No mês passado, um ex-ministro do governo do Zimbábue foi preso por venda ilegal de terrenos públicos. Alguns dias depois, um tribunal da Malásia condenou por corrupção o ex-presidente de uma agência de desenvolvimento agrário de terras públicas. E, em janeiro, o governo da Estônia desmoronou em meio a alegações de corrupção em negociações de propriedades. Todos estes eventos recentes puseram em foco a ameaça crescente, porém negligenciada, da corrupção ligada a terras.

Por Hermenegildo Langa

Em África, muitas preocupações em torno da exploração de terra são semelhantes, sobretudo a necessidade de evitar conflitos assegurando a posse segura pelas comunidades. O Ruanda é um dos exemplos a seguir, mas há outras experiências, boas e más, sobre as quais vale a pena reflectir.

Autoras: Anamaria Medeiros, Mariana Vilarim (pesquisadora) e Patricia Chaves​

About 350 land actors from government, academia, civil society and business came together from more than 15 states and outside India to discuss and debate various land issues. In more than 30 sessions, about 150 speakers and panelists deliberated over 3 days around interdisciplinary land-conversations to generate important information and evidence for policy, practice and academics.

Ten important land messages that emerge from these land conversations are:

The land sector is increasingly being cited as a corruption hub. Many countries across the globe are grappling with land-related corruption that dates to the colonial years and which have metamorphosed into historical injustices and continue to be a source of conflict and violation of basic human rights. Cases of land grabbing, compensation-less expropriation, gender-based discrimination in accessing and ownership of land and related resources, illegal mining deals, bribing to access land administration services among others are not new in the lands sector.

This blog is a summary of a paper that assesses the effectiveness of a specific land tenure intervention to improve the lives of women, by asking new questions of available project data sets.

Last week the World Cocoa Foundation, a membership organization of more than 100 cocoa companies, held its annual partnership meeting in Berlin, Germany. The aim of the meeting is for governments, cocoa companies and farmers to identify and tackle the sector’s largest sustainability challenges. A 90-minute session was devoted to the topic of land tenure. The prominence of the session, as well as the seniority of the presenters – the Head of Sustainable Sourcing for Hershey’s and the Deputy Director General of Cote d’Ivoire’s Land Agency among them – is a powerful signaling effect.

By Chris Hufstader

After an audacious land grab by a foreign company, indigenous women in a remote Cambodian village struggle to regain their farms and sacred sites.

By Deborah Espinosa and Patrick Gallagher, USAID’s Land Technology Solutions Program

Persistent and pervasive gender inequality is a global development challenge that constrains economic growth, educational opportunities, and health outcomes. It jeopardizes food security and undermines poverty reduction strategies. The world over, some formal and many informal laws and customs operate to hinder women’s empowerment and thus their full potential as agents of economic and social change.