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This is the final version of the Country Study Outline for the research papers which will be produced out of the Land Watch Campaign. This document was discussed in strategy meeting where focal points for each of the 6 countries:Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines.
On the first day of the plannin-meeting, the participants were asked to express their expectations from this activity as well as to provide updates on tehir organizations.
Land Watch Asia is a two – year campaign from 2007-2009, that aims to map peoples’ access to land in the region through advocacy, research and constituency-building.
The research process will review existing political and legal frameworks; initiatives and mechanisms for participation by various actors in governance processes. It also intends to take stock of social movements and civil society actions which have attempted to facilitate the communities’ access to land.
The research process also aims to facilitate community-building among advocates on the national and regional levels. It hopes to help advocates sharpen existing strategies in assisting the exercise of rights around access to right through more qualitative data-gathering and consultations with stakeholders.
The research process is also a space for the formulation of new actions which take into consideration existing resources and commitment of stakeholders; and local and national expressions of recent changes of geopolitics and globalization. With such participatory and strategic approach, the research process hopes to engender a more palpable impact to both policy-making processes, the communities, and to the advocates themselves.
Advocacies and campaigns for equitable land distribution; access to resources and services; meaningful participation in governance process and the exercise of a range of human rights in general have been ongoing for decades. While Land Watch Asia similarly surfaces challenges and opportunities in affording access to land, it aims to do so while taking into account the significant changes which have taken place in the last few years.
Among them is the globalization process which have created new processes and issues which to some extent expanded, if not overshadowed work on the more basic issues such as those relating to access to land. Free trade agreements and the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, for instance have had a profound effect the farmers’ practices and productivity, thus adding a burden in their struggle on land ownership.
The parallel struggle towards the indigenous peoples’ rights access to their ancestral domains dovetails with that of the farming sector. However this has not always resulted in solidarities with the farmers. Instead it even led to the eruption of conflict among already marginalized groups
Land Watch Asia also zooms in its lens to innovative governance processes in improving current situations of access to land. These processes have largely been informed by a multi-stakeholder approach which have also emerged in recent years and have been seen as the development of a horizontal relationship of actors such as the government, private sector, civil society including donor agencies, working on different issues.
Based on this review of structures, processes, capacities and resources, Land Watch Asia would identify common issues and strategies which can be further collectively pursued and strengthened, as part of the long-standing struggle towards access to land.
ESTABLISHING LAND WATCH ASIA
A Regional Planning Meeting
28-30 March 2007, Hotel Dominique, Tagatay City, Philippines
Rationale/Background:
In October 2006, the International Land Coalition (ILC), together with the Consortium of Agrarian Reform (KPA) and the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) organized a regional meeting to analyze the current trends on access to land and agrarian reform in the region, and to identify major areas of interventions to address such gaps.
After the presentation and discussion of country reports and case studies, and consideration of priority issues and key actors, participants discussed what should be ILC’s main objectives in two of its existing work areas: (a) capacity-building and coalition strengthening, and (b) policy, advocacy and monitoring. This discussion yielded two main strategic areas in which ILC should focus efforts with the network in Asia. In reference to the second area, the participants defined ILC’s main objectives as follows:
- Influence formulation of laws and policies that can support land access; resist those which are hostile to people’s land rights and agrarian reform
- Increase effectiveness of implementation, where laws and policies provide for more secure land rights
- Build support for land access at multiple levels (i.e., linking national-regional-global efforts) and among multiple stakeholders
In November 2006, during the Council Meeting of ILC, KPA and ANGOC representatives provided an overview of the outputs of the Asian regional meeting. The need for Land Watch has been re-affirmed by the Council Members, and was identified as one of the priority areas of ILC’s strategic plan for the next four years.
On the other hand, ANGOC is implementing a Land Watch campaign in the Asian region. This initiative aims to establish a platform for generating and sharing knowledge on strategies, approaches and tools to enhance capacities of CSOs in pursuing access to land.
Thus, the ILC global objective of Land Watch and ANGOC’s regional initiative make a perfect fit and complement each other. It is in this context that this regional planning meeting in Asia is being proposed.
Objectives of the Planning-Meeting:
This planning-meeting aims to:
- Discuss and agree on the campaign strategy and outputs of Land Watch Asia
- Formulate country and regional actions plans
- Discuss and agree on the Land Watch platform
See Programme below:
Land Watch Asia Provisional Programme
Land Watch Asia is a two – year campaign that aims to map peoples’ access to land in the region by reviewing existing political and legal frameworks; initiatives and mechanisms for participation by various actors in governance processes. Aside from presenting the “lay of the land,” it also intends to take stock of social movements and civil society actions which have attempted to facilitate the communities’ access to land.
Advocacies and campaigns for equitable land distribution; access to resources and services; meaningful participation in governance process and the exercise of a range of human rights in general have been ongoing for decades. While Land Watch Asia similarly surfaces challenges and opportunities in affording access to land, it aims to do so while taking into account the significant changes which have taken place in the last few years.
Among them is the globalization phenomenon which has created new processes and issues which to some extent expanded, if not overshadowed work on the more basic issues such as those relating to access to land. Free trade agreements and the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, for instance have had a profound effect the farmers’ practices and productivity, thus adding a burden in their struggle on land ownership.
The parallel struggle towards the indigenous peoples’ rights access to their ancestral domains dovetails with that of the farming sector. However this has not always resulted in solidarities with the farmers. Instead it even led to the eruption of conflict among already marginalized groups
Land Watch Asia also zooms in its lens to innovative governance processes in improving current situations of access to land. These processes have largely been informed by a multi-stakeholder approach which have also emerged in recent years and have been seen as the development of a horizontal relationship of actors such as the government, private sector, civil society including donor agencies, working on different issues.
Based on this review of structures, processes, capacities and resources, Land Watch Asia would identify common issues and strategies which can be further collectively pursued and strengthened, as part of the long-standing struggle towards access to land.
