FIG President Stig Enemark attends Expert Group Meeting on Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and Natural Resources

AO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, 24-25 November 2008

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Stig Enemark, FIG President and Paul Munro-Faure, Chief of the FAO Land Tenure and Management Unit, at the FAO Headquarters, Rome.

FIG President Stig Enemark attended the Expert Group Meeting on Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, 24–25 November 2008.

FAO, and partners such as the World Bank, UN-HABITAT, IFAD (International Federation of Agricultural Development), and FIG have been working since 2005 on governance of land administration to raise awareness and produce guidelines. A good example of this is the publication FAO Land Tenure Studies no. 9 on Good governance in land tenure and administration, available on line at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a1179e/a1179e00.pdf 

As the next step FAO embarks on assisting countries wishing to develop a formal policy response to the problems of weak governance and corruption. This work is intended to result in voluntary guidelines for responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources prepared jointly by governments, civil society and international organizations and approved by FAO’s member nations, as well as other interested parties.

The meeting included a group of around 80 participants representing about 60 institutions from all regions in the world. The aim of the meeting was to help FAO to finalise a discussion paper called Towards Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources. This paper will lay the base for regional and civil society consultations in 2009, which will lead to the preparation of the First Draft Voluntary Guidelines at the end of 2009.

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Summit of key UN agency people: From left: Paul Munro-Faure (FAO), Mika Törhönen (FAO), Clarissa Augustinus (UN-HABITAT), and David Palmer (FAO).

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The rooftop terrace at the FAO Headquarters provides excellent views of the ancient city of Rome. Left: Forum Romanum, and right: Colosseum.