Necessary Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in

Foreign Land Deals

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Senior Research Fellow

International Food Policy Research Institute

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Background

• Government or private investors • Accelerated by 2008 food price increases, lack

of confidence in world food trade• 15 - 20 million ha since 2006

Terraced rice farming in Madagascar--Time

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Opportunities

• Increased investment in agriculture• Farm and off-farm jobs• Development of rural infrastructure• Schools and health posts• Resources for new agricultural technologies • Future global price stability due to increased

production,• Possible increased food availability in host country

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Threats

• Uneven playing field in negotiations• Inability to enforce agreed compensation• Eviction, loss of land• Environmental problems of large-scale

agriculture

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Questions to Ask on Cases

• Current land use, users• Current land tenure• Proposed land use patterns• Livelihoods for local people• Food security• Ecological conditions• Terms of agreement

• (expropriation < sale < rental < contract farming)

• Transparency, local involvement in negotiations• Enforceability

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Elements of a Code of Conduct

• Transparency in negotiations• Respect for existing land rights, including

customary and common property rights• Sharing of benefits• Environmental sustainability• Adherence to national trade policies

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Institutional Requirements

• International system to enforce code in investor country as well as host

• Governments to monitor, safeguard local people’s rights

• Media to increase transparency• Civil society to keep pressure against unjust

expropriation