In a meeting last June 11, 2013 at the Partnership Center in Quezon City, Philippines, AFA represented by Maria Elena Rebagay, agreed to join ANGOC, OXFAM and other regional and national groups in the Southeast Asia Regional land hearing advisory group tasked to provide advisory support in the conduct of regional land hearing. The group aims to:
1) Provide an overview of the facilitating and constraining factors on the entry of agricultural and land investments in the communities in different Southeast Asian contexts;
2) Assess the negotiation terms and processes to see if they are transparent, inclusive and participative, and if they conform to the prevailing legal/regulatory policies and standards (both national and international);
3) Analyze current and potential impacts of these investments on the communities in relation to land tenure, livelihood, basic services, food security and the environment, and develop community safeguards based on the people’s perspectives;
4) Recommend appropriate actions, whether by reforming policy or accountability mechanisms and structures, to address the flaws and gaps in regulation and in the negotiation terms and processes and identified (potential) impacts at community, national and international levels.
For small producers, the regional public hearing aims to:
1) Provide a venue for land grab victims in Southeast Asia to present and discuss their grievances and expose accountability of responsible institutions on land grab cases;
2) Identify remedies for communities and demands for responsible institutions to address the violations of rights;
3) Develop a set of safeguards over land investment projects based on the perspectives of affected communities and sectors that will be useful to other communities going through the same issues;
4) Facilitate a sharing and discussion among communities and experts on negotiation strategies that worked or could be used to reclaim their land rights or improve their capacity to deal with land investments.
5) Provide input to future legislation or amending existing laws regulating or governing land and agricultural investments
With support from OXFAM’s GROW campaign, ANGOC will organize the regional public hearing (i.e., People’s Land Grab Tribunal) with partners from communities and institutions in six Southeast Asian countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Other groups and sectors will be invited based on their role in the tribunal and their contributions to the formulation of the community safeguards as a checklist for smallholders to guide them in future negotiations and assess land deal agreements.
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