With around 7.4 million inhabitants, Laos is relatively sparsely populated. Over 70% of Laotians depend directly or indirectly on agriculture and forestry for their living. To drive forward the country’s development, the Lao Government is investing in agriculture and forestry, mining, and hydropower. Until now, the rural population has derived limited benefit from this practice and is often not familiar with the legal frameworks governing land, nor the relevant institutions and processes that ensure their land rights.

The Gnassingbé clan has ruled the country since 1967. Throughout the survey period, demands for political change initiated by institutional and electoral reforms were a major issue of contention between the government and the challengers of the Gnassingbé regime. An alliance of opposition parties and civil society groups organized peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the regime. These demonstrations were often violently suppressed. Civil society organizations and representatives of the Christian church supported the opposition’s demands.

Land access is becoming a crucial issue in many African contexts, where groups and individuals are coping with land scarcity and increasing competition over resources. Based on fieldwork carried out in the southwestern region of Togo, this paper explores the plurality and adaptability of the forms of land access that have historically emerged from changing economic and political landscapes characterized by the rise and the decline of cocoa cultivation.

Le Togo est un des plus petits pays objet de l’étude : sa superficie n’est que de 56 785 km², grossièrement répartis en deux systèmes de plaines, un au Nord et un au Sud, séparés par un ensemble de plateaux centraux, dont le massif de l’Atakora. Par contre, la population est relativement importante avec près de 6 millions d’habitants (avec un taux de croissance annuel de 2,7 % pour la période 2000-2006)1, dont près de 40 % dans les agglomérations de plus de 5 000 habitants. Selon une formule de R. Cornevin, le Togo représente « toute l’Afrique en 600 kilomètres »2.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (F&G) are important international and continental instruments for improving the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests for improved food security and nutrition. They are useful for dealing with the many tenure challenges confronting developing countries and set the standards and frameworks for improvement.

The Amazon has a diverse array of social and environmental initiatives that adopt forest-based land-use practices to promote rural development and support local livelihoods. However, they are often insufficiently recognized as transformative pathways to sustainability and the factors that explain their success remain understudied.

Despite the existence of a legal framework defining the right to fair compensation, and notwithstanding the vast literature on transnational and domestic land deals, no theory has been developed so far to allow for a specific analysis of the economics of fair compensation in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), limiting our understanding of the underlying reasons of success or failure of this important legal protection mechanism.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

Land governance in Africa faces various challenges,including weak legal frameworks and insufficient institutional capacity. Responsible land investmentsare vital for sustainable development and require the active participation of all stakeholders. The project component "Responsible Governance ofInvestments in Land," funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, aims to promote responsible investments in Ethiopia, Laos, and Uganda.

This report presents the first global analysis of funding pathways in support of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ (IPs' & LCs') tenure and forest guardianship, a project spurred by the IP & LC Forest Tenure Pledge made by 22 donors in 2021. This study, commissioned by the Ford Foundation, aims to provide practical guidance and strategic insights for Pledge donors to incorporate in the remaining years of implementation.

This project’s main objectives are to generate: