A Johannesburg Partnership Initiative for WSSD

Land Alliances for National Development

Strengthening the Implementation of Agenda 21 by Building Country-level Partnerships on LAND

The International Land Coalition

Secretariat: IFAD, Rome, ITALY

Name of the Partnership/Initiative: L and A lliances for N ational D evelopment

Date of initiation: 1 September 2002

Expected date of completion: ongoing (subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation)

Partners Involved:

Governments :

The partners in LAND will begin in the 30 plus countries where the International Land Coalition has nurtured this concept plus a range of other countries to ensure a geographically balanced range of pilot countries to stimulate the participation by surrounding countries.

Intergovernmental Organizations:

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO)
The World Bank
World Food Programme
The European Commission
Inter-American Development Bank

Major Groups:

Farmers:
International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)

Indigenous:
International Indian Treaty Council
Forest People's Programme
Tebtebba Foundation
Indigenous Environmental Network

Trade Union/Workers:
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, and Restaurant Workers(IUF)

Women:
Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) (networks and partners)
FAO SARD Major groups
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Caucus
International Partners for Sustainable Agriculture (IPSA)
NGOs:

REGIONAL Partners of the International Land Coalition

Southern Africa , National Land Committee (NLC)
South Asia , Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD)
South East Asia, ANGOC
South America, Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales - CEPES
Central America , Coordinator Responsable de la Red ASOCODE
The Caribbean , CNIRD
Near East , Economic & Development Studies Centre (EDSC), Ain Shams University,

NATIONAL Partners of the International Land Coalition

Bangladesh, Association for Realisation of Basic Needs (ARBAN)
Bolivia, Fundación Tierra
Cambodia , Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC)
Cameroon , APM Cameroon
Ecuador , FEPP - Fondo Ecuatoriano/Populorum Progressio (Coordinador Nacional de la Red)
Egypt , General Syndicate of Workers (GSWAI) for Agriculture and Irrigation
Ghana , World Vision Ghana
Guatemala, Programa Estudios para el Desarrollo Rural Coordinación de ONG y Cooperativas CONGCOOP
Honduras , Consejo Coordinador de Organizaciones Campesinas de Honduras (COCOCH)
India , Social Development Foundation (SDF)
India , Institute for Motivating Self-Employment
Indonesia , Konsorsium Pembaruan Agraria (KPA)/ Konsorsium for Reform
Mozambique, Associacao Rural de Ajuda Mutua (ORAM)
Nepal , Mobilization and Development (MODE)
Nicaragua , Federación Nacional de Cooperativas Agropecuarias y Agroindustriales R.L. (FENACOOP)
Peru , Grupo Permanente de Trabajo sobre Comunidades Campesinas (GPTCC)
Philippines , PAKISAMA
South Africa , National Land Committee (NLC)
Thailand, Promotion of Human Resources for Community Development Foundation (WCARRD)
Yemen , Southern Regional Agricultural Development Project (SRADP)
Zimbabwe , Zimbabwe Environmental Research Organization (ZERO)

Leading Partner : International Land Coalition
Name of the contact person/focal point : Bruce Moore, Executive Director
Address: Via Paolo di Dono, 44
Phone : (39 06) 5459 2206
Fax: (39 06) 5043 463
E-mail: b.moore@landcoalition.org  ; wssd.info@landcoalition.org

Main objectives of the Partnership/Initiative

Please provide a brief description :

L and A lliances for N ational D evelopment or LAND will establish and /or strengthen, widen and deepen existing multi-stakeholder alliances within participating countries to improve the secure access by the rural poor to land and related productive factors and assets. The LAND partnership initiative has an existing foundation in The International Land Coalition* to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty - a global consortium of intergovernmental, civil-society and bilateral organisations formed in 1995 to empower the rural poor by increasing their access to productive assets, especially land, water and common property, and by increasing their direct participation in decision-making processes at local, national, regional and international levels.

