In taking a comprehensive approach to issues of tenure, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) offer an opportunity to promote systemic governance reform and respect for land and resource rights, while clarifying the different roles of States, businesses and social actors. The VGGT do not directly cover mineral resources but they clarify that States may wish to consider the governance of mineral resources in their efforts to implement the VGGT.

Land and labour rights can intersect in multiple ways. Investments in large-scale plantations often entail trade-offs between job creation and compressions of land rights. Also, labour relations can involve tenure dimensions, for example where estate managers sublet plots for workers to complement wages with food production for their family or local markets.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Senegal, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

Following its outbreak in late 2019, the Coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) has been reported to have had devastating human health, health systems, and socioeconomic impacts across the globe.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Namibia, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

The National Urban Assessment for Armenia provides a snapshot of the country’s urban sector and offers insights to achieving prosperous and sustainable cities. Armenia is highly urbanized, with the population concentrated in Yerevan and its surrounding areas given the capital’s geopolitical, economic, and cultural legacy. Opportunities exist to develop well-planned infrastructure along with balanced resource distribution among Yerevan and other cities, while leveraging Armenia’s cultural and environmental assets.

The crucial event in the reporting period was undoubtedly Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan. On September 27, 2020 Azerbaijan started its war on Nagorno-Karabakh, a long-disputed region called Artsakh in Armenia, which lasted for 44 days. It ended on November 10, 2020, when Russia facilitated a cease-fire, apparently just after the Azerbaijani forces had captured most of the territories occupied by Armenia in the previous war in the early 1990s, plus a major chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh proper.

Gender equality is key to eliminating poverty and hunger, and this has been demonstrated by FAO throughout its research across the world. FAO is committed to interventions that seek to reduce gender inequalities and this report has been produced as part of its eff orts to generate evidence and knowledge in compliance with FAO’s Policy on Gender Equality (FAO, 2013a). It is only through closing the gender gap that strategies on sustainable agriculture and rural development can reach their full potential.

The agricultural sector in Armenia contributes around 20 percent to gross domestic product and provides employment to around 40 percent of the country’s labour force. The backbone of agriculture in the country is represented by smallholders and family farms. According to 2014 census data, 317 346 family farms contribute over 97 percent of the total agricultural output and comprise 99 86 percent of all active agricultural holdings.

Armenia is a country that is very much characterized by agriculture – but Armenian rural life is marked by a deep crisis, as this current study shows.

Gender statistics play a key role in mainstreaming gender into policies of the state and serves as a tool to adequately assess and reflect the situation of women and men in economic, social and political spheres of the society. Gender statistics allows increasing public awareness about the status of women in relation to that of men and conducting systematic study of gender issues.