Securing the Right to Land: A CSO Overview on Access to Land in Asia

Land Watch Asia (LWA) is a campaign undertaken by a loose coalition of organizations with a view to supporting and advancing the advocacy for access to land in Asia, particularly in the six participating countries, namely: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines. LWA campaign ensures that the issues of access to land, agrarian reform, and equitable and sustainable development in rural areas are addressed in national and regional development agendas. It seeks to serve as a monitoring mechanism to assess the status of agrarian reform in the region.

To initiate the campaign, country strategy papers were prepared by LWA with the view of: i) assessing the policy and legal environment on access to land and tenurial security; ii) reviewing past contributions and existing efforts of different sectors (government, private sector, donors, social movements and civil society) in addressing land issues; and iii) identifying opportunities and strategies in effectively addressing existing issues and gaps and in advancing access to land and tenurial security.

This publication contains the regional summary and the abridged versions of the six (6) country papers. The following organizations spearheaded the drafting of the country papers: ALRD and SEHD (Bangladesh), STAR Kampuchea and NGO Forum on Cambodia (Cambodia); AVARD, Ekta Parishad and SARRA (India); KPA, Bina Desa, and AGRA (Indonesia); CSRC, FECOFUN and NFN (Nepal); and ANGOC, PhilDHRRA, AR Now!, PAFID, SALIGAN (Philippines).