14 October 2016 – A major global conference, aiming to set a ‘New Urban Agenda,’ which, in the words of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will “help us to rethink how we plan, manage and live in cities,” begins this weekend, in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito.

By: Armando Mombelli

Date: October 14th 2016

Source: Swissinfo.ch

The worrying rise in foreign investors buying up land in poor countries is set to get worse in future, taking valuable resources from local populations. A report out later this month by a Bern database into ‘land grabbing’ should dig deeper into the problem.  

By: Katy Migiro

Date: October 13th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

A group of women is to climb to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro to call on African governments to improve female access to and control over land

NAIROBI, Oct 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hundreds of women from more than 20 African countries are meeting in Tanzania to write a charter of demands to improve their access to and control over land.

By: ENS Economic Bureau 

Date: October 15th 2016

Source: The Indian Express

India’s urban system consists of 7,933 cities and towns as of 2011 with a population of 377.16 million. It is now the second largest in the world rising from 5,161 towns and cities in 2001 with a total population of 286.1 million

By: Fabiana Frayssinet

Date: October 13th 2016

Source: IPS News

EL PATO, Argentina, Oct 13 2016 (IPS) - Her seven children have grown up, but she now takes care of a young grandson while working in her organic vegetable garden in El Pato, south of the city of Buenos Aires. Olga Campos wants for them what she wasn’t able to achieve: an education to forge a different future.

By: Liga Rudzite

Date: October 14th 2016

Source: TOL.org

Human rights watchdogs are asking for their release, arguing that their protests did not breach any law. 

By: Jean d'Amour Mbonyinshuti

Date: October 12th 2016

Source: AllAfrica.com / The New Times

Rwandan rural women, together with their counterparts from various countries on the continent, will today convene at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in an effort to advocate for unrestricted women's rights to land and other natural resources across the continent.

Date: October 12th 2016

Source: AllAfrica.com / Daily Observer

A research report released in Monrovia over the weekend by Natural Resources Women's Platform (NRWP), the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), and Green Advocates International (GAI) with support from US based Rights and Resources Initiatives (RRI), unearthed how foreign direct investment deprives local women of the land rights that form the basis for their livelihoods and cultures despite promises of shared economic development.

By: Marie O'Halloran

Date: October 12th 2016

Source: The Irish Times

Independent TD accuses horse industry of ‘gobbling up’ huge tracts of lands

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has renewed his call for a tax on land purchases in excess of 750 acres, accusing conglomerates in the horse industry of “gobbling up” huge tracts of land.

By: Barbara Mae Dacanay

Date: October 12th 2016

Source: The Gulf News

Manila: Twelve farmers fighting for land reform were arrested and have remained in prison based on a complaint of a landlord in central Philippines at the start of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte who has revived peace talks with the 48-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), a rights leader said.