Farmers in Burma are increasingly organizing to push for recognition of expanded rights to land and how they use it. Despite the passage of the Farmland Law in 2012, grievances and conflicts over land remain widespread and farmers face continued restrictions of their farming choices.

USAID is pleased to announce a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Governments of Ethiopia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany to improve rural land governance. Building on existing programs and the seven land country partnerships announced at this year’s G8 Open for Growth Summit, this new partnership will support greater transparency in rural land governance, promote responsible agricultural investment, and improve Ethiopia’s legal framework and practices related to rural land administration and land use.

A new report from the World Bank suggests that Africa, which is home to half the world’s uncultivated land, can significantly reduce poverty, achieve rapid economic growth, and increase food security by improving land governance systems and strengthening land tenure and resource rights. “Land governance issues need to be front and center in Africa to maintain and better its surging growth and achieve its development promise,” says Frank Byamugisha, author of the report and lead land specialist in the World Bank’s Africa region.

A new opinion piece describes how secure land rights can improve agricultural productivity and food security. In Why Strong Land Rights Advance Food Security, Eric Postel, USAID's Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and Environment and Tjada McKenna, Feed the Future’s Deputy Coordinator for Development, explain what development practitioners can do to improve land rights and food security in a multitude of development projects.

On July 30, the Global Donor Working Group on Land was officially announced. The group is comprised of bilateral and multilateral donors and development agencies committed to improving coordination and information sharing to enhance the effectiveness of development programs that focus on land governance. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) will serve as the group’s inaugural chair. The donor working group is facilitated by the secretariat of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development.

The G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition aims to lift 50 million people out of poverty in ten years through a partnership between G8 members, African nations and the private sector. In order to increase production at a rate needed to achieve food security, the New Alliance seeks to accelerate responsible investment in African agriculture and commit to coordinated policy reforms.

A guest post by Dr. Steven Lawry, Global Lead, Land Tenure & Property Rights at DAI, a USAID partner and global development company committed to shaping a more livable world. Follow them @DAIGlobal

By Dr. Gregory Myers, USAID Division Chief, Land Tenure and Property Rights On July 30, I had the pleasure of joining Landesa President Tim Hanstad at Global Washington in Seattle for a rich discussion of the Global Farms Race: Implications of Food Security, Poverty, and Foreign Investment. At the heart of this conversation are the rights of communities and individuals to decide for themselves how to use and profit from land. Do they possess clear and documented land and resource rights? Who has the power to make decisions?

A guest post by Ashok Sircar, India Program Director of Landesa, a USAID partner and global organization that partners with governments to help secure land rights of the poor. Follow them @Landesa_Global
There is growing recognition that India cannot solve many of its critical development challenges if it doesn’t help the 20 million landless rural families and the millions more who lack legal rights to the land they till.

In June, Ethiopian State Minister of Agriculture Ato Sileshi Getahun joined USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Dennis Weller, to officially launch the Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project. The LAND project builds on the success of two previous USAID projects that supported the certification of rural land rights, the reform of federal and regional laws governing land administration and land use, and the strengthening of government capacity to administer these rights.

Land tenure impacts investment, credit availability, poverty rates, land values, and agricultural productivity, which are all linked to economic performance. When land tenure and property rights are secure, individuals can make investments, secure credit, sell land, and make longer term decisions about agricultural practices. On the other hand, in developing countries that have a large informal sector, and in which land tenure is insecure, people lack opportunities to invest in or profit from land, and their transactions are not protected by the state.

Land tenure security has been highlighted as one important link to food security in President Obama’s Feed the Future Progress Report, formally released this week. The report points out that in Tajikistan last year, the Feed the Future initiative supported the improvement of land rights and land use by working with the Government of Tajikistan to amend its land code to include ownership of land, use rights, and increased women’s equality. In addition, the U.S.