October 2021

Legal tools newsletter

The Legal tools newsletter is sent out every three to four months to keep you updated on Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment, a collaborative initiative to strengthen local rights in natural resource investments.

In this issue we focus on legitimate tenure rights, artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC, and women's land rights in Africa.

Community boundary mapping in Burma, 2016 (Photo credit: USAID Land).

Driving change on land issues through action-research

Dear colleague,

Addressing land issues is critical to promoting rights, transforming food systems, confronting climate change and protecting biodiversity. Building on years of action-research with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America, we teamed up with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) to reflect on a few recurring challenges and possible ways forward.

A new FAO legal paper explores how tackling the most difficult land problems requires not just securing precarious rights, but rebalancing the rights and obligations of different groups. A set of FAO legal briefs discusses the interface between land and mining rights, and between land and labour rights, and provides recommendations on respecting legitimate tenure rights, addressing gender issues, implementing legal empowerment approaches and promoting public participation in law reform.

We will be using these resources to drive change in our work with government and civil society. We hope they might be of wider interest too – please feel free to get in touch should the issues resonate.

– Lorenzo Cotula
Principal researcher and team leader, Legal Tools team

Blogs and webinars

Food market in Makenene in Mbam-et-Inoubou department, Cameroon.

Food Systems Summit: Implications for global food governance

The recent UN Food Systems Summit raised questions about global governance models in a policy area fundamental to everyone’s lives. Lorenzo Cotula argues that, without clear decision-making rules and effective structures to manage power differentials, bringing diverse actors together produces ‘capture’ rather than inclusion.

Mining cobalt better

While the post-COVID-19 world looks at ‘building back better’, little has changed for artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Reflecting on a collaboration with DRC-based Afrewatch, Abbi Buxton discusses the risks associated with the nascent efforts to improve the sector. (Also available in French.)

Some of Zambia’s 288 chiefs and land custodians gather for customary land governance training in late 2020.

Zambia’s chiefs champion gender equality in land and natural resource governance

Guest blogger Zenebech Mesfin describes the efforts of Zambian traditional leaders to promote gender equality in the management of land and natural resources at the national level. This is the seventh blog in a series looking at ways to strengthen women’s access to and control over land in Africa.

Civil society perspectives on the living income differential (LID) for cocoa producers

This blog highlights the key messages from a recent IIED webinar (as part of our EPIC project). Speakers from INKOTA, Inades-Formation Côte d'Ivoire, SEND-Ghana and the Cocoa Abrabopa Association (CAA) discussed whether the LID can increase cocoa producers’ income to help them achieve a living income, and explored ways to get producers' voices heard in the LID’s implementation.

USAID supported traditional leaders who participated in a series of dialogues.

Traditional leaders in Zambia shift gender norms and strengthen women’s land rights

Guest blogger Patricia Malasha describes how community-level dialogues uprooted harmful gender norms that hinder women’s rights to land. This is the sixth blog in a series looking at ways to strengthen women’s access to and control over land in Africa.

Project updates

ALIGN: Advancing Land-based Investment Governance

As part of the ALIGN project, IIED and the Columbia Centre for Sustainable Investment (CCSI) have been implementing or developing responsive support initiatives with governments and civil society organisations in 8 African and Asian countries. In Tanzania, for example, we have been working with the Tanzania Natural Resources Forum and Tanzania Land Alliance to organise community-based multi-stakeholder dialogues in Kilwa district and a national symposium with policy makers. Aimed at providing an alternative forum to the courts to resolve land disputes, the local dialogues created a space for communities to raise concerns about large-scale investments in agriculture. The follow-on symposium explored ways to improve national systems related to land-based investment processes.

Rethinking investment treaties and dispute settlement

IIED, CCSI and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) made a technical submission to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)’s Working Group III on Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform. The submission discussed reform issues related to third-party funding and responded to a call for comments on a draft note prepared by the UNCITRAL Secretariat.

