International Land Coalition

The Land Reporting Initiative

Supporting global collaboration for monitoring land rights

Many ILC members are engaged in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of land-related laws, policies and programmes, and their impact on poor men and women. Some organisations are using specific sets of indicators to do this, or are in the process of developing indicators. The Land Reporting Initiative seeks to support and to build upon these efforts. The goal is greater collaboration between civil society, international organisations and governments to improve the monitoring of land rights issues and the evaluation of land policy.

Latest Update: The working group to decide on the future direction of the LRI - Call for participants

16 April 2008
The ILC secretariat is finalizing the draft stocktaking and discussion paper on land indicators and land monitoring strategies. The task is now to move from this review to a clear decision and plan of action about the way ahead. The following is the provisional plan for this process:

Date	Activity
19 May	Peer review Circulation of draft Stocktaking and Discussion Paper for peer review
30 May	Deadline for comments from peer review
16-20 June	e-discussion Objectives: To discuss the options for implementing the Land Reporting Initiative To reflect on what is achievable To gather more ideas about ways forward To include a wide range of people and organizations in this discussion
8 -12 September (one day)	Workshop Objective: To develop a plan of action for ILC's involvement in land monitoring, support to land monitoring, and land indicators development
Autumn 2008 onwards	Resource mobilisation and implementation

The task of the working group will be to accompany this process. We need working group participants at least to commit to attending the workshop. Simultaneously we are also seeking the collaboration of people and organizations who may not be able to join the working group in attending the workshop, but who will be able to participate in the e-discussion, or in the peer review.

If you are interested in being a member of the working group, in participating in the e-discussion, or in the peer review, of if you are simply interested in being kept informed about the progress of this initiative, please contact Tim Bending at t.bending@landcoalition.org

Latest Update: Where are we? Where do we want to go?

7 March 2008
Indicators are increasingly seen as an important monitoring tool for promoting better land policy, and for ensuing its implementation. The ILC secretariat has been mandated by the Coalition Council, our governing body, to take stock of previous and current efforts to develop indicators for use in monitoring land tenure security and access to land. We want to assess the progress so far, and to analyse some of the lessons that have been learned. Further, we wish to initiate a discussion about what needs to be done in the future.

Building on the efforts of members
Some ILC members have already taken important steps in developing and using land indicators. Many others are engaged in monitoring and evaluation activities, whether of programmes and projects, or of national trends in land access and tenure security.

Key initiatives include:

The global Urban Observatory Network initiated by UN-Habitat and their use of indicators to monitor urban trends, including housing rights and secure tenure.
Land Watch Asia: Coordinated monitoring of national land rights situations and Asian Development Bank programmes by Asian CSO members of the ILC.
The land access indicators developed by IFAD for fund allocation and programme monitoring and evaluation.
The initiative by the Centre Peruano Estudios Sociales (CEPES) to develop comprehensive indicators for measuring land tenure security in the Andean region
Studies commissioned by the World Bank to develop indicators for promoting and monitoring good land governance.
The African Union/ECA/ADB Land Policy Initiative to build a consensus on land policy for Africa and a indicator-based system to monitor it.

We are currently preparing a background paper to asses these and other efforts. In mid-2008 we plan to hold a workshop and wider discussions to reflect on the findings of this paper and discuss the way forward for ILC. These discussions should not just focus on indicators but on different strategies for monitoring land rights and policy. This is because the usefulness of a set of indicators depends on the type of monitoring activity they are used in.

Key questions:

How can ILC, as a global coalition, add value to the work that individual members are doing?
Should ILC continue efforts to develop a global 'Land Watch' to monitor compliance with international agreements, using an internationally agreed set of indicators? Is this achievable?
How could members be supported in their monitoring activities by the secretariat and by other members? An indicators database? Capacity-building? A land monitoring 'toolkit'?

We would be interested to hear about the work of any organisation that has experience in the systematic monitoring of land issues, particularly if using indicators. Also, if you are interested in participating in a discussion or working group on these issues, please contact Tim Bending at the ILC secretariat: t.bending@landcoalition.org