Dear friends,

On 14 January 2013, Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, at the Twenty-second session of the Human Rights Council at the General Assembly of the United Nations commended the work on the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure. 

“This marks a new era for international cooperation on land issues”, states the report. 

Read the whole report: English

UN General Assembly encourages countries to give due consideration to implementing the Voluntary Guidelines 

On 21 December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which:

• Encourages countries to give due consideration to implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, as endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security on 11 May 2012.
• Requests the relevant entities of the United Nations system, in accordance with their respective mandates and in the most cost-effective manner, to ensure the speedy dissemination and promotion of the Guidelines.

This resolution on “Agriculture Development and Food Security” was proposed by the Second Committee and is contained as a draft in its report, which is available here:

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Governance of Tenure Technical Guide 1: Governing land for women and men - now available online 

The first Governance of Tenure Technical Guide was launched on 14 January 2013 at the Gender and Land Governance Conference, in Utrecht, Netherlands. This technical guide provides detailed material to support implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines by providing guidance in relation to the Guidelines’ principle of gender equality in tenure governance. The guide focuses on equity and on how land tenure can be governed in ways that address the different needs and priorities of women and men and particularly focuses on the mainstreaming of gender issues to achieve more gender-equitable participation in the processes and institutions that underlie all decision-making about land. 

Download the publication here: English 
  

Download the thematic Governance of Tenure brief here: English   
Interested in working with us? We are searching for a Land Tenure Officer 

Would you like to transform FAO knowledge products into country-level results and impacts? Do you have an advanced university degree in land tenure, land administration or related field, 7 years of relevant experience, including in developing and transition countries, working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one other UN language? Then we might be searching for you! The detailed vacancy announcement is available here:

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FAO is dedicated to recruiting the best staff possible, hiring internationally minded people to carry out its work toward the eradication of hunger.  We invite you to explore the opportunities and benefits of working with us:

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Right to land - Right of men and women: experiences with paralegals in Mozambique 

The video presents an overview of the gender issues in Mozambique and the major challenges faced by rural women when it comes to access land and natural resources. Through interviews with stakeholders -- from the Minister of Justice to the paralegals and peasants in rural areas -- the documentary highlights the efforts that have been made to overcome the challenges and promote a more gender equitable access to land and natural resources. The Paralegal Training Programme implemented by the Juridical and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ) of the Ministry of Justice with FAO's support is a practical example of such efforts. It underlines the commitment of both partners in the promotion of legal empowerment of rural people, as a key element in the promotion of social justice, gender equality and economic development that will benefit not just men or women, but the whole society.

Watch the video in Portuguese with English subtitles