International Land Coalition (ILC) Core contribution

Secure tenure and access to land play a central role in the livelihood of the majority of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers. It is thus key for ensuring food security challenges as well as fundamental to addressing global challenges such as overcoming rural poverty, mitigating and adapting to climate change, achieving social and gender equality, and peace building or more broadly the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Global instruments supported by Switzerland since many years like the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests and the UN Declaration for the Rights of Peasants constitute important normative and reference frameworks. However substantial gaps remain to their implementation. SDC through its country offices addresses this challenge and promotes equitable access to land and fair land governance in a context of increased environmental stress, demographic / urbanization pressure and land related investments. In this area ILC and the members of its network try to close these gaps. 

Secure land rights, responding to the needs and protecting the rights of those who live on and from the land.

Prioritise women, whose leadership brings the greatest change.

SDC’s specific interests:

• Governance: more inclusive, participatory, effective governance. Certain SDC offices engage in better dialogue on land issues with respective governments.

• Leave no one behind: Civil society, Women, Youth, Indigenous groups are at the centre of attention.

• Innovative tools: advance digitalisation strengthens accountability and supports CSOs.

GOVERNANCE: People’s organisations take the lead or the driving force in sustainable, innovative and influential National Land Coalitions

ACCOUTABILITY: Key actors produce and use people's data and countries use people's data to report on progress

ADVOCACY: Global and regional processes recognise the right to land as key to addressing the climate emergency and other global challenges

Erwartete Resultate:  

·  30 “National Land Coalitions” are sustainable, innovative and influential

·  ILC network members, especially people’s organisations, have stronger capacity to provoke inclusive change

·  Trainings, guidance, capacity building, peer-to-peer country meeting, expert coaching, data gathering

·  Improve database, etc. Make LandEx the worlds’ number 1 database

·  Communication / advocacy campaigns such as Land Rights Now, Stand for Her Land Campaign

·  30 “National Land Coalitions” are sustainable, innovative and influential

·  ILC network members, especially people’s organisations, have stronger capacity to provoke inclusive change

·  Trainings, guidance, capacity building, peer-to-peer country meeting, expert coaching, data gathering

·  Improve database, etc. Make LandEx the worlds’ number 1 database

·  Communication / advocacy campaigns such as Land Rights Now, Stand for Her Land Campaign

·  30 “National Land Coalitions” are sustainable, innovative and influential

·  ILC network members, especially people’s organisations, have stronger capacity to provoke inclusive change

·  Trainings, guidance, capacity building, peer-to-peer country meeting, expert coaching, data gathering

·  Improve database, etc. Make LandEx the worlds’ number 1 database

·  Communication / advocacy campaigns such as Land Rights Now, Stand for Her Land Campaign

·  ILC will also collaborate to establish a global land observatory, ensuring that people's data is represented at the highest possible levelthe highest possible level.

Resultate von früheren Phasen:  

·       Successful partnerships led by ILC members influenced the adoption of 83 ‘people-centred’ policies and laws on land rights in 29 countries.

·       ILC has developed a monitoring tool, LandEx, which enables members to gather people’s data on land rights to hold governments and corporations accountable.

·       Over 50 national platforms, led by ILC members, have worked with allies beyond the network to build bridges between governments and local communities. Together, they have successfully influenced global and national policies.

·       The collective work of ILC’s network has helped secure land rights for 1.7 million people and 100 million hectares of land.

·       “Land Rights Now” campaign led to significant law and policy changes in Liberia, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.

·       The National Engagement Strategy in Bolivia helped securing approx. 273’000 ha of territorial land in favour of indigenous peoples.

·      Participatory Rangelands Management Project secured more than 246’773 ha of rangelands for pastoralists in Tanzania and Kenya. 

Strategic Partners contributing to ILC: SDC, European Commission, Germany and IFAD

Strong synergies with GPFS projects: “Transformative Land Investment”, “Human Rights in Food Systems”, IGAD Land Governance Project and the support to the Global Land Tool Network. In addition there is targeted collaboration and synergies with specific SDC priority countries / regions where land governance is part of the country strategies (Mekong Region, Mozambique).

Phase 1 01.01.2022 - 31.12.2024   (Completed)