This guide explores the legal dimensions of responsible governance of tenure. It supports the application of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure for Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security at the national level. The guide addresses the legal value of the Guidelines covering the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests by explaining the concept of legitimacy and reviewing the different stages of legislative processes, from legal assessment and law-making through implementation of legislation to settlement of disputes.

The technical guide on improving the governance of pastoral lands is designed for several audiences including government and non-government actors. It covers specific challenges of pastoral tenure that are unique to pastoralism and considers how these different facets of pastoralist tenure (issues of the commons; free, prior and informed consent (FPIC); gender etc.) can be combined in a coherent approach to securing pastoral lands.

How worried are people, especially in poorer communities, about the risk that they could lose their homes or their land? The idea behind this initial survey is simple: to find out if people are worried about their existing property rights or lack of them – whether women or men, owners or tenants, in cities or in villages. The survey results reveal that insecurity of property rights is widespread in India, with about one in four owners and about half of renters expressing worry about losing their home.

Oxfam India is part of a global movement working to fight poverty, injustice and inequality; in India it works in seven focus state. Oxfam India aims to improve poor people’s access, rights and entitlements over land and natural resources in order to support and augment their livelihoods. Through its programme on smallholder agriculture, Oxfam India focuses on socialising the identity of women as farmers, strengthening the economic leadership of women farmers, ensuring their land rights and making public investments in agriculture accessible to small farmers, especially women farmers.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security represent an inclusive, transparent international agreement on the governance of tenure to promote food security and sustainable development by protecting the legitimate tenure rights of millions of people and improving secure access to land, fisheri (Read more at

This guide aims to assist non-lawyers to better understand agricultural investment contracts. Agricultural investment contracts can be complex, and some provisions may be difficult to understand. This guide aims to assist the reader in understanding technical provisions found in these contracts, by providing explanations for common provisions, as well as a glossary of certain legal and technical terms.

This resource is part of the CCSI’s Directory of Community Guidance on Agreements Relating to Agriculture or Forestry Investment.

The guide has been produced to help practitioners, project and operational managers understand the drivers, implications and capabilities needed to make and implement agreements.

Development agencies are increasingly making decisions and evaluating success on the basis of an ever-growing supply of data. Some argue that the proliferation of data improves development outcomes for states and people targeted by agencies' interventions, as well as the accountability of those agencies. Others argue that problems of selection bias, a lack of longitudinal records, and misuse of data can ignore or even exacerbate the problems that development agencies seek to mitigate.

This paper explores the role of Manhyia Palace, a traditional political office of the Asantehene (King of Asante Kingdom) in traditional land conflict management in Kumasi. Land conflicts remain a major hindrance to land use and tenure security in most parts of Ghana. Sometimes, the institutions governing land use and management are crucial to the occurrence and adjudication of these disputes. Consequently, statistics at the Accra High Court Registry shows that, land litigation ranks first in the number of cases pending with about 60,000 cases being registered in the superior courts.

This technical guide covers the issues associated with the identification and valuation of tenure rights for different purposes, and provides guidance on how to ensure that valuations are undertaken in a fair, reliable and transparent manner that comply with international norms. It explains why valuations are important, where and when they should be used, and by whom. The guide aims to raise the level of awareness of valuation issues and procedures among those involved in land policy and administration and those affected by land tenure decisions.

Paper prepared for presentation at the 2016 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY, The World Bank - Washington DC, March 14-18, 2016

A step-by-step, practical ‘how to’ manual for grassroots advocates working to help communities protect their customary claims and rights to land and natural resources. Namati has developed a comprehensive, five-part approach that supports communities to: build unity and internal capacity for community land protection, proactively document and map their land claims, strengthen local governance, seek formal government recognition of their land rights, and plan for their own flourishing future.