[Reference to Chair's Report (PrepCom IV) Paragraph 35 (g) Adopt policies and implement laws that guarantee well-defined and enforceable land and water use rights and promote legal security of tenure, recognizing the existence of different national laws and/or systems of land access and tenure, and provide technical and financial assistance to developing countries that are undertaking land tenure reform;]

Please also provide a brief description of the relationship of the Partnership/Initiative with the objectives of Agenda 21 as well as relevant goals and objectives of the United Nation Millennium Declaration :

During the processes leading to the WSSD, the International Land Coalition , in collaboration with FAO and other partners (such as WEDO and Forest Peoples Programme), compiled and analysed the goals and objectives of Agenda 21, including other major Summits of the 1990s (Vienna, Copenhagen, Cairo, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome) relating to Access to Land. These review highlight the re-occurring description of the poor as lacking assets, being vulnerable to agriculture and economic shocks, lacking the capacity (training and knowledge) to participate in decision-making affecting their livelihoods, and suffering from an inter-generational sense of being powerless to change their condition. This theme underpins the Millennium Development Goals. (These reports are produced and made available to the public as part of the series of WSSD publications of the International Land Coalition . It will be updated in October 2002 to include the outcome and commitments from the Political Document of the WSSD linking to the Millenium Goals. )

Expected results:

Please provide a brief description:

This LAND partnership initiative will result in Land Alliances for National Development comprised of government policy makers and practitioners, civil society/community-based organisations and representatives of the donor and intergovernmental organisations involved in country planning, programmes and financing. These alliances may be known as Country name-LAND; such as Philippines-LAND.

The lessons from previous policies and programmes aimed at improving the access to land by the poor inform our current efforts that citizen movements lacking the necessary institutional and public support and government-led programmes lacking the support of citizen organisations have both failed. What is needed are re-vitalised alliances between governments and their civil society organisations, coupled with coherent support from the international and bilateral community.

[Reference to the Chair's Report (PrepCom IV) Paragraph 7(b) Develop national programme for sustainable development and community development to promote the empowerment of people living in poverty and their organizations. These programmes should reflect their priorities, and enable them to increase access to productive resources, public services and institutions, in particular land, water, employment opportunities, credit, education, and health;]

The LAND s partnership will:.

• develop country-level, multi-stakeholder alliances / coalitions / commissions or such other convening mechanisms suited to country requirements so as to support the implementation of WSSD outcomes vis a vis improving the security of access to land and related productive factors by poor rural households and communities;
• assist the participating country LAND s to develop the policies, programmes and activities to implement the Common Platform on Access to Land, expected to arise from the collaborative process described in this document.

[Reference to Chair's Report (PrepCom IV) Paragraph 7(f) Provide access to other agricultural resources, for people living in poverty, especially women, and promote, as appropriate, land tenure arrangements that recognize and protect indigenous and common property management systems; and Paragraph 7(h) Transfer of basic sustainable agricultural techniques and knowledge, including natural resource management, to small and medium-scale farmers, fishers and the rural poor, including through multi-stakeholder approaches and public-private partnerships aimed at increasing agriculture production and food security;]

Specific targets of the Partnership/Initiative and timeframe for their achievement:

The partners in LAND will begin in the 30 plus countries where the International Land Coalition has nurtured this concept plus a range of other countries to ensure a geographically balanced range of pilot countries to stimulate the participation by surrounding countries. The nature of initiating the LAND partnership will be voluntary and will be country-driven depending on existing activities already underway at the national and regional level. New partners and countries will be engaged and identified in the process of participatory consultation. Best practices at the local levels will be identified with the view of scaling up activities at the national level.

Assessment of integration of economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in the design and implementation of the partnership will be ensured by linking the initiative with the national sustainable development plans in each country. Exchange of experience and information sharing within countries and regions will be promoted and supported as part of the capacity building strategy of the partnership.

The country level L and A lliances for N ational D evelopment will:

• establish and /or strengthen, widen and deepen existing multi-stakeholder alliances within countries to improve the secure access by the rural poor to land and related productive factors and assets;

• result in Land Alliances for National Development comprised of government policy makers and practitioners, civil society/community-based organisations and representatives of the donor and intergovernmental organisations involved in country planning, programmes and financing;

Timeframe:

Since WSSD PrepCom III, the International Land Coalition began to consult its partners in the development of the LAND initiative to be built on the International Land Coalition country-level experience and multi-stakeholder processes that have been previously initiated. It is expected that by the WSSD in Johannesburg, two or more pilot countries in each of the eight regions of the International Land Coalition partners will initiate LAND Partnerships.

