Report of the 2008 global meeting - IFAD

Section 4: Partnership on
thematic areas
On the second day of the Farmers’ Forum global meeting, participants divided into
groups to discuss issues related to access and tenure of land, the role and capacity of
FOs in shaping public policies, and the challenges and eventual opportunities of
climate change for agriculture. The purpose of these thematic group sessions was to
orient IFAD-FO partnerships on these issues. A synthesis of the debate is provided in
the following sections.
4.1 Access to land: trends, challenges and opportunities – role and
perspectives of FOs
Discussions during this thematic working group of the Farmers’ Forum sought to receive
FOs’ feedback on IFAD’s own draft policy on “Promoting equitable access to land and
tenure security for rural poverty reduction”, which was shared with participants. It also
aimed at discussing current dynamics of access to land and control of natural resources,
at considering follow-up action to the International Conference on Agrarian Reform
(ICARRD) and at suggesting ways to involve FOs in consultations on the joint African
Union, Economic Commission for Africa, and African Development Bank initiative on
a pan-African land policy framework.
Discussions opened with a brief introduction to the problems faced
by smallholder farmers in relation to land access and tenure by three
member organizations of the Farmers’ Forum Steering Committee 16 –
ROPPA, La Via Campesina and the Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA).
The ROPPA presentation focused on the plight of women, who
often have no access or ownership rights to land, even though
52 per cent of all farmers are women. The presentation also focused
on the centrality of family farming but the need to also go beyond
family farming.
“If a woman is unfortunate enough
to lose her husband, if he dies, and
if the children are under age, then
the land goes back to the family of
the husband and the woman is left
without anything. She has no land
and no access to land anymore.”
Korotoumou Gariko Sanogo, , President,
Membre du collège de Femmes du ROPPA
“In Africa we truly believe that this is a fundamental problem because it is not a
question really of access, it is the question of ownership of the land because women
work with their husbands on family farms and they have access to the land as long
as the husband is alive. But if a woman is unfortunate enough to lose her husband,
if he dies, and if the children are under age, then the land goes back to the family of
the husband and the woman is left without anything. She has no land and no access
to land anymore.”
Korotoumou Gariko Sanogo, President, Membre du collège de Femmes du ROPPA
16 Ms Korotoumou Gariko Sanogo, President, Membre du collège de Femmes (ROPPA); Mr Pedro Rafael Alegria
Moncada, La Via Campesina (LVC); and Mr Crispino T. Aguelo, President, PAKISAMA (member of AFA).
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