March 2016: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has highlighted a draft “General Recommendation” by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which draws attention to the situation of rural women and calls for improved integration with the Voluntary Guidelines and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to enhance gender mainstreaming in agricultural and rural development policies and programmes. In the latest edition of its Land Tenure Journal, FAO has also underscored efforts to reform land and property valuation and taxation in nine European and Central Asian countries.

The draft document, dated 4 March 2016, and titled, ‘General Recommendation 34 on the rights of rural women,’ builds on previous CEDAW “Concluding Observations” and “General Recommendations” that outline the various ways in which rural women continue to face discrimination. Describing Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as “the only provision in an international human rights treaty which specifically pertains to rural women,” the General Recommendation discusses State parties’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of rural women, pointing to specific provisions in Article 14 on rural women’s rights to participate in and benefit from rural development, health care services, economic and social life, education, employment, political and public life, land and natural resources, and adequate living conditions.

The General Recommendation calls for increased alignment with: the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and related Voluntary Guidelines on “Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries” and “Supporting the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food.” It also references previous CEDAW General Recommendations on the role of women in political and public life and conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as various SDGs touching on food and nutrition security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management.

In its regular round up of national initiatives to promote the Voluntary Guidelines, FAO, through its Governance of Tenure newsletter, reports on a community training and capacity development programme for indigenous groups in India to enhance their rights to lands, territories and resources. The training also aimed to contribute to improved networking and collaboration among indigenous organizations. From Iran, the newsletter highlights a multi-stakeholder workshop that brought together national and district level government officials with technical experts and resulted in a 26-point work-plan linking ongoing national efforts to improve governance of tenure.

Four provincial-level consultations were also held in Madagascar that brought together representatives from civil society, researchers, government representatives, development partners, the private sector, and traditional and indigenous leaders to exchange views on the future of land governance and how to apply the Voluntary Guidelines in the ongoing land reform process. An update from Nepal reports on the second national workshop on the Voluntary Guidelines, which addressed land-related barriers in post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction, as well as land tenure implications in the new national constitution.

A report from the Russian Federation highlights increased collaboration between FAO and the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) as part of a World Bank-funded project to promote the use of new technologies and crowdsourcing platforms aimed at enhancing transparency and improved public services in the property registration process. From Macedonia, the FAO highlights efforts to streamline numerous land-related laws so as to reduce the high transaction costs in the registration of agriculture land, marginalization of women producers, and promote the emergence of a strong land market. The update from Uganda highlights the establishment of the Land Development Partners Group, co-chaired by the European Union and FAO, to improve the coordination of donors providing support to the land sector and promote relevant policy frameworks, such as the Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa and the Voluntary Guidelines.

Finally, the latest thematic issue of the Land Tenure Journal, focuses on property valuation and taxation in nine European and Central Asian countries. The journal contains an overarching summary as well as good practices and lessons that were gathered as part of a joint knowledge project in the nine countries (Albania, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey) implemented with the World Bank and FAO in 2014-2015. While noting the political sensitivity of land reform and the diversity across the region in terms of the level of development of mass valuation systems utilizing land registry and cadaster records, the journal concludes that when well designed, property tax reforms “can be economically efficient and equitable,” and can help expand the resource base for local governments and national tax systems. [FAO Governance of Tenure Newsletter, March 2016] [Draft CEDAW General Recommendation 34] [Land Tenure Journal 2015-2] [IISD RS Story on Land Governance in the Russian Federation]