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Shortly after the proposed country outline study was presented by Tony Quizon (ANGOC/ CAARD), a workshop was held, grouping the participants into two: South East Asia and South Asia. Below are their feedback. The final version of the country study outline was produced before the strategic planning meeting ended on March 29, 2007.
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.
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.
