Maasai that has long been underpinned by land access restrictions for pastoralists, hunters and gatherers.

This BMZ comissioned report by GTZ highlights the dramatic increase of land concessions and rising inequality in land distribution in Cambodia. Parts of the study refer to an earlier report by Uch Sophas “Foreign Direct Investment in Land for Biomass Production in Cambodia”. The South-East Asian country Cambodia has an area of 181,035 km2. The Government of Cambodia is adapting its activities to attract FDI, which has lead to a steady increase especially since 2007.