Regional Expert Consultation on Preparation of The

Regional Expert Consultation on Preparation of the Implementation Guide on Agricultural Investment and Access to Land Bangkok, 18-20 January 2011

Voluntary Guidelines

FAO is developing Voluntary Guidelines on Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests together with a number of partners. These Voluntary Guidelines will provide guidance on responsible governance of tenure as a means of alleviating hunger and poverty, enhancing the environment, supporting national and local development and reforming public administration. The guidelines will set out principles and internationally accepted standards for the use of governments, policy makers, private sector and civil society. They will constitute a framework for policies, legislation and programmes.

The Voluntary Guidelines are being developed through an inclusive process. Fifteen consultation meetings were organized around the world in 2009 and 2010 and an e-consultation was held in 2011. Based on these consultations, a First Draft of the Voluntary Guidelines was developed. The First Draft was the basis for intergovernmental negotiations led by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in July and in October. The negotiations were seen as a success and took place in a positive, constructive and inclusive atmosphere. A strong sense of ownership of the Voluntary Guidelines was shared by members and civil society and private sector participants. During the negotiations significant progress was made with 75% of the guidelines reviewed so far. The negotiations have been adjourned and will be reconvened at later stage.

Implementation Guides

In parallel to the development of the Voluntary Guidelines, FAO is preparing technical Implementation Guides. The Implementation Implementation Guides Guides will further elaborate the general principles found in the Voluntary Guidelines, translating them into more practical tools, Thematic focuses of the mechanisms, processes and actions. They will also be looking at Implementation Guides the interrelation and interdependence of different sectors in order to include: adopt a holistic livelihood approach. As practical guides, they will - Agricultural Investments constantly refer to globally relevant field examples. and Access to Land - Forestry The Implementation Guides will be reference documents, written in - Fisheries clear and simple language. They can be used by a range of actors, - Gender namely policy makers, managers and staff of government - Indigenous Peoples and agencies, private sector specialists, and members of civil society Free, Prior and Informed organizations. The Implementation Guides will be useful tools for Consent the design of policy and reform processes, for the design of investment projects and for guiding interventions. Implementation Guide on Agricultural Investments and Access to Land

The Voluntary Guidelines will provide provisions on agricultural investments from the governance of tenure perspective. These provisions will be accompanied by technical principles, approaches, tools and examples that will be exposed in the Implementation Guide on Agricultural Investments and Access to Land. The Implementation Guide will: a) identify and illustrate key issues and principles related to governance of tenure in the context of agricultural investments; b) identify relevant actors and clarify their roles and responsibilities; c) identify approaches and tools for improved governance; and d) present practical actions for improvement. Examples and best practices will be presented in the Implementation Guide.

Expert Consultations

Three regional expert consultations (Asia, Africa and Latin America) will be organized during the drafting of the Implementation Guide. The consultations will concentrate on the preparation of the Implementation Guide with the objective to: a) disseminate information on the development of the Voluntary Guidelines and Implementation Guides and create awareness; b) identify key issues, principles and approaches c) discuss and gather feedback on the contents and outline of the Implementation Guide; d) share experiences on best practices and; e) obtain assistance in the drafting of the Implementation Guide by drawing upon participants’ technical knowledge and experience.

Participants Each Expert Consultation will bring together 20 to 25 people representing public and private sector, civil society, international organizations and academia. The invited participants will have extensive knowledge on agricultural investments, food security, land tenure, land policy, land related legislation, land administration and management as well as on governance related issues. They will have specific and technical experience from the field and will be able to provide practical advice and highlight best practices.

Outputs The Expert Consultations are organized to gather information and provide tangible technical inputs to the drafting of the Implementation Guide. The first consultation (Asia) will layout the contents of the Implementation Guide and draft an annotated outline. The second (Africa) and third (Latin America) consultations will build on these outcomes going more into technical details and reviewing the work already produced. Hence, the second consultation could partly be a “writeshop”, the third one will mainly be a “review workshop”. However, even during the last consultation, missing issues will be added.

In order to ensure concrete results and a successful consultation, the participants will be asked to bring to the meeting the following material: a) A list of themes or topics which they consider should be included in the Implementation Guide (bullet points, max. 1 page); b) Examples of existing standards or guides that would be suitable for reference within the Implementation Guide; c) A summary of case studies or good practices (max 1 page); and d) Any other material that would be of relevance to the scope of the consultation. It would be appreciated if the participants could prepare a list of these documents adding 1 or 2 sentences to each document explaining which aspect of it should be considered in the guideline.

The participants will be given an adequate opportunity to discuss their material during the working group and plenary sessions. It would be helpful if this material could be send to the organizers in advance where possible. Programme The Expert Consultations will run over two and a half days and will be structured around plenary and working group sessions. The consultations will start with a general introduction of the Voluntary Guidelines and the Implementation Guides followed by a presentation highlighting socio-economic impacts of current agricultural investments addressing in particular the right to food (1 st consultation/Asia), gender issues (2nd workshop/Africa) and indigenous people (3rd workshop/Latin America).

Organization and Facilitation The practical organization of the Expert Consultations will be taken in charge by FAO regional/sub- regional offices or by counterparts and by partners in countries. FAO Land Tenure Team will be responsible of the technical contents of the Expert Consultations.

The participants will be asked to act as rapporteurs or as moderators during the working group sessions. An external consultant will consolidate the outputs of each workshop into the drafting process.

Contact

Voluntary Guidelines Secretariat Climate, Energy and Tenure Division (NRC) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) [email protected] www.fao.org/nr/tenure/voluntary-guidelines/en