Every two-three years, ILC organises the Global Land Forum (GLF). This unique event brings together ILC members and other stakeholders from grassroots organisations, activists, local and international NGOs, and researchers, to multilateral organisations and government agencies from around the world to advance understanding of the complex and dynamic political, economic, environmental and social linkages between land governance, food security, poverty and democracy.
By convening all members and key partners of the network, the Forum creates opportunities for participants to learn from, and contribute to, land governance successes and challenges.
It is action-oriented. The programme is structured to provide opportunities to participants who may not commonly interact to debate, exchange, learn from each other’s experiences and successes, strategise, and build linkages so that new perspectives can emerge.
The Forum is also an opportunity for ILC’s 206 members to adopt a declaration with common commitments to action during their Assembly of Members.
WHY INDONESIA?
Following their participation in the GLF 2015 in Dakar, the Government of Indonesia expressed interest in co-hosting the 2018 event jointly with ILC civil society members. The government set ambitious targets for agrarian reform and social forestry with total 21.1 million hectares of land, but the move from promise to practice has been slow. As co-hosts of the GLF with the National Organising Committee, this event provides an opportunity for the government to dialogue on the reforms and to share experiences from Asia and the world before its current term comes to an end in 2019.
Bandung will be the venue of the event, hosted in the historically important site of the 1955 Africa-Asia conference, which led to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement. Following a series of in-depth field visits, the main conference will open on the Indonesian National Peasants’ Day, 24th September, with a day focusing on Indonesia and Asia.