Construimos una lectura sudamericana sobre el acceso a la tierra y territorio

Informe de Bolivia que hace parte de Serie de informes sobre la situación de las mujeres rurales en los distintos países de la región: datos oficiales, información sobre políticas e institucionalidad, acciones adelantadas por las organizaciones y grupos de mujeres para proteger sus derechos en el mundo rural y recomendaciones a gobiernos, medios de comunicación y sociedad civil.

En la mayoría de los países, la desigualdad en materia de tierras está aumentando. Peor aún, las nuevas medidas y análisis publicados en este informe de síntesis muestran que la desigualdad de la tierra es significativamente mayor a la que se había informado anteriormente. Esta tendencia amenaza directamente los medios de vida de unas 2 500 millones de personas en todo el mundo que se dedican a la agricultura de pequeña escala.

The transition of farms and ranches to the next generation has generated considerable attention and concern. Over the past 30 years, public and private institutions across the U.S. have introduced policies and programs to help farms without identified family successors achieve successful transfers by connecting them with new farmers through “farm link” services. However, the effectiveness of these services is unclear and assessment is needed.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (FAO, 2012 – referred to in this guide as ‘the Guidelines’) were unanimously adopted by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2012, with subsequent broad international recognition and support. Their strength rests on the unique inclusive and participatory process through which they were developed.

This Topic Guide covers: the trends in and drivers of large-scale land acquisition, and the associated costs, risks and benefits; the provision of and access to more accurate data on large-scale land acquisitions, and key international and regional initiatives to provide guidelines to enhance security of tenure and promote good quality investment; land reform issues such as land tenure regularisation and land administration systems; and land issues in the context of fragile states, and conflict and post-conflict situations.

Thispaper characterizes the structural and rural transformation of the Asia and the Pacific region(APR), highlighting the implications for rural youth opportunities and challenges, and identifying andelaborating on the characteristics, opportunities and challenges related to rural youth inclusion. Nearly half of the population in Asia is urban, with the proportion projected to rise to 59 per cent by 2035.

Significant progress has been made over the past decade or so in the development of policy and legislation that support the recognition of customary rights to land, with important legal rulings in Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, South Sudan, and South Africa. At the same time, the strengthening of communities’ traditional rights to use resources has progressed through community forest reserves and community conservation areas.

Across sub-Saharan Africa agriculture is the backbone of the economy, accounting for 30-40% of nations’ gross domestic product, and a leading source of jobs for over two-thirds of the population. Improving the
productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture on the millions of farms that cover the African continent is essential for ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity in the region.

The economic and social organization of rural societies has a high level of gender differentiation in terms of rights, activities
and responsibilities. This interacts with other aspects of social stratification based on factors such as ethnicity, statutory groups, religion and level of wealth. Consequently, women do not represent a homogeneous category, but a group whose interests are sometimes conflicting and which are equally subject to power relations. Some observations:

While academics have largely shifted their focus from ‘women in development’ to addressing women and men as
part of broader ‘gendered’ social relations, this shift is yet to be fully translated into development practice. This
requires development practitioners to be sensitive to local contexts and to the various inequalities they contain
with regards to land rights and land use (based on class, gender, age, migration status etc.).

While nearly 80 percent of food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is produced by smallholder farmers, the Bank negates the importance of small-scale farming for sustainable rural development and food security. Family farmers account for 80 percent of all holdings in the developing world, therefore smallholders’ own investments—not FDIs—are the main force sustaining agriculture and should be encouraged.