World Bank: Access to Land is Critical for the Poor

[Barun]

World Bank Group: Access to Land is Critical for the Poor
April 8, 2013
http://tinyurl.com/dyxffy2

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2013 – As the Annual World Bank Conference on
Land and Poverty convened this week in Washington, DC, The World Bank
Group issued the following statement:

By 2050, the world will have two billion more people to feed. To do
that, global agricultural production will need to increase by 70
percent. That calls for substantial new investment in agriculture-- in
smallholders and large farms—from both the public and private
sectors.

But investment alone will not be enough. High and volatile food and
fuel prices and the effects of climate change and scarce resources
make the challenge even more daunting. Unless crop yields can be
raised, many people will remain hungry, under-nourished, and unable to
seize opportunities to improve their lives.

Usable land is in short supply, and there are too many instances of
speculators and unscrupulous investors exploiting smallholder farmers,
herders, and others who lack the power to stand up for their rights.
This is particularly true in countries with weak land governance
systems.

“The World Bank Group shares these concerns about the risks associated
with large-scale land acquisitions,” said World Bank Group President
Dr. Jim Yong Kim. “Securing access to land is critical for millions of
poor people. Modern, efficient, and transparent policies on land
rights are vital to reducing poverty and promoting growth, agriculture
production, better nutrition, and sustainable development.

“We have ramped up our investments in agriculture in recent years,
helping smallholders increase productivity, reduce waste, access
markets and secure clear land rights,” continued Kim. “We are working
to provide more access to finance for women farmers and entrepreneurs.
But additional efforts must be made to build capacity and safeguards
related to land rights—and to empower civil society to hold
governments accountable.”

The World Bank Group is scaling up efforts to:

* improve land governance through increased transparency,
accountability, and participation in decision making.

* protect the rights of land owners and realize benefits for
smallholder farmers.

* promote policies that recognize all forms of land tenure and
help women achieve equal treatment in obtaining land rights.

* promote environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture
investments.

The World Bank Group has been an advocate of transparency and
fostering more open resource governance. Making basic information
about land transfers public will benefit everybody.

The World Bank Group supports and endorses the Voluntary Guidelines on
the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in
the Context of National Food Security (“the VGs”). These guidelines
are a major international instrument to inform specific policy
reforms, including our own procedures and guidance to clients. The
World Bank Group is already working with countries to implement the
VGs, with a special focus on Africa.

The World Bank has launched a consultative process with all
stakeholders to review and update our environmental and social
safeguards policies, which will be informed by the VGs. Land
acquisition is a part of this conversation.

The World Bank Group is partnering with other stakeholders to support
the drafting and adoption of Responsible Agricultural Investment
principles through engagement with the UN Global Compact and FAO's
Committee on Food Security.

The World Bank Group and its partners have also developed the Land
Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) as a diagnostic tool to assess
the status of land governance at the country level. LGAF assessments
have been carried out—or are underway—in 18 countries, 10 of them in
Africa.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World
Bank Group that focuses on the private sector, is working to promote
responsible agricultural investments by the private sector and to
expand the use of international best practices in environmental and
social risk management and transparency. IFC’s Performance Standards
were recently strengthened and address many aspects of the VGs,
including impacts of land acquisition especially with regard to
transparency, community tenure and use rights, and processes for
informed consent and fair compensation.

IFC has enhanced its due diligence and early-risk assessment
procedures to assess local food security impacts of potential
agricultural investments that require large land areas. It is also
piloting new requirements for transparency in cases of land transfers
from the government to private investors.