Strengthening land governance, local to global

IIED made a submission to a public consultation on the draft General Comment on land and economic, social and cultural rights, which is being developed by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The General Comment will clarify the obligations of states relating to land governance under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Strengthening environmental justice in Ethiopia

IIED together with colleagues from the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law and DLA Piper pro bono assistance have provided technical support to the Ethiopian Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission to develop draft rules of procedure for the soon-to-be established Federal Environmental Tribunal. As the continuation of work on the Tribunal Establishment Bill, the Procedural Rules set out mechanisms to facilitate adjudication of environmental disputes, ensure access for a wide range of applicants and realise the constitutionally protected right to a clean and healthy environment.

FAO legal paper and legal brief series

Tenure rights and obligations – Towards a more holistic approach to land governance

Addressing the most difficult land problems requires not just securing precarious rights but rebalancing the rights and obligations of different groups. Published by the FAO, this study explores the limits to rights – and the interplay of rights and obligations – in land and natural resource governance. Drawing on legal developments from diverse thematic and geographic contexts, it aims to provide conceptual foundations for land governance reform.

Protecting legitimate tenure rights: from concepts to practice

There is greater recognition that policies and projects should respect legitimate tenure rights. But this concept has often proved difficult to operationalise. This FAO legal brief discusses the meaning and implications of recognising legitimate tenure rights, then outlines ways forward for States, civil society, the private sector and development agencies.

Promoting participatory law-making for recognition of legitimate tenure rights

Law reform often involves political choices requiring public participation and consultation. This FAO legal brief outlines how governments and civil society can promote participatory law-making, discussing the benefits of participatory approaches and making recommendations on ensuring citizens’ voices are heard. (Also available in French)

Legal empowerment to promote legitimate tenure rights

This FAO legal brief outlines how state and civil society-led legal empowerment initiatives can help secure land and resource rights, strengthen governance, improve access to legal systems and increase citizen participation in decision making. (Also available in French)

Tenure rights in large-scale and artisanal mining

The VGGT do not directly cover mineral resources but they clarify that States may wish to consider the governance of mineral resources in their efforts to implement the VGGT. Yet, their relevance to the mining sector has often been overlooked. This FAO legal brief explores how implementing the VGGT could help address recurring challenges affecting the mining sector.

Land and labour: Agricultural workers’ tenure rights

Land and labour rights can intersect in multiple ways. Investments in large-scale plantations often entail trade-offs between job creation and compressions of land rights, while casual or seasonal employment can create precarity not only in workers’ employment but also in their tenure rights. This FAO legal brief explores these issues and reflects on the role of international labour conventions and soft-law land-related instruments in addressing them.

Supporting an enabling legal environment for women’s empowerment in food and agriculture

This FAO legal brief discusses the role of national legislation in supporting women’s empowerment in agriculture and food security. It explores the conditions needed for legislation to achieve positive social change, highlights successful legal measures taken, and suggests steps legislators can take to strengthen women’s opportunities to participate in, benefit from, and achieve empowerment in food and agriculture. (Also available in French)

Publications and briefings

Islands of responsibility? Corporate sourcing of artisanal cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Cobalt is an essential element within supply chains driving the technological transition to electric vehicles. A majority of the world’s estimated cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 10–30% of the country’s annual production mined artisanally. Developed in collaboration with DRC-based Afrewatch, this issue paper presents local perspectives on the priority changes needed to improve governance in the sector. (Also available in French)

Routes to change: rural women’s voices in land, climate and market governance in sub-Saharan Africa

Women remain underrepresented in most decision-making processes across the globe. In the Global South, rural women tend to bear the bulk of the impacts of poverty and climate change, often without any opportunity to voice their needs or priorities. This report presents a cross-sectoral analysis of three recent case studies to map out most effective approaches for strengthening rural women’s voices in decision making.

Why simple solutions won’t secure African women’s land rights

Many efforts to strengthen women’s land rights have primarily focused on a single approach: individually or jointly titling land in women’s name. This briefing note discusses why this approach is not delivering change for women, and suggests that governments and development actors adopt more context-specific strategies.

Land reforms in Guinea: challenges and prospects for the recognition of legitimate rights

This briefing note, now available in English, makes recommendations for the ongoing land law reforms in Guinea, outlining ways to recognise and protect legitimate land rights in the face of large-scale investments. (Also available in French)