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

The "Bread for All-Protestant Development Service" recently released a document based on three case studies on the palm oil sector in Liberia.

The Inspection Panel is an independent complaint mechanism for people who believe that they have been, or are likely to be, adversely affected by a World Bank-funded project. The Panel provides for accountability and redress through its process and its assessment of Bank compliance with operational policies.

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.

A review of examples and experiences of making rangelands secure.

This brief report looks at how governments, international finance institutions and global corporations are collaborating in major new projects in Africa (currently in Mozambique and Tanzania) to reorder land and water use and create industrial infrastructure over millions of hectares in order to ensure sustained supplies of commodities and profits for markets. The Corridors concept first emerged at the World Economic Forum and a number of major corporations are involved.

This brief report looks at how governments, international finance institutions and global corporations are collaborating in major new projects in Africa (currently in Mozambique and Tanzania) to reorder land and water use and create industrial infrastructure over millions of hectares in order to ensure sustained supplies of commodities and profits for markets. The Corridors concept first emerged at the World Economic Forum and a number of major corporations are involved.

This document gives a brief overview of CEDAW and, in particular, those articles that relate to rural women (especially Article 14). It then continues on to discuss how different organizations can use CEDAW for gender-sensitive program and policy formulation. It also gives some example case study “success stories” within different countries, as well as some further resources.

- "Land Reform in Tanzania" is a detailed review of the Land and Village Land Acts of 1999.

- "The formalisation process in Tanzania" is a historical perspective on formalisation of land tenure and a critical review of the De Soto programme.

- "The politics of land in Tanzania" is an updated version of my D.Phil. dissertation of the topic. It focuses on the policy making behind land policies, and provides a detailed review of the villagisation exercise, plus case studies on the 1983 Agricultural Policy and the 1995 National Land Policy.