About two-thirds of the developing world’s 3 billion rural people live in about 475 million small farm households, working on land plots smaller than 2 hectares. 1 Many are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Their choices are constrained, but they farm their land and produce food for a substantial proportion of the world’s population. Besides farming they have multiple economic activities, often in the informal economy, to contribute towards their small incomes.

A situational analysis on artisan mining was conducted in five Regional States
of Ethiopia, namely Oromia, Tigray, SNNP, Benishangul-Gumuz (BGR) and
Amhara as part of the EEITI process. The general objective of the study
is to analyze various aspects of artisan mining operations in Ethiopia, its economic
value, social contribution and social impacts. In addition, the assessment includes as
to what process could be undertaken to integrate artisan mining information into
EITI reports and EITI processes.

How They Tricked Us: Living with the Gibe III Dam and Sugarcane Plantations in Southwest Ethiopia, reveals the dire situation faced by the Indigenous in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley and calls for urgent action by the government.

For years, the Oakland Institute has raised alarm about the threats that the Gibe III Dam and sugarcane plantations pose to the local population in the region. Now, several years on, new field research reveals the true impact on the Indigenous communities, who have called the area home for centuries.

One of the major interventions to effect rural development in the Philippines is the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which was instituted in 1988 and its implementation is extended until 2014. Using a panel data from a series of surveys (1990, 2000, and 2006), the economic impacts of the Program were evaluated.

This study is prepared using the data analysis of a field study conducted in January 2017 in the Districts of Monaragala, Ampara, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu and Jaffna in Sri Lanka focusing on the land rights violations that took place in the recent past due to the appropriation of land from the ordinary citizens by the security forces and individuals backed by powerful people and, the tenure security problems faced by the landless rural communities in Monaragala and Ampara districts and the sugar cane farmers living in the settlements of Pelwatta Sugar Company, which is now owned by the gover

Digital technologies cut off access to land

Despite promises to fix unjust land governance, a new study shows that digital technologies can further land grabbing and inequality.

In a new paper, written with a colleague from the Danish Institute for Human Rights, TMG researchers Anna Kramer and Frederike Klümper, and TMG Managing Director Alexander Müller, make a case for adopting human rights-based monitoring approaches that strengthen the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests (VGGT), and ultimately support responsible land governance.

Target 1.4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seeks to ensure that “all men and women, particularly the poor and vulnerable, have equal rights … to ownership and control over land and other forms of property.”

This target’s inclusion under SDG Goal 1, on “ending poverty in all its forms,” signifies a new global recognition that secure land tenure should be a central strategy in combating poverty. However, this land agenda has not been prominent in recent SDG reporting processes of governments.

By creating a land commission, the Kazakh authorities managed to bring down the protest rallies in 2016, when, under pressure from citizens, the government was forced to abandon the sale and lease of land to foreigners. The goal of the national patriots was achieved, but the key issue for the citizens remained unresolved – the mechanism and procedures for the return of land to the people of Kazakhstan, sold by the authorities as a result of massive corruption deals and now belonging to oligarchs – “land barons”, has not been created by law.

The RGIL project is part of the Global Programme Responsible Land Policy (GPRLP) and is implemented in Ethiopia, Laos and Uganda. RGIL aims to ensure that investments in land are productive, contribute to sustainable land management and respect the rights and needs of local populations, in particular vulnerable groups and women. The project is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

This paper was prepared within the “Cooperatives and their alternatives” component of the Agrarian Structures Initiative (ASI) which a regional program of FAO in Europe and Central Asia. This paper outlines some of the main issues influencing the development (or not) of farmer and rural organisations and presents in further detail the specific situation in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. All three countries returned ownership of the majority of land to the rural population.

Growing commercial interests;population growth and conservation initiatives are increasing competition for land in Tanzania. At the same time;land-related conflicts are on the rise. These trends undermine livelihoods by threatening rural people’s access to land and tenure security. Women tend to be disproportionately affected as available land diminishes;disadvantaged by weak land rights and limited participation in decision-making processes.