1. STORIES FROM COUNTRIES: USING THE VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES         Sierra Leone establishes an Inter-Ministerial Task Force In May the Government of Sierra Leone demonstrated its commitment for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines by establishing an Inter-Ministerial Task Force of four key ministries: Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security; Lands, Country Planning and the Environment; Fisheries and Marine Resources; and Justice. The Task Force is chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and...

1. THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES 11 May marks the third anniversary of the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). These Guidelines represent an unprecedented agreement on internationally recognized principles and practices on the governance of tenure. They were prepared through negotiations by governments of countries from all regions of the world and with diverse political, economic, social, cultural and religious views. The...

Uganda pictures A pilot project to support local authorities in issuing customary certificates of occupancy in the Kasese District was launched on 31 January. Its objective is to contribute to security of tenure, especially for the poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups with a specific focus on women, girls and the youth. More than 150 people from the Kasese District and its 29 sub-counties and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban...

1. STORIES FROM THE FIELD: USING THE VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES  Using the Voluntary Guidelines in the Philippines Following the release of the ‘Review of Selected Land Laws and the Governance of Tenure in the Philippines’, the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) prepared two more studies under the Voluntary Guidelines: The Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the context of National Food Security...

1. STORIES FROM THE FIELD: USING THE VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES          Integration of the Voluntary Guidelines into Land Policy in Guatemala On 28 October 2014, in El Palmar, Quetzaltenango, the Government of Guatemala presented a new land policy, which will facilitate access to land by the rural poor and help resolve land disputes in the country. The new land policy (part of the overall Rural Development Policy “Política Nacional...