By Harold Liversage, regional land advisor, and Steven Jonckheere, land and natural resources associate for IFAD in East and Southern Africa.
From March 24-27, hundreds of representatives from governments, civil society, academia, the development community, and the private sector gathered in Washington DC and debated the profound implications the effective governance and use of land have for many of the global challenges we face today - from managing rapid urbanization to creating jobs, stimulating investment, ensuring food security, supporting climate smart agriculture, and enhancing transparency. The World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty this year came at a critical time when the global community is increasingly focused on the Post-2015 development agenda. We have a unique opportunity to put land higher on the agenda in the post-2015 context. The discussions on the post-2015 framework for sustainable development goals recognize the importance of land as a critical asset, from a gender perspective, for food security, and with respect to the rule of law. During the conference a lot of emphasis was put on discussing how private investment can provide substantial opportunities for improving rural living conditions and increasing food security, with operational standards that enable investors to document their adherence to accepted global standards.
Several experiences from IFAD supported projects and programmes were presented. This included, the experience the Vegetable Oil Development Project (VODP) in Uganda and the impact it has had on women's land rights and their livelihoods more in general. To address the specific challenges of women, VODP took specific measures to increase their opportunities for improved participation. The most important have been: i) increasing and strengthening women's access to land; ii) increasing women's membership and participation in ...
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