Respecting free, prior and informed consent is a collective right that belongs to every member of a community. This means that communities have the right to make decisions through their own freely chosen representatives and their institutions, customary or otherwise, such as local authorities and local elected officials.

In 2013/2014, the Guidelines were introduced in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nepal and Mongolia through learning programmes: four contrasting contexts with different approaches to securing equitable rights to land. This new series will discuss countries’ experience towards better governance of tenure. It will highlight changes before and after the Voluntary Guidelines on Governance of Tenure (VGGT), and explain why the VGGT were a driver of change and created an opportunity.