What rural dwellers in the Global South experience as land grabbing, tends to be seen in the Global North as ‘agricultural investment’. The World Bank has been at the forefront of a drive to legitimate these investments, convening to win support for a code of conduct based on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) principles. Many key civil society groups reject the proposal for a code of conduct, objecting to the top-down process by which it was formulated and arguing that it was more likely to legitimate than prevent land grabbing.

Preliminary:
1. Objectives...
2. Nature and scope.....
General matters:
3. Guiding principles of responsible tenure governance...
3A General principles...
3B Principles of implementation...
4. Rights and responsibilities related to tenure...
5. Policy, legal and organizational frameworks related to tenure...
6. Delivery of services.....
Legal recognition and allocation of tenure rights and duties:
7. Safeguards...

Preliminary: 1. Objectives... 2. Nature and scope..... General matters: 3. Guiding principles of responsible tenure governance... 3A General principles... 3B Principles of implementation... 4. Rights and responsibilities related to tenure... 5. Policy, legal and organizational frameworks related to tenure... 6. Delivery of services..... Legal recognition and allocation of tenure rights and duties: 7. Safeguards... 8. Public land, fisheries and forests... 9. Indigenous peoples and other communities with customary tenure systems... 10. Informal tenure.....

U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in RomeOctober 19, 2011 ROME – The United States government commends the United Nations Committee on Food Security (CFS) for the extraordinary work that it has done on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Lands, Fisheries and Forests, achieving consensus on approximately seventy percent of the document during the July and October negotiations. The U.S.

In setting out principles and internationally agreed standards, the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Other Natural Resources” intend to provide practical guidance to states, civil society and the private sector on responsible governance of tenure. The Voluntary Guidelines (VG) will constitute a framework for policies, legislation and programs, but will not establish legally binding obligations nor replace existing national or international laws, treaties or agreements (FAO 2009c).

The present paper is written as part of the overall Voluntary Guidelines consultation and development process and is a contribution to the subsequent preparation of the Gender Technical Guide. It contextualises and defines gender for the Voluntary Guidelines, discusses what governance of tenure means from a gender perspective and identifies and analyses key issues and themes. It then summarises recommendations relevant to gender before drawing some conclusions for the development process of the Voluntary Guidelines.

This brief produced for the Dialogue Initiative on Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and their Alternatives provides an overview of the  Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Other Natural Resources.

FAO and its partners have been preparing draft voluntary guidelines to provide practical guidance on responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests as a means of alleviating hunger and poverty, enhancing the environment, supporting national and local economic development, and reforming public administration. A process of widespread participation of stakeholders through a series of regional and thematic consultation meetings as well as an electronic consultation resulted in a First Draft of the Voluntary Guidelines.

The present paper is written as part of the overall VG consultation and development process

and is a contribution to the subsequent preparation of the Gender Technical Guide. The

present paper is based both on the outcomes of the VG consultation process to date and on

supporting research, consultation and literature review on gender and governance of tenure. It

contextualises and defines gender for the VG, discusses what governance of tenure means

from a gender perspective, and identifies and analyses key issues and themes.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

In this issue, we will be looking at work underway on the Voluntary Guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources. We will also look at work done in Thailand and lessons learned by the German-financed Bioenergy and Food Security project.

This document reports on the regional consultation for Southern America (including Mexico), held in Brasilia on 20 and 21 of May 2010 with the support of the Government of Brazil and preceded by a civil society meeting composed of organizations integrating the International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), whose recommendations have been annexed at this document.