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Member guest blog: Landlessness is not forever

By Robert Mitchell, Landesa

After more than a decade meeting with government officials and families in rural areas of the developing world, I have yet to encounter anyone who would discount the importance of land, or who would challenge the fact that landlessness is a severely disempowering condition for the rural poor.

It’s easy enough to grasp the concept that land is important, and that it’s especially important to rural families in the developing world. After all, most poor rural families that lack land of their own earn their living by working as day laborers on other people’s land, and land is a primary source of power for their employers. Landlessness and land insecurity, the lot of hundreds of millions of rural people worldwide, is a defining personal and social characteristic, greatly limiting their current options and future prospects.

So much seems clear. What is much less expected—but encountered all too often—is the attitude that landlessness is an immutable “given,” a static social arrangement that cannot be changed. The sky is blue, the town is a ten-hour walk from the village, and a third of the village is and will forever remain landless. Their children and their children’s children will know only landlessness and agricultural wage labor.

This is the assumption of most people I’ve met in the developing world, including government officials, rural development professionals, landowners and even (or especially) landless families themselves. Such attitudes prevail even among progressive thinkers who would like to see landlessness eradicated. But what good is there in hoping for change that shows no sign of coming? Isn’t it better to work on change that can happen, even if such change doesn’t address the root problem of landlessness?

I’ve learned the key to countering this assumption is to imagine—and then test and demonstrate—practical, politically and financially feasible programs through which governments can help landless families gain access and secure rights to land, even modest plots of land. Once a program begins to succeed—and families walk for the first time on land that is theirs, and begin planning what they will produce on the land—there is very often a change not only among these families, but among government land officials. It is truly moving to see seasoned officials marvel at the fact that landlessness can actually be tackled and eradicated.

As crucial as this change in thinking is, shifting the cultural and policy mindset is only the beginning. For a program to reach large numbers of families, it must be well designed, scalable and well monitored, and must receive sufficient staff and other resources. The process cannot be scaled so quickly as to sacrifice quality and attention to detail. Special attention must be paid to ensuring that the process empowers women within the family. Attention must also be given to providing channels through which families can receive information, for example, on which local vegetables and fruits are most easily grown and most nutritious, as well as access to inexpensive improvements, such as drip irrigation, that can greatly enhance the land’s productivity during dry seasons.

As we forge ahead, our shared opportunity is to continually challenge stubborn assumptions that land ownership is limited to only the privileged few. At Landesa, we believe land rights are an asset that can be expanded for all, and that this expansion will unlock potential for generations to come.

Water for Life

Water, though paramount to the survival of all living organisms on Earth, is often taken for granted in the developed world. Being so readily available and safe to drink through the tap or out of the bottle, many westerners overlook the absolute necessity of clean, accessible water. Water is responsible for the growth our crops and the health of our livestock. Water can power our cities and potentially fuel our cars. With too many people relying on the same source, water can cause tension and conflict. Without water all together, this planet simply cannot survive.

In essence, water is life.

But nowhere is this notion more apparent than in the developing world, where access to water is legitimately a matter of life and death. Today, 894 million people live without access to reliable and clean water sources. This number, when compounded by the 2.5 billion people who live without basic sanitation, results in 1.5 million deaths per year. 2,000 to 5,000 liters of water is required to produce only one person’s food per day, a requirement that certainly contributes to the figure of 1 billion people currently suffering from chronic hunger. Without this resource to hydrate our bodies, keep our hands and homes clean, or produce our food, survival is impossible.

This is why we celebrate World Water Day every March 22. Since 1992 the world has observed the absolute necessity of the most essential resource on Earth; water. From “Walks for Water” fundraisers to online discussions raising awareness about water issues, this day is made for events that celebrate water around the world. This year’s theme is “Water for Cities, Responding to the Urban Challenge.” As such, the city of Seattle is fully committed to this year’s World Water Day with an all day forum and exposition located in Seattle City Hall. And in case you missed Global Washington’s email, Seattle’s Chief Sealth International High School is devoting this entire week to a festival consisting of events focused on water.

Although water is often over looked, it is still a prerequisite for happiness and prosperity, and deserves to be celebrated as such. I was lucky enough to experience the comfort and joy attained through the access of clean water in my time in Damaraland, Namibia. While volunteering on an elephant conservation project aimed at reducing conflict between those loveable giants and the people with whom they share the desert, my fellow volunteers and I constructed an elephant-proof wall around a man-made well.

Water being a scarce commodity in the deserts of Namibia, elephants are known to demolish plumbing and cave in wells in their attempt to consume what water they can. Such destruction can very easily lead to lethal human retaliation for the disruption of vital access to water. I watched as the inhabitants of the nearby farms and villages, bringing their herds of goats and sheep for a much needed water break as they grazed the hot and arid landscape. With appreciation etched on their faces as they realized this well was now a reliable source of water for themselves and their herds, I came to realize just how important this water was for the survival of these herders and for the survival of all natural beings.

Happy World Water Day everyone!

Feeding the Future

With global food prices at an all time high, and rising, the 1 billion people around the world currently living with chronic hunger stand to get company in the coming months. That is, unless the developed world is able to help to effectively sort out and deal with the root causes of global hunger. Luckily the international community has already been working on a solution.

After the financial crisis and soaring food prices caused riots in 30 countries, the G8 decided to make addressing food insecurity a priority through investments in agricultural development. In the United States, this decision lead to the development of an agriculturally oriented initiative called Feed the Future. While shifting focus away from food aid, the United States endeavored to create a locally owned, multilaterally supported initiative committed to addressing hunger through increased agricultural output and increased trade and economic development.

In order to accomplish this goal, Feed the Future sets out on a path of collective action, leveraging the cooperation of donors, civil-society, the private sector, and the local governments. Such a cooperative model will be integral in promoting the local ownership of agricultural development projects funded through Feed the Future. Input from all stakeholders will be sure to maximize the impact of these projects through the delineation of key priorities, sustainable implementation of the projects, and the use of new and innovative technologies.

In line with Feed the Future’s key principles of local ownership and multilateral cooperation, a central component of the initiative is a multilateral fund named the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GASFP). GASFP distributes its funding (about $925 million to date) to both the public and private sectors to assist in the development of agricultural development strategies.

Working towards local ownership on a bilateral level, the United States is currently working with its targeted countries to develop an implementation plan. The U.S. is reaching out to local governments, key civil society organizations, businesses, and multilateral organizations to develop the most effective and sustainable multi-year development plan. To bolster these national agricultural plans, the U.S. is working with key regional actors to develop regional plans as a means to open markets, instigate economic growth, and address sources of hunger.

With time and a sustained investment in the locally focused and multilaterally supported Feed the Future Initiative, the Millennium Development Goals of reducing hunger and poverty are infinitely closer to being achieved.