The International Land Coalition (ILC) has launched a research project on land inequality in the world, beginning with an exercise of framing the approach the many related complexities of land inequality. The result of that initial effort is a coherent framework for research and action with suggested themes and questions for the next phases of the research initiative.
Since most of ILC members are working on rural land and related issues, the research will focus on rural land first. ILC acknowledges the links between the land and urban worlds and the effects of land accumulation and consequent inequality and inequity everywhere. However, at this initial stage, ILC perceives that including urban processes of would add even more complexity to an already complex topic of analysis.
The document arising from the framing exercise is structured in five sections, including this introductory one. Section 2 explains the core concepts framing the issue of land and inequality and shaping ILC’s approach to them. Section 3 relies on the best available data on land inequality to show what is known and yet unknown about land inequality, identifying the existing approaches, complexities, and gaps in measuring it. Section 4 describes the historical roots, current trends and drivers in land inequality, including the functions of the current market and policies in both global and local perspectives. The concluding Section 5 explores some of the potential means to remedy land inequality through policy
Interventions, including redistribution, progressive taxation, agroecology and
environmental protection and land market regulation, among others.
Download the document:
Arantxa Guereña and Marc Wegerif, Land Inequality Framing Document (Rome: ILC, October 2019).
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