Securing land rights is critical for realizing sustainable food systems that provide food security and overcome poverty. Security of property rights is central to preserving livelihoods, maintaining social stability, and increasing incentives for investment and for sustainable, productive land use.  

Secure land tenure provides women, indigenous peoples, pastoralists and others with incentives to invest in land improvements and also enables farmers to increase access to financial services,  government programs and social safety nets, particularly for women. Land rights are also key to enabling poor women and men to exercise the fundamental right to be free from hunger and poverty, and to live in dignity. Additionally, at the international level, frameworks such as the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure have been developed to guide agricultural investments so that they contribute to, rather than undermine, food security.

This Global Independent Dialogue was convened by the Land Portal Foundation to draw attention to improved land governance as a cross-cutting thread that underpins success of the Summit’s 5 Action Tracks. The Land Portal Foundation partnered with the European Commission, the International Land Coalition (ILC),  LANDac - The Netherlands Land Academy, RVO, and Welthungerhilfe as Co-Convenors.

The dialogue included a plenary session that features eminent speakers, which was followed by facilitated discussions on key actions necessary to obtain secure tenure and thus achieving sustainable food systems for women, indigenous peoples and pastoral communities. The aim was to reach a concrete set of resolutions from a diverse range of stakeholders that will feed into the Food Systems Summit.

Panelists

Karol Boudreaux (Curator)

 Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor at USAID

United States of America

Karol Boudreaux is the Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor at USAID where she supports USAID Missions, Bureaus and Offices to design, develop and implement activities to secure land rights and to create policies that reflect the key role land plays in promoting development objectives. Karol, a lawyer, was previously Chief Program Officer at Landesa, a global non-profit that works on land issues around the world and she also previously served as the Africa land tenure specialist with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID). She has published widely on topics related to land tenure and  property rights and earned her B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia.

Mina Setra

Deputy Secretary of AMAN

Indonesia

David Kaimowitz

Manager,  Forest and Farm Facility

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)