Coordination and Implementation mechanism

Please provide a brief description of expected coordination/implementation mechanism of the Partnership/Initiative.

The country LAND s will be united regionally and globally through an expansion and strengthening of the International Land Coalition - an existing and specialised multi-stakeholder mechanism with the precise mandate needed for the fostering of LAND s.

Arrangements for funding

Please describe available and/or expected sources of funding for the implementation of the Partnership/Initiative (e.g. donor government(s); international organization(s)/financial institution(s); foundation(s); private sector; other major groups, etc.)

Among an already growing level of interest from intergovernmental organizations, some of the known partners are the International Fund and Agricultural Development (IFAD) as the sponsoring UN agency where the International Land Coalition Secretariat is based), the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), The World Bank, World Food Programme, The European Commission and The Inter-American Bank.

Arrangements for capacity building and technology transfer

Please include information if the Partnership/Initiative provides for training, informational support, institutional strengthening and/or other capacity building measures:

While success will require country specific policies and instruments, it may be

expected that examples of areas for attention at country-levels will include, inter alia :

• assessing and adjusting (as needed) legislative, regulatory and judicial frameworks to suit current circumstances affecting access by the rural poor;
• developing action programmes to obtain the requisite technical expertise and capacity building at all levels from government ministries, to local authorities to communities;
• establishing independent and representative land commissions to ensure equity, transparency and accountability;
• determining appropriate mechanisms for, among others:
• demarcating land boundaries and territories,
• resolving conflicts,
• managing common property,
• financing land distribution and access,
• fostering post land reform requirements (credit, technology, market access, etc)

Reference to the Chair's Report (PrepCom IV)

Paragraph 21 Human activities are having an increasing impact on the integrity of ecosystems that provide essential resources and services for human well being and economic activities. Managing the natural resources base in a sustainable and integrated manner is essential for sustainable development. In this regard, it is necessary to implement strategies to protect all ecosystems and to achieve integrated management of land, water and living resources, while strengthening regional, national and local capacities.

Paragraph 35 (b) Develop and implement land and water-use plans that are based on optimal use of renewable resources and on integrated assessments of socio-economic and environmental potentials and strengthen the capacity of governments, local authorities and communities to monitor and manage the quantity and quality of water resources;

Paragraph 35 (g) Adopt policies and implement laws that guarantee well-defined and enforceable land and water use rights and promote legal security of tenure, recognizing the existence of different national laws and/or systems of land access and tenure, and provide technical and financial assistance to developing countries that are undertaking land tenure reform;

Please also provide here a brief description of expected arrangements for technology transfer (if applicable).

Links of Partnership/Initiative with on-going sustainable development activities at the international and/or regional level (if any) Please provide a brief description:

The results being achieved by the International Land Coalition demonstrates the growing commitment of diverse organisations to enhance their land policies and programmes and to target the use of their resources in a more coherent framework based on the lessons of the past. There is no need for a new institution. The need is to work together to use resources synergistically and collectively influence the ways and means for the rural poor to become the agents of their own development. The International Land Coalition provides an experienced and neutral convening capacity for multi-stakeholders to learn from experiences in other countries and to build common programmes for action. For example, the International Land Coalition has formed the Agrarian Reform Network (ARnet), a knowledge network currently active in 25 countries, to exchange the lessons learnt from the practical work of community-based organisations. Through ARnet international, regional, national and grassroots organisations are gaining from each other's knowledge and collaborating to promote the successful practices, policies and innovative institutional arrangements linking civil society and government. The International Land Coalition has also established a Community Empowerment Facility to:

• strengthen the negotiating ability of the poor to achieve secure access to land including common property, water and associated support services;
• facilitate community participation in policy dialogue and local governance;
• build on traditional organisations and practices;
• strengthen rural people's organisations in solidarity with others;
• strengthen government land institutions in partnership with target communities;
• facilitate conflict resolution processes;
• replicate and scale up agrarian reform models; and,
• disseminate best practices and lessons learned.

