Several colleagues from the Land Tenure Team were in Washington D.C at the 2025 World Bank Land Conference from 5 to 8 May. As every year, the Conference was again the hotspot for networking. This edition, themed “Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action: Moving from Awareness to Action”.

Originally used as research tools, land observatories (Observatoires du Foncier) in Africa have become essential land governance mechanisms since the 1990s. Against a backdrop of growing pressure on land, increasing land-use conflicts and droughts exacerbated by climate change, land observatories are playing a key role in supporting land reforms in many countries.

On May 16, 2024, the FAO, OXFAM Novib, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), the World Bank and other partners organized an interactive session to critically reflect on how partnerships on land reforms work in practice. The session opened with a panel discussion on how multi-stakeholder partnerships have helped to trigger inclusive land reforms, particularly for land policy formulation process.

On October 29 and 30, 2024, a multi-stakeholder workshop aimed at validating the roadmap for the preparation of the national land policy was held in Yaoundé, under the high patronage of the Minister of Domains, Cadastre and Land Affairs, His Excellency Mr Henri EYEBE AYISSI. The workshop, organized by FAO in collaboration with GIZ, the International Land Coalition and other partners.

On July 4-5, 2024, a new FAO project titled “Improving governance of tenure and reducing conflicts related to cross-border transhumance in Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic” was officially launched under the Presidency of the Ministry of Domains, Cadastre and Land Affairs of Cameroon.

On May 16, 2024, the FAO, OXFAM Novib, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), the World Bank and other partners organized an interactive session to critically reflect on how partnerships on land reforms work in practice. The session opened with a panel discussion on how multi-stakeholder partnerships have helped to trigger inclusive land reforms, particularly for land policy formulation process.

A set of eight briefing notes on 'Land tenure in Asia and the Pacific' have just been published. The briefs use as a starting point the notion that land tenure is often flagged as a topic of great complexity and also a key safeguards issue in the work of FAO. As a result, the briefs are designed to give an entry-point to regional practitioners to learn about land tenure and how it links to a plethora of related themes.

In an unprecedented joint effort, these countries are paving the way for secure pastoralism in the Sahel. A recent meeting in Sélibaby in October-November 2023, orchestrated by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) in collaboration with FAO and the Mauritanian Government, expanded on the initiative launched in Tambacounda in November 2022.

In Sierra Leone the VGGT principles have guided the development of the National Land Policy and more recently the new Customary Land Act and Land Commission Act. The roadmap defined by the government, and the network of CSOs that together drive the land reform in the country, continues now with a new important step: a human rights-based land governance assessment.

In a technical workshop from 5 to 7 March 2024, in Makeni, Sierra Leone, stakeholders and coordinators of the District Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (DMSP) defined a common vision to ensure their goal for inclusive, peaceful and sustainable land governance.