On December 11-14, The United States Institute of Peace – in collaboration with USAID, the World Bank, and the International Organization for Migration – will host a Land, Property and Conflict training course. Tenure insecurity and disputes over land and property often play a major role in conflicts, both internally and intra-state. The international donor community recognizes the importance of addressing complex issues related to land tenure and property rights in order to mitigate conflict, promote stability, and foster peace and economic growth.

IFPRI has just published a new paper that considers whether or not policy changes related to gender equality and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia are, or are not, mutually reinforcing. One set of changes involves certification of land use rights at the community level. See here for a discussion of USAID’s project supporting these efforts. Certification allows husbands and wives to be listed as joint holders of the rights (these rights are inheritable by the remaining spouse when the other spouse dies).

This article focuses on recent policy changes implemented by the Government of Tanzania. The Government has been criticized in local and international media for supporting harmful large-scale land acquisitions. In response, policy makers have placed a cap on transfer size: investors can acquire no more than 10,000 hectares for sugar production and no more than 5,000 hectares for rice production (two key agricultural commodities in the country). But will a cap stop harmful transfers? Maybe, but caps are not necessarily the “major step” that the article suggests.

According to a recent article from Reuters AlertNet, land is the first issue on the agenda at the historic peace talks in Cuba between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Unequal land distribution is a factor in Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict. If the current peace negotiations are to succeed and Colombia is to achieve enduring peace and stability, land issues must be addressed.

A recent article from IRIN news discusses land and conflict, as well as some potential opportunities for land reform, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to the article, “land disputes are key drivers of conflict in eastern DRC, and they hinder development across the region.

Oxfam is running a series of blogs on the Future of Agriculture. Day 6’s discussion includes a post by Madiodio Niasse, Secretariat Director of the ILC. Mr. Niasse focuses on the importance of securing women’s rights to land tenure as a strategy to improve agricultural productivity and food security.

This research paper from USAID calls attention to the challenges faced by vulnerable populations with respect to land. The paper identifies five vulnerable groups who have weak claims on land rights and are particularly vulnerable to changes in land tenure systems and property rights reform:
Women
Households that have been directly affected by HIV/AIDS
Pastoralist communities
Indigenous populations

In early December 2012, the Government of the Central African Republic officially launched a land tenure reform process. This process commenced with a multi-stakeholder workshop where two inter-ministerial committees were launched by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister indicated the government’s intent to lead a public consultation process that results in the formulation of a consolidated vision for land governance, taking into consideration international principals such as the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.

As the USAID Land Reform Project in Tajikistan comes to a close this month, there has been an increase in publicity for its achievements. An article highlighting a recent event to celebrate the project’s accomplishments and the work of the Tajik government in advancing land reform was featured in local media and a Feed the Future press release. Feed the Future is the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

Recent stories in the Globe and Mail, the Telegraph, BBC and the International Herald Tribune all highlight the significant tensions in Burma between various stakeholders over land, mineral, and other resource rights as the country undergoes significant political reforms. Though the reported details vary, communities in the Sagaing region are resisting attempts by the government to relocate them to allow expansion of mining operations by Wanbao Mining, a Chinese company. An estimated 7,800 acres of land were due to be expropriated for the expansion, requiring extensive forced evictions.

According to AllAfrica.com, Liberia’s Inquirer newspaper recently honored Philomena Bloh Sayeh as 2012 Director General of the Year. Ms. Sayeh is the Director General of Liberia’s Center for National Documents and Records Agency (CNDRA) and is a key partner in USAID’s Land Policy and Institutional Support (LPIS) project. This award recognizes the ambitious reform efforts that Ms. Sayeh, with the support of USAID, has overseen at CNDRA during the past year.

In many countries affected by conflict, households and entire communities have often been displaced multiple times, forcing them to leave behind land and property. One household’s loss becomes another one’s gain as internally displaced people are shuffled around and squat in any available space that provides a temporary reprieve from the insecurity and lawlessness. This creates opportunities for land grabbing as well.