This FAO Legal Paper looks at and evaluates the present land-related laws and policies in operation in Sierra Leone and makes recommendations to align them with the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT). The analysis was supported by two assessment tools, which consist of a series of questions related to land tenure generally and gender issues specifically in Sierra Leone.

This regional evaluation is based on discussions and outputs of the consultation meeting of Francophone Africa on the Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources that was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 23-25 June 2010. The opinions expressed in this evaluation are those of the participants at the consultation meeting and do not necessarily reflect those of FAO.

The guidelines are the first comprehensive, global instrument on tenure and its administration to be prepared through intergovernmental negotiations.

The guidelines set out principles and internationally accepted standards of responsible practices for the use and control of land, fisheries and forests. They provide guidance for improving the policy, legal and organizational frameworks that regulate tenure rights; for

Land Tenure Working Paper 15. This publication brings to light the existing linkages between land tenure and the realization of the right to food. It points out that responsible governance of land requires the adoption of human rights-based approach in order to develop coherent and long term solutions to improve people’s livelihoods. The document presents the legal implications of the right to food at national level and provides a series of examples on the implementation of human rights principles and obligations into land tenure systems, policies, and institutional frameworks.

Supporting Implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGTs) is a programme that provides countries with a framework for best practices in tenurerelated policies, laws, regulations, strategies and practices. Its Phase 1 was implemented from October 2012 to June 2016 as a multi-donor programme overseen by a steering committee and managed by the VG-Tenure Secretariat hosted by FAO.

The Right to Food and the Responsible Governance of Tenure: A dialogue towards implementation aims to provide guidance for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) which were endorsed in May 2012 by the Committee on World Food Security. More specifically, the study begins with a general introduction of the global context within which the developing process of the VGGT took place.

This guide provides an overview of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. It describes the nature, purpose, contents and intended audience of the Guidelines. The guide explains what is meant by tenure and describes how improving the governance of tenure can serve to eradicate hunger and poverty and lead to the sustainable use of natural resources.

Up to 2.5 billion people hold and use the world’s community lands, yet the tenure rights of women—who comprise more than half the population of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities—are seldom acknowledged or protected by national laws.

The challenges associated with determining fair compensation for expropriated land have been extensively discussed and debated among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the public. However, to date, a comprehensive study of national-level compensation procedures established by law considering whether such procedures meet internationally recognized standards on compensation valuation has not been conducted.

An estimated 10m people are displaced from development projects every year. A new study aims to monitor government adoption of voluntary guidelines on expropriation, compensation and resettlement, Nicholas Tagliarino reveals

Large-scale transnational land acquisition of agricultural land in the global south by rich corporations or countries raises challenging normative questions. In this article, the author critically examines and advocates a human rights approach to these questions. Mutually reinforcing, policies, governance and practice promote equitable and secure land tenure that in turn, strengthens other human rights, such as to employment, livelihood and food.

This paper analyzes the state’s Land Governance in terms of the five themes for
administrators, technicians and professionals working in the land sector as per the gender-framework of FAO’s VGGT along with an additional theme on community perspectives on women land rights, and recommends strategies for moving towards it.