This policy addresses concentration of land ownership and control, and land governance gaps that perpetuate rural poverty, food insecurity, and ecological degradation across diverse tenure contexts. Recognising that land inequality is embedded within broader dynamics of capitalist consolidation, colonial and neo-colonial dispossession, and the suppression of redistributive reform under conditions of economic liberalization, the profile encompasses the full range of land-based resources critical to human thriving — including forests, grasslands, rangelands, wetlands, and coastal lands. The policy calls for land reform and land governance systems grounded in human rights standards and implemented in alignment with the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, endorsed by the UN Committee on World Food Security in 2012.
The policy centres democratised control over land and natural resources, and recognition of and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, local communities, women, and other marginalised groups. Additionally, this policy charts a path for coherence with international frameworks on food sovereignty, agroecology, climate action, land restoration, and biodiversity protection. Finally, it details a path for implementation that is integrated with national land administration systems and shielded from legal and economic retaliation, which have historically obstructed equitable land governance in Global South countries.