Building a Common Platform on Access to Land

Working together to ensure secure resource tenure for the rural poor can provide diverse points for entry that widen the opportunity to engage decision makers through a range of converging interests. Among these have been a number of events devoted to this topic that have followed the Eighth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development in April 2000. In the intervening period, citizen organisations, inter-governmental, bilateral and governmental organisations have worked together in many diverse ways including common attendance to not less than three major events on this subject. The International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development in Manila, Philippines in December 2000; the International Conference on Innovative Agrarian Reforms for Sustainability and Poverty Reduction in Bonn, Germany in March 2001 and in Washington, USA at the Consultative Meeting on Land Issues convened by the World Bank and USAID in April 2001 provide insight to the growing degree of common concern and political interest by decision makers to improve the access by the poor to productive assets.

Working together with the Major Groups comprising the Multi-stakeholder Dialogue (MSD) at CSD - 8 has led to an ongoing and active process to engage with the key Major Group representatives from Farmer Organisations, the Trade Union Movement including Agricultural Workers, the Indigenous Community and the Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development Caucus. In the context of the processes leading to the WSSD, the International Land Coalition reached out to the major groups of the WSSD beginning from PrepCom II. Official Side Events were organised in PrepCom II and PrepCom III in New York in close collaboration with the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) Major Groups, the Women's Caucus through the coordination of Women's Environment and Development (WEDO), the Indigenous Caucus through the coordination of Indigenous Environmental Network and Tebtebba, the Farmer's Caucus through the coordination of International Federation of Agricultural Farmers (IFAP) and the Youth Caucus. events of 2002, there will be a close complementarity with the Major Group representatives including their constituencies joining into the activities presented in this document.

The outcomes of the aforementioned events, conferences, advocacy campaigns and inter- governmental negotiations contains the ingredients for a higher platform for common action. However, these ingredients have yet to be articulated and tested on a widely participatory basis. Moving the resource rights of the rural poor to a heightened level of support has, as its starting point, the need to determine the substance and scope upon which broadly based consensus can be achieved. Building a multi-stakeholder alliance between the various networks requires the convening strength of a common platform for action. Such a platform can provide the foundation for diverse constituencies to join together in pursuit of a higher level of policy and programme coherence.

Monitoring Arrangements

Please describe expected arrangements for monitoring of progress in the implementation of Partnerships/Initiative after it will be launched at the WSSD:

(e.g. frequency/modalities of preparation of progress reports; electronic updates, news-letters, etc)

Since the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) took place in December 2000 in the Philippines, the International Land Coalition and its Agrarian Reform Network (ARnet) partners from throughout Asia began to identify key knowledge areas and themes from their experiences and activities. As a result, organisations involved identified and developed common indicators, linkages with cross sectoral issues, common principles and frameworks for approaches, leadership training, best practices, international and national advocacy intitatives and strategies, etc. These are the basis for scale up activities, guidelines and reporting standards of the national networks who will be involved in the LAND Partnership. A report on Knowledge Themes is available with the International Land Coalition Secretariat.

A framework for monitoring of progress of implementation will be established and agreed by all participating partners at the country level. The International Land Coalition will provide the coordinating role for monitoring of progress at the regional and international levels. The International Land Coalition will work closely with the Commission on Sustainable Development to ensure that the LAND Initiative agrees with the international, regional and national governance of sustainable development.

Other relevant information:

Web-site: www.landcoalition.org
Email: info@landcoalition.org

__________________________________________

* The International Land Coalition is the outcome of the Conference on Hunger and Poverty convened by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) in November 1995 in Brussels. The conference determined that empowerment can best be achieved through increasing the access of the poor to productive assets, especially land, water and common-property resources, and direct participation in decision-making processes at local, national, regional and international levels. Since 1995 the International Land Coalition has been facilitating strategic alliances among diverse development organizations, placing particular emphasis on the role of civil society in overcoming hunger and poverty. The five intergovernmental organizations are the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Food Programme, the World Bank and the European Commission. The seven civil-society representatives are selected by their regional peers to achieve balance from South-East Asia and the Pacific; West and Central Africa; East and Southern Africa; North Africa and the Near East; Central and Latin America; the Caribbean; the OECD and northern partners.. While the global focal point is located at IFAD in Rome, the programme of work is undertaken by geographical nodes, which provide the decentralized means for participation and grass-roots operation. The membership is growing rapidly and includes; inter alia, the CSD Major Groups, the Inter American Development Bank and numerous governments and bilateral donors.