This document reports on the regional consultation for Southern America (including Mexico), held in Brasilia on 20 and 21 of May 2010 with the support of the Government of Brazil and preceded by a civil society meeting composed of organizations integrating the International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), whose recommendations have been annexed at this document.

This guide on Rural property tax systems in Central and Eastern Europe has been prepared to support governments in the design and implementation of systems to raise revenues at local levels. An increasing number of countries are introducing policies to decentralize the provision of rural services but very often local levels of government have insufficient funds to carry out these newly decentralized responsibilities. Raising revenues through property taxes on rural land represents one way to improve the capacity of local levels to deliver services.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure.

La FAO junto con varios asociados está desarrollando las Directrices voluntarias sobre la gobernanza responsable de la tenencia de la tierra y de otros recursos naturales. Las directrices voluntarias intentan proporcionar a los Estados, a la sociedad civil y al sector privado la orientación práctica sobre la gobernanza responsable de la tenencia como medios para aliviar el hambre y la pobreza, mejorar el medio ambiente, apoyar el desarrollo económico nacional y local, y reformar la administración pública.

This volume is intended to support land administrators who are involved with the design and implementation of rural property tax systems. It is based on FAO’s Land Tenure Studies Number 5, which focused on rural property tax in Central and Eastern Europe. The response to that guide showed a need for information on rural property tax systems to be more easily available in other regions. In addition, this volume places a rural property tax more explicitly in the context of decentralization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and several development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, academic and research institutions, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure.

تم إعداد هذا الدليل الخاص باللامركزية والضريبة على الملكية الريفية لمساعدة القائمين على إدارة الأراضي الذين يشاركون في تصميم وتنفيذ نظم الضريبة على الملكية الريفية، في وضع يشهد تزايد دعوة مؤسسات حيازة الأراضي إلى دعم نقل مسؤولية الخدمات إلى الحكومات المحلية. ويتوقع من عملية اللامركزية هذه أن تحسّن تقديم الخدمات عبر إيكالها إلى المستوى الحكومي الأقرب من المستفيدين منها. وإذ يتسع نطاق الخدمات التي توكل بها الحكومات المحلية، فإن العديد من البنى الحكومية الريفية ما زالت تفتقر إلى الموارد اللازمة للاضطلاع بالمسؤوليات الجديدة الملقاة على عاتقها.

FAO and its development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, the private sector, civil society, academia, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practice and associated technical guidance, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

This regional evaluation is based on discussions and outputs of the consultation meeting of Francophone Africa on the Voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources that was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on 23-25 June 2010. The opinions expressed in this evaluation are those of the participants at the consultation meeting and do not necessarily reflect those of FAO.