History

In November 1995, over one thousand representatives of civil society, governments, and multilateral institutions came together in Brussels, Belgium for a Conference on Hunger and Poverty. The conference participants, recognising the importance of equitable access to land for rural development, resolved to create an alliance of civil society and intergovernmental agencies: The Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty.

The conference called for urgent action to empower the rural poor by increasing their access to productive assets, especially land, water and common-property resources, and by strengthening their participation in decision-making processes at local, national, regional and international levels. In 2003, the Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty was renamed the International Land Coalition (ILC), in recognition of its strategic focus on land access issues. Since 2003, ILC has grown to a coalition of 116 organisations  representing more than  50 countries, working together to promote secure and equitable access to land for rural people, mainly through capacity building, knowledge sharing and advocacy.