27 March 2015: The 16th Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty met under the theme ‘Linking Land Tenure and Use for Shared Prosperity.’ It highlighted that while land tenure affects asset distribution between men and women, generations and social groups, land-use patterns will have significant implications for socioeconomic outcomes at the household, community and/or landscape levels.

The conference, which met from 23-27 March 2015, at World Bank headquarters in Washington DC, US, focused on a range of thematic areas related to: land tenure and prosperity; climate-smart land use; impacts of large-scale, land-based investments; approaches to improving tenure security; harnessing the potential of open data for transparency; and innovations on improving access to justice. It provided an opportunity to showcase recent innovations in geospatial technologies that help to document and analyze determinants and impacts of land-use change, which are useful and relevant for policy, projects and research. It also provided an opportunity for learning and knowledge sharing, and for enhancing land policy partnerships at national and international levels.

The conference brought together over 1000 participants, including representatives from governments, the private sector, civil society and academia, to discuss a range of innovative approaches to improving land governance. The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) of the CGIAR Consortium, for instance, supported discussions on the emerging role of non-state actors in forest governance. In other panels, CIFOR scientists presented research on: the evolving architecture of global forest governance and the emerging role of markets and the private sector; the social and gendered impacts of oil palm expansion in Indonesia, as well as the impact of environmental, social and governance commitments in the oil palm sector; the environmental impacts of different property rights regimes; and inclusive agricultural business models.

The Land Policy Initiative (LPI) participated as well, organizing, inter alia, a session on the ‘Status of the implementation of the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa.’ LPI’s conference participation aimed to support implementation of the ‘AU Declaration on Land’ and the ‘Nairobi Action Plan on Large Scale Land Based Investments.’

The conference also included: an Innovations Fair on 26 March, featuring how innovations in technology and open data can help improve land governance at scale; and a MasterClass learning day on 27 March, during which hands-on classes were offered to familiarize participants with various tools and techniques meant to support policymakers. A pre-conference workshop on ‘Monitoring Land Governance’ convened immediately preceding the opening session on 23 March. [Conference Website] [Conference Agenda] [CIFOR News] [UN Economic Commission for Africa Press Release]