Improving Governance of Tenure: Progress in Policy and Practice

Dear Colleagues,

The eradication of hunger and poverty (Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 and 2) and the sustainable use of the environment, while addressing climate change (SDG 13), biodiversity (SDG 14 and 15), land degradation (SDG 15), and emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic (SDG 3), depend largely on how people, communities and other societal actors gain access to land, fisheries and forest resources. This is defined and regulated by societies through systems of tenure. These tenure systems determine who can use which resources, for how long, and under what conditions (FAO 2012, p. iv). The needs and demands of how these resources are being used face tremendous challenges over time as human demands change in a world in which a growing population is requiring food security and nutrition delivered by sustainable and resilient food systems.

As understood in the 'Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security' (VGGT), governance of tenure in a responsible manner protects the legitimate tenure rights and right holders and is required to bring the greatest benefits to people in line with human rights based approaches. This includes strengthening civic spaces where consultation, participation and inclusion of all citizens in societal decision-making processes related to transfers and other changes to tenure rights and duties increases the likeliness of their acceptance of such decisions. In many countries such civic spaces are diminishing. If we want to improve the governance of tenure and subsequent development results, we will need to focus better on the "societal landscape" in which we strive to achieve transformative change.

This special issue would like to investigate whether eight years after the endorsement of the VGGT by the UN Committee on World Food Security, the integrated, multi-disciplinary, and country-driven VGGT implementation approach has contributed to sustainable improvements in tenure governance across national and sub-national country levels.  In particular, but not limited to, addressing the following questions:

• whether policy, legal, and organisational frameworks related to tenure, and system-wide capacity enhancement efforts across people and organizations (SDGs 1-17), contributed to creating an enabling environment (SDG 16) to enhance a more secure, equitable future for those most jeopardized of being excluded (SDGs 5 and 10) from the effective access to, use of, and control over resources;
• whether the investment in multi-stakeholder partnerships (SDG 17) added to a greater transformative potential and sustainable impact on the ground;
• whether inclusive and integrated spatial planning and management (SDGs 5, 10, 13, 15, 17), respecting, protecting and safeguarding tenure rights and right holders, contributed to improved tenure governance at national and sub-national level;
• whether any lessons can be drawn for applicability towards more resilient and sustainable food systems (SDGs 1-17);
• whether any lessons can be learnt from a systematic analysis and/or monitoring of pathways of improved tenure governance, thereby enhancing our understanding and projection of future trajectories, especially in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and emergencies (SDGs 1-17).

Theoretical explorations are encouraged, especially when having a case study component, as well as case studies from a quantitative, qualitative or multi-methodology perspective. Innovative and critical contributions are particularly welcome, as would original proposals, having a clear transformative potential with practical application on the ground.

Dr. Louisa J.M. Jansen
Mr. Patrick P. Kalas
Guest Editors

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• tenure governance
• Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT)
• legitimate tenure rights
• customary tenure systems
• multi-stakeholder partnerships
• system-wide capacity development
• sustainable and resilient food systems
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• monitoring
• pathways of change