A poster highlighting the10  Resonsible Agricultural Investment Principles

This report documents the evaluation of the Cambodian Land Dispute Independent Mediation (CLAIM) project, an independent mediation between Socfin-KCD Co., Ltd. and Coviphama Co., Ltd., known as Socfin Cambodia and five Bunong villages from Busra Commune, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. MRLG provided funding for CLAIM. The evaluation was undertaken by the Australian Disputes Centre (ADC) in 2022.

Context and Background: Land is an important resource for human survival as well as that of other living organisms. Despite its importance, there are many problems that come with its management. There are increasing controversies and disputes over the ownership, access, and use of land. This is due to the increase in land demand, owing to factors such as population growth, urbanization, and food security. Land disputes in the Ashanti Region have drastically escalated recently as a result of these factors.

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.

During the reporting period, the consolidation of authoritarian rule in Azerbaijan continued. Snap parliamentary elections in February 2020 did not meet international standards for free and fair competition. However, some notorious high-ranking state officials were fired, and corrupt local level administrators detained on corruption charges. These developments, in addition to the appointment of some young professionals to ministerial posts, raised hopes for a possible opening of the country to real reforms and changes.

The Support to Responsible Agricultural Investments (S2RAI) Project promotes internationally recognized principles and guidelines to ensure food and land tenure security for communities in the context of large-scale commercial land investment as well as strengthen the institutional frameworks and coordination structures at federal and regional levels in relations to responsible agricultural investment in Ethiopia.

In 2019, the long-awaited transition of presidential power from Nursultan Nazarbayev to his anointed successor Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev took place. However, Nazarbayev continues to wield power. Among his many positions is the chair-for-life of the National Security Council, a constitutional body that has effective veto power over key policy decisions.

Abstracted from executive summary:

The Indian Central Government introduced three agricultural reform bills in June 2020. These Bills, known collectively as the farm laws, were passed by the Indian Parliament at the end of September. Opposition figures and protesting farmers complained there was little consultation over the legislation. On 19 November 2021, after nearly a year of mass protests against the laws, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, made a surprise announcement that his Government would repeal the farm laws.

This paper seeks to answer the question: how does land become grabbable and local people relocatable? It focuses on the historical and current conditions of land tenure that enable land grabbing. While recognising the important contributions thus far made by the critical literature on land grabbing, this paper moves forward towards understanding specific processes that befall before land is grabbed and its original users relocated.

Kazakhstan’s leaders have long harbored ambitious visions for their country’s future. The country’s first President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, launched several far-reaching goals for the country’s development, most notably in 2012 the “Kazakhstan 2050” strategy, which aimed for Kazakhstan to take a place among the world’s 30 most developed states by mid-century.

On 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia on a scale not seen since the ceasefire of 1994. The conflict ended in another cease- fire on 10 November 2020, however, in addition to the theatre of war, the conflict has been prosecuted and continues to be fought post-ceasefire, through claims to cultural heritage which are employed in international organisations to substantiate the legitimacy of territorial claims.

By creating a land commission, the Kazakh authorities managed to bring down the protest rallies in 2016, when, under pressure from citizens, the government was forced to abandon the sale and lease of land to foreigners. The goal of the national patriots was achieved, but the key issue for the citizens remained unresolved – the mechanism and procedures for the return of land to the people of Kazakhstan, sold by the authorities as a result of massive corruption deals and now belonging to oligarchs – “land barons”, has not been created by law.