Securing Rights to Land for Peace and Food Security

The International Land Coalition Conference and Assembly 2009 takes place from 21-24 April 2009 at the Yak & Yeti Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal

The International Land Coalition (ILC) will hold its 2009 Conference and Assembly of Members in Kathmandu, Nepal on April 21-24, 2009. The international conference, titled Securing Rights to Land for Peace and Food Security, will bring together some 150 stakeholders from 40 countries, including policy makers, technical experts, practitioners, activists and researchers. Together, they will share knowledge, assess global progress on land issues over the past biennium and plan future collaboration.

The ILC Assembly of Members will be held on the final day of the event. The Assembly is the ILC’s highest governing body and the forum for members to review performance and plan the future activities of the Coalition.

Nepal was chosen as the site of the 2009 ILC Conference and Assembly in recognition of the challenges and opportunities presented by political transformation following the end of a decade-long armed conflict. Land reform is an important topic in Nepal’s peace and development agenda, as evidenced by the Comprehensive Peace Accord of November 2006, the Interim Constitution of 2007, and the Joint Manifesto of six major political parties.

Working with local host organization Community Self-Reliance Centre (CSRC) and a Nepal Coordinating Committee, ILC will invite Nepali government officials and civil society representatives to draw on a wealth of experiences from the ILC global network. Global delegates will also learn Nepali experiences, including successful experiences with grassroots land rights movements (through the National Land Rights Forum - NLRF) and social forestry (through the Federation of Community Forest Users Network – FECOFUN).

The 2009 ILC Conference and Assembly comes at a critical moment in the global land context. The ways in which land is accessed and used are rapidly changing around the globe. Increased demand for agricultural commodities and ecosystem services including carbon sequestration are driving significant and sustained increases in land values.

Rising global prices of natural resources and agricultural commodities present new opportunities for millions of poor smallholders and common-pool resource users. However, increased competition for land also increases poor people’s vulnerability to losing access to land through market forces, privatization of common-pool resources and forcible displacement. Weakened livelihoods and entrenched poverty too often accompany these losses.

The International Land Coalition believes that equitable and secure land access is central to the attainment of food security for the 923 million undernourished people in the world today. The ILC and its members are committed to better understanding the impacts of these new commercial pressures on poor people worldwide, and to developing new solutions.

The event will also create space for participants to plan joint action on long-standing land issues, including the inequitable or insecure land access of vulnerable groups including women, indigenous peoples and pastoralists.

Some highlights of the Conference and Assembly are presented below:

·         Opening speech by a high-level representative of the government of Nepal;

·         Keynote speech from distinguished scholars and development practitioners

·         Plenary discussion on 21^st-Century Agrarian Reforms, with regional inputs from Asia, Africa and Latin America

·         Panel on the land policies of intergovernmental organizations and bilateral donors

·         Round-table of global experts and representatives of the Nepal government, to share lessons learned in land reform processes

·         Discussion of ILC institutional strategy and workplan; and approval of new members. 

About the International Land Coalition

The International Land Coalition (ILC) is a global alliance of civil society and inter-governmental organizations working together to promote secure and equitable access to land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue and capacity building. ILC has 65 member organizations, including UN and other international and organizations, farmer organizations, research institutes, NGOs and community-based organizations. ILC adds value to its members’ activities and to the global land context through its niche as a convenor of civil society, governmental and inter-governmental stakeholders on land policy and practice. ILC builds multi-stakeholder alliances to uphold the resource rights of poor women and men, and enables its members and partners to work together across institutional and sectoral boundaries towards the implementation of a pro-poor land agenda.