According to 2001 statistics, 924 million people, almost one third of the world’s population lived in slums. A majority of these people are in the developing countries and they account for 43% of the urban population. Slums are characterized by a dense proliferation of small, makeshift shelters built from diverse materials, degradation of the local ecosystem and by severe social problems.

A BILL for AN ACT of Parliament to provide a framework for the contracting, exploration, development and production of petroleum; cessation of upstream petroleum operations; to give effect to relevant articles of the Constitution in so far as they apply to upstream petroleum operations; and for connected purposes.

Because of changes in some underlying factors, land is increasingly becoming a source of conflicts in Africa. We estimate the determinants of land conflicts and their impacts on input application in Kenya by using a recent survey of 899 rural households. We find that widows are about 13 percent more likely to experience pending land conflicts when their parcels are registered under the names of their deceased husbands than when titles are registered under their names.

 The Abyei Administrative Area (AAA) is a contested zone located on the central border between South Sudan and Sudan. Its status has remained unresolved since South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011, and the governments failed to agree on the border division. A United Nations peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), has since monitored the situation. It is entrusted with overseeing demilitarisation and maintaining security in the area.

Zambia is one of the most forested countries in Africa, with about 50 million out of the 75 million hectares total land area under some form of forest cover. However, the country also has one of the highest rates of deforestation and degradation in the world, estimated at 250,000-300,000 hectares of forest loss per annum. Reversing/slowing this high deforestation and degradation trend will require the country to design and implement programs and strategies that will effectively deal with both the proximate and underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation.

Macha Mission in Choma District of Southern Province, Zambia was founded by the Brethren in Christ (BIC) Church in 1906 and granted title deeds to 3,003 hectares of land by the British colonial authority of the time. Since then the Mission has built a church, a hospital (which today includes a pioneering malaria clinic), two schools, and houses for its workers. A large market has grown up near the hospital, serving local workers and hospital visitors.

The global finance, energy and food crises are fuelling a global rush for land in developing countries. In their search for land, political leaders and investors look to Africa as a potential food supplier for the rest of the world. However, the current trend of land liberalisation rarely offers a solution to sustainable food production and poverty reduction among smallhold farmers in rural areas, as shown by this case study.

This report for public comment presents and analyses key issues arising from extensive interviews
conducted with workers on and off farm, individual employers, representatives of organised
agriculture, trade unions, NGOs, worker support organisations, municipal councillors and officials
together with representatives from provincial government departments. It sets out options for a
strategy to address farm worker housing and related needs.

This Environmental Annual report 2016-17 is prepared by The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India.

This Report contains activities and achievements of planning, promotion, co-ordination and overseeing the implementation of India's environmental and forestry policies and programmes in yearly basis.

The areas that this report deals are as follows: 

·         Natural Resources- Surveys and explorations by different departments under the ministry

·         Environmental Impact Assessments

Mozambique has a land governance system that allows for strong protection of community-based land rights, community consultation with respect to partnerships with investors, and also secure rights to land for investors. However, the implementation of legislation has been slow and the capacity among state actors is weak. Tensions exist between a government keen on promoting foreign investment and agro-industry and a rural population that is insufficiently aware of and not always able to exercise their legal rights.

Croatia’s business environment has been identified as a priority area for reform by the Croatian Government. Under the government working group for business climate and private investments, the agency for investment and competitiveness has been designated to lead the dialogue with the private sector and coordinate the consultations with stakeholders, including international organizations on the design of a new wave of business environment reforms.

This economy profile for Doing Business 2016 presents the 11 Doing Business indicators for Ukraine. To allow for useful comparison, the profile also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. Doing Business 2016 is the 13th edition in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2015 Ukraine ranks 83.