This Case Study looks at the implementation of the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV Law) in seven villages in Sagaing Region, to assess the practices on the ground and how the law impacts the land tenure security of smallholder farmers.

This dialogue provided a way for the land community to collaboratively explore challenges and opportunities related to the recognition of indigenous, ethnic minority and customary tenure rights in the Mekong region in order to:

This short thematic study challenges the assumption that the legal framework to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ (IP) customary lands is adequate and that the challenge lies in its implementation.

This article examines the evolution of policy recommendations concerning rural land issues since the formulation of the World Bank’s “Land Reform Policy Paper” in 1975.

Across the developing world, rural women suffer widespread gender-based discrimination in laws, customs and practices cause severe inequalities in their ability to access, control, own and use land and limit their participation in decision-making at all levels of land governance.