Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Marginalized rural communities attempting to tackle specific problems have
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little access to the experience of other communities that have overcome
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similar problems. This invaluable knowledge and experience needs to
acquire broader relevance and generate greater impact.
The primary function of the Agrarian Reform Network (ARnet) is the
collection, analysis and dissemination of information on grass-roots
initiatives in resource rights, reform and tenurial security. ARnet
includes such subjects as land redistribution; titling; securing rights to
land, water, common property resources and other productive assets;
equal land inheritance rights for women; and guaranteeing the rights
of indigenous peoples and other customary resource users.
ARnet is an expanding network that currently has eight regional and
23 national nodes. The knowledge available through ARnet is accessible on
the Popular Coalition website at www.ifad.org/popularcoalition and from
the Secretariat and the nodes.
The Popular Coalition has also established a forum on emerging land-tenure
markets that will analyse the effects of land privatization on poor producers and the shift
towards land policies grounded in the market, including land-leasing, share cropping and
contract farming.
Empowering Communities
The Community Empowerment Facility (CEF) is a demand-driven instrument created
exclusively to support civil-society initiatives to:
• increase the ability of the poor, especially of women and indigenous peoples, to gain
secure access to land, including common property, water and associated resources;
• protect existing access to lands being cultivated by landless workers or peasants and settle
tenancy rights;
• improve community participation in policy dialogue and local governance;
• strengthen agrarian institutions in such activities as the delineation and protection of
user rights, land registration and contracts regulating land sales and leases;
• improve the capacity of rural people’s organizations to access support services, including
extension programmes, technology, inputs, credit and marketing;
• build on traditional organizations and practices;
• facilitate conflict-resolution processes;
• replicate and scale up successful experiences; and The World Food Summit (WFS) called upon
• disseminate best practices and lessons learned. governments and all actors of civil society to
The CEF provides grants and support to community-based “…establish legal and other mechanisms, as
activities related to these goals and objectives. appropriate, that advance land reform, recognize
and protect property, water and user rights,
to enhance access for the poor and women to
resources…”
Paragraph 15, WFS Plan of Action
Building Public Commitment
A critical prerequisite to changing systems of land ownership and access to other
productive resources is the creation of opportunities and political space for
collaboration between civil society and government. Popular Coalition partners are
designing awareness-raising programmes aimed at fostering the public and
political commitments needed for the implementation of sustainable
agricultural-sector reforms.
Preventing Emergencies
Landlessness or lack of land and water tenure are common contributing
causes of wars, civil conflicts and natural emergencies, such as the
siltation of water reservoirs or the loss of life from mud slides. These
emergencies may be reduced in situations where the Popular Coalition
can assist governments and civil society in addressing the underlying
land-reform and other resource issues.
Supporting the Implementation of the Convention
to Combat Desertification
Tenurial security and property rights are key incentives for land
improvements and sustainable practices of natural resource
management. The Popular Coalition will assist in the planning
and implementation of national action programmes to combat
desertification by assisting civil society and governments in
addressing the resource tenure requirements.
Loan Guarantees as Collateral Substitutes
Limited access to credit restricts the opportunities for the rural
poor to purchase land and production inputs. The Popular
Coalition’s loan guarantee system will examine the constraints
encountered by the rural poor in accessing commercial credit.
The Popular Coalition’s aim is to establish a system that will
help reduce the need for collateral, lower transaction costs and
overcome the perceived risk in lending to an unfamiliar
clientele.
RESOURCES
The activities of the Popular Coalition are
made possible by the financial, technical
and in-kind contributions of its many
partners. All partners have committed to
pooling resources and assisting in the
mobilization of the required resources.
The Popular Coalition has received grants
from the European Commission, the
Governments of Canada, Denmark, Italy,
Japan and Switzerland, NGO partners, the
World Bank and the World Food
Programme. FAO has also provided
technical services. In its capacity as the
host organization, IFAD has provided
numerous grants and a wide range of
support services.
Secretariat
International Fund for Agricultural Development - IFAD
Via del Serafico, 107
00142 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39-06-54592445 - Fax +99-06-5043463
E-mail: coalition@ifad.org
www.ifad.org/popularcoalition
Printed by Palombi, Rome, June 2000 • Design by Marie Slater