The LRAN Country Study Project: An Overview

November 26, 2003

A brief overview of the LRAN country study project and background papers.

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THE PROJECT

Collaborating Institutions

Focus on the Global South is a non-governmental organization that engages in research, analysis, advocacy, and grassroots capacity building on critical issues in North-South relations.¹ Amongst its most important aims are:

• To strengthen the capacity of organizations of the poor and marginalized people in the South to better analyze and understand the impact of globalization on their lives.
• To provide critical analysis of regional and global socio-economic trends and articulate democratic, poverty-reducing, equitable and sustainable alternatives that advance the interests of the poor and the marginalized.
• To develop more coherent linkages between local, community-based and national, regional and global paradigms of change.
• To combine professionalism and activism in an effort to establish a cogent link between critical analysis and innovative mobilization in order to effectively grapple with problems emerging from the currently dominant patterns of globalization.

With these objectives at heart, Focus on the Global South, along with three other like-minded organizations, namely Food First, USA², Center for Global Justice, Brazil³ and the National Land Committee, South Africa⁴,is presently engaged in a project on Land Reforms⁵. The project aims to raise critical understanding on issues of land, particularly as they are being thrown up in this present phase of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG).

The ubiquitous phenomenon of LPG is impacting issues of land in a more or less similar manner in all countries across the globe. People everywhere are facing problems of land alienation, deprivation, ever-greater marginalization, pauperization, and environmental degradations of various kinds. Given the global nature of the issues involved, the Project, too, is envisaged as a collaborative endeavor. Similar exercises are being undertaken in ten countries across three regions. In Asia, the countries that have been selected are India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Latin America, the project is being conducted in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala. From the African continent, South Africa and Zimbabwe have been included for study.

Rationale

Modern economic paradigm emphasizes international trade as the key to economic growth and visualizes that growth as the solution to problems of unemployment and poverty.⁶ Premised on this formula promoted by the World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs), the economic policies of countries, particularly in the developing world, have been prescribed structural adjustment programmes. These entail the implementation of economic liberalization, privatization and globalization. At the same time, in order to increase trade, countries are also encouraged to enter into bilateral, regional and multilateral trade arrangements that seek to remove protective domestic barriers and lower import tariffs.

While these may be sound economic principles in theory to increase trade, their translation into practice, however, has resulted in a new set of problems, or exacerbated those already existing. For instance, LPG policies that are premised on the centrality of markets have altered the balance of governance over national economies. Market mechanisms and subservience to global regulatory bodies like the WTO constrain a nation's ability to structure domestic macroeconomic policies. Driven by IFIs, the governments are obliged to undertake a number of steps such as deficit cuts to balance budgets, elimination of import barriers, privatization of state enterprises, elimination of subsidies etc, not all of which have proven to be people-friendly. Neither are the dominant trade promotion schemes conducive for ecological conservation since their focus is on maximizing short-term gains with little consideration for long-term effects.

In fact, in all countries that have adopted the LPG policies, a concomitant emphasis on the ‘market efficiency model' has led to a reduction in government expenditure on the social sectors. The consequent impact on the poor and the marginalized sections of the society is far too evident to require extrapolation.

The impact of the LPG model has not left any economic factor of production untouched and hence, land and other issues related to it, too, have been affected. With land being perceived primarily as a crucial productive asset, it is treated as a commodity that is tradable to maximize efficiency and profits. Consequently, there has been a transformation in land tenure arrangements in favor of privatization, with most activities associated with land turning into commercial ventures. In the process, however, agriculture as a way of life, as it has traditionally existed in a predominantly agricultural country like India, has been affected. In a bid to maximize yield per hectare through the increased use of external inputs, more land is sought for purposes of industry and infrastructure. The social and environmental costs of this economic activity, however, are not being accorded much attention.

The consequences, nevertheless, are widespread and profound. On the one hand, the small farmer becomes the victim of global economic forces at play that peg his/her survival to the ability to adapt oneself to the demands of market agriculture. S/he is encouraged to turn to commercial crops in order to fetch higher prices and to seek agricultural credit to be able to afford the expensive external inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. On the other hand, however, the small farmer may yet not be guaranteed a dignified survival, because structural adjustment programmes have deprived him/her of government safety nets and guarantees such as price supports and subsidized credit. Therefore, in case of a natural calamity or a market fluctuation, the small and marginal farmer is faced with a no-win situation. Often many are forced to abandon the agricultural activity. From a socio-economic point of view, the repercussions of this are visible in the increasing inequalities in concentration of land, and erosion of livelihoods of the poor due to land deprivation and alienation.

At another level, with more land being consumed for purposes of housing, industry, infrastructure development, entertainment complexes, natural preserves etc., without adequate attention being paid to the rehabilitation of the displaced, the number of poor and the landless are on the rise. Losing control over their livelihood, they either continue to look for means of survival in rural/forest areas as landless agricultural/forest labor, or migrate into urban areas in search of other jobs. Obviously, this involuntary migration results in over population and burdening of the often-unplanned city infrastructure. Slums proliferate and as cities spread further, they encroach upon surrounding land with little regard for its cultivable or other ecological value. Those thereby displaced then join the ranks of the landless poor and the whole cycle starts afresh. The present approach to land in the contemporary phase of globalization, therefore, is acting as an obstacle to environmentally and socially sustainable development.

In fact, in the present scheme of things, land is ever more perceived as little more than a useful means of production -- for agriculture, industry, or infrastructure development. That it is. But, there is more to land than just its existence as a useful commodity. Both in its rural and urban manifestation, land provides social, economic and psychological security to an individual. This link between the economic and social value of land is today being lost leading to disastrous social and ecological consequences. Hence, one crucial challenge in the coming years shall be to manage the issues of land in a way that does not take away from its relevance as an economic factor of production while reconciling its existence as a means of sustainable livelihood that allows an individual to live with dignity.

The Project attempts to address this challenge. Through research and analysis on relevant issues, it proposes to support existing land movements by providing them with legislative and analytical inputs that would help them to understand the linkages between the various processes of globalization. Moreover, by providing them a networking platform, it shall help to synergize their efforts and provide crucial moral support.

Land Research Action Network (LRAN)

The realization of this activity is envisaged through the creation of a Land Research Action Network (LRAN). As mentioned above, this shall be a network of researchers and activists from policy research centers, universities, human rights groups, community- based organizations and non-governmental organizations, united by their commitment to the promotion and advancement of the fundamental rights of individuals and communities to land and to the resources necessary for maintaining sustainable livelihoods with dignity. It is open to the inclusion of like-minded new members dedicated to the principles and activities of the network.

The specific goals of LRAN include:

• mobilizing and generating research and analyses to support land and resource-access movements;
• providing a venue/mechanism to facilitate information flow in appropriate styles, formats and languages;
• creating a community of committed researchers who can draw upon shared experience for strength and insight;
• influencing local, national, regional, and international policy debates directly and through the movements and organizations with whom we work.