Fair Land Governance and the Politics of Competing Claims

About

Since the start of the global land rush in 2010, land governance in both the Global South and North has increasingly been characterized by multiple pressures and competing claims, balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social justice. Complex and interrelated crises, at local and global level, threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to land governance have been shifting across the globe: Land and housing rights are increasingly insecure for marginalized groups, climate change affects vulnerable people’s ability to build livelihoods from their land, increasing numbers of people are displaced due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, and despite many policy efforts, women experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is reneging on its efforts to curb climate change, its efforts to (financially) support the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. Meanwhile, activists have started to advocate for giving (land) rights to nature, being inspired by decoloniality and post-human approaches, and sometimes working successfully with powerful nature conservation lobbies. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels, creating conditions for competing claims on land. In this often grim and contested reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, position ourselves in debates on fair transitions and competing claims on land. And how can we work towards more socially just, and inclusive and sustainable forms of land governance?

In this course we consider and debate the multiple and competing claims of various actors (e.g. governments, private sector, communities, non-human actors) on land, how these are framed, and how they can be understood. Claims to land are typically legitimized with references to the (envisioned) purposes of land, such as agriculture, habitation, conservation, and also to so-called non-economic and non-human demands. To make matters more complex, claims generally overlap in time, being situated in the past and present, while there is also an urgent need to consider future generations (and their claims). Debates as how to govern land amidst such competing claims is very much informed by the positionality of the actors. In this course we aim to provide a space to explore these complexities, teaching participants to recognize land right practices and legal approaches whilst at the same time offering methods to develop realistic and fair land governance.

The course is organized by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), as part of the knowledge management activities of the LAND-at-scale programme, in collaboration with the IOS Fair Transitions platform (Institutions for Open Societies). LANDac is a network of organizations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. The LAND-at-scale programme is a land governance support programme for developing countries supported by RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) with the aim to contribute to fair and just tenure security and access to land and natural resources for all. The LANDac Annual Conference is part of the overall Summer School programme.

The large-scale acquisition of land in the Global South – often referred to as “land grabbing” or “the global land rush” – has received much attention from academics, policy-makers and the media in recent years. Especially following the food crisis (2003-2008) and stimulated by the growing demand for bio-energy, pressure on land in developing countries has intensified. Besides the demand for agricultural land, current land acquisitions are also related to tourism development, mineral extraction, industrial development, urbanisation and even nature conservation. Local populations are often left defenceless in this ‘rush for land’ and governments lack capacity to address these challenges – or are sometimes themselves the drivers. As a result, access to and use of land and other natural resources, particularly in the developing world, is being transformed irreversibly. Moreover, covid-19 and the measures taken worldwide to curb the pandemic are of great concern to the land governance community, as alarming observations are coming in about the loss of livelihoods and deepening poverty, but also of government crackdowns on civil society, the suspension of land administration services and irregular land acquisition.

Land governance in developing countries must deal with multiple pressures and competing claims, whilst balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social justice. This course provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the ‘land rush’ within the more general context of land governance in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We will look at the history and drivers of the process; the diversity of stakeholders and networks involved; and the global policy instruments of which inclusive land governance is an integral feature, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda; as well as highlighting the urgency of current challenges and discussing innovative governance solutions.

Set-up of the course

The course is organised by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), a network of organisations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. MSc students, PhD students and professionals from development organisations and related projects will acquire up-to-date knowledge on new land pressures and learn how to place these in broader theoretical contexts and policy debates from the local to the international level.

Topics are discussed in interactive lectures, as well as within a group assignment. The design of the course allows for participants to closely work together with professionals, experts and fellow students from a variety of backgrounds. Topics are discussed from a range of perspectives, with contributions from Dutch and international academics as well as development practitioners.

The lectures in the two-week course provide a general overview of important themes such as the global land rush, land governance, land administration and land issues in post-conflict situations. The group assignment will complement this general overview by illustrating the issues and trends in specific contexts through case study analyses.

Course leader

Wytske Chamberlain

Target group

The course is designed for Master’s students, PhD students, academics; as well as for practitioners from development organizations, projects and governments who are interested in or work in the fields of land governance, development studies, natural resource management, planning, human rights and conflict studies.

Course aim

The course provides participants with thorough knowledge of current problems as well as academic and policy debates related to land and development. Participants also build understanding of practical knowledge and possible solutions. The guiding objective is how best to optimize the link between land governance, inclusive sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

Fee info