The Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project, MLIKE (Mekong Land Information and Knowledge Exchange),  and the Land Portal co-facilitated an online dialogue on “Responsible Large Scale Agricultural Investments in the Mekong Region” on 09-27 October 2017. The full dialogue can be read here. This report delineates the key messages emerging from the dialogue.

Residents of mining areas testified at the Parliamentary High-Level panel on assessment of key legislation and acceleration of fundamental change about the acute disruptions caused in their lives and livelihoods by mining and their concerns are dealt with in several recommended amendments to legislation.

Farmers’ interest group AgriSA last week released its own land audit. This filled in a major blank in the land reform and policy field: How many black emerging farmers have bought farms outside government’s land reform programme? We now have a part answer: they bought 4.3 million hectares.  Other findings from this study are contested and methodological flaws are highlighted.

Fifteen in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2018 measures aspects of regulation affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity:

We examine the emergence of land markets and their effects on forest land appropriation by farm households in Jambi Province, Sumatra, using micro-level data covering land use and land transactions for a period of more than 20 years (1992–2015). Based on a theoretical model of land acquisition by a heterogeneous farming population, different hypotheses are developed and empirically tested. Farm households involved in forest land appropriation differ from those involved in land market purchases in terms of migration status and other socioeconomic characteristics.

This report is part of the series focusing on documenting the lessons from Malaysia for other developing countries in improving their public-sector management. These lessons include those at the center of government, such as the delivery unit method applied to the implementation of the national priorities, or implementing the elements of performance-based budgeting, as well as deeper analysis of specific approaches in various sectors. Strategies for improving public sector performance will differ in education, health, public transport, or land administration.

The purpose of this guide is to introduce the process of mapping for communities facing destructive development projects. It also provides information on how to use maps in a campaign.

This survey report provides findings of a survey to measure the impacts of LIFTs rural land rental market and access to finance interventions..This resource was published in the frame of the Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) Programme. For more information;please check: https://landportal.org/community/projects/land-investment-transformation...

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.

This report is a product of a partnership between Terra Firma and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), contributing to a study of changing land access in sub-Saharan Africa supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Representatives of government institutions, civil society, NGOs and the private sector
attended a validation workshop in Freetown on October 18-19, 2017. One and One-half days
of discussions provided suggested revisions to the draft AIAP. Based on this input, the working group prepared a revised AIAP.