How your campaigning is helping end land grabs

With your help, Oxfam has been campaigning since September on land grabs, as part of our GROW campaign for food justice. We wanted the World Bank to take some urgently needed action to help end land grabs in many developing countries, which help keep one in eight people hungry.

In the last few weeks we’ve made some great progress. This simply wouldn’t have happened without your support. Here’s what you’ve helped to change:

Big wins

• President Kim made a high profile public statement on land rights, highlighting the risks which come with big land deals. He said, “efforts must be made to build capacity and safeguards related to land rights.”
• Your campaigning has generated a serious debate at the World Bank. There was a real buzz about land at their annual ‘Spring Meetings’. Staff have told us that the President’s statement is helping get things moving. And that we’ve been keeping the World Bank on its toes.
• The Bank has committed itself to a new UN standard on how land is governed. It means they’ll work to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable people have their land rights respected. That’s great news.
• There will be an independent review of the impact of World Bank programmes’ on people’s land rights.
• The Bank has agreed that land rights must be a crucial focus when they review the rules that govern their activities this year.
• One particular loophole in the World Bank’s approach to lending to the private sector meant a greater risk that land grabs could occur. Thanks to the noise you made, the World Bank’s board members have asked staff to find a convincing way to close that loophole.

Of course, lots of these promises are just that – promises. The next step for Oxfam is to ensure the Bank delivers. And it doesn’t stop with the World Bank: governments, companies and other institutions all have a part to play too.

Be assured, we’re watching and ready to take action. If we think the Bank isn’t being true to its words, we’ll hold it to account, and we’ll ask you to help make a noise with us.

Until then, congratulations on getting us several steps closer to ending land grabs for good.