Land, conflict and the challenge of pro-poor peace-building
Critical issues for discussion
There is a lot of contention over approaches to land reform policy, in terms of how to involve the state, the market and communities; but what matters most for a socio-economically and politically sustainable solution, is that the policy is genuinely 'pro-poor'.
Land is one of the most contested natural resources for three main reasons: first as a place to grow food and provide other economic goods such as fibre; and now also as a result of competition from the animal-feed and biofuel industries which have led to the rise global "land grabbing"; second, because of access to other natural resources, such as water, timbre and minerals; and third, as both home and territory, with social and spiritual importance to communities and larger societies. As a result of former conflicts between stakeholders, many attempts have been made to link peace-building settlements and processes with land reform policy. However, to date there remains little consensus among policy experts, and on the ground there continues to be much contention and renewed conflict over land reform policies that have been tried.
Dividing approaches into either state-driven, market-based or community-based is unhelpful, as ultimately resolving conflict will require engagement of all three institutions, and whatever combination works will depend on the particularities of the case at hand. However, we argue that for any land policies to be socio-economically and politically sustainable in the future, they will have to be pro-poor as well.
This paper discusses 9 key themes in pro-poor land policy: (1) Protection or transfer of land-based wealth in favour of the poor; (2) Transfer of land-based political power; (3) Class-consciousness; (4) Historical; (5) Gender-sensitive; (6) Ethnic-sensitive; (7) Productivity-increasing; (8) Livelihood-enhancing; (9) Rights-securing.
Contents
1. Land, conflict and development
2. Key Themes in Pro-Poor Land Policy
3. Concluding Remarks
About the authors
Jennifer Franco
Jennifer Franco is a researcher working on land and rural politics issues. After receiving a PhD in politics in 1997 in the US, she began working with the Philippine solidarity group in the Netherlands, and with local peasant organizations, rural community organizing and human rights groups, and research outfits in the Philippines in two regions faced with extreme landlord resistance to redistributive agrarian reform. She began working with TNI in the mid-2000s, on several projects on various topics involving local peasant movement and rural reform activists, human rights activists, and activist researchers from various countries and regions. In 2010 she joined the College of Humanities and Development (COHD) at the China Agricultural University in Beijing as an adjunct faculty and travels there twice a year to give seminars and work with junior faculty and MA and PhD students. She has lived in the US, Philippines, Canada and the Netherlands.
Jun Borras
Saturnino 'Jun' M Borras Jr. is a political activist and academic who has been deeply involved in rural social movements in the Philippines and internationally since the early 1980s. Borras was part of the core organising team that established the international peasant movement La Via Campesina and has written extensively on land issues and agrarian movements. Jun is also Adjunct Professor, COHD at China Agricultural University, Beijing; a Fellow for Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy in California and Coordinator for Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS).
Recent publications from Agrarian Justice
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The right to say noAs European Union (EU) member states consider the implications of environmentally risky shale gas development (fracking), negotiations are underway for a controversial EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which would grant investors the right to challenge governments’ decision to ban and regulate fracking. |
Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in EuropeLand grabbing is widely assumed to be happening only in the global South, but an in-depth analysis by a team of researchers shows that land grabbing is also expanding into Europe. |
Sons and Daughters of the EarthIn the face of violent dispossession and incorporation into an exploitative labor regime, indigenous peasant families in northern Guatemala are struggling to access land and defend their resources as the basis of their collective identity. |
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