Plurality of Knowledge: The future of land governance in shifting global contexts

Over the five year period, the hosts have seen changes in global and local contexts. Complex and interrelated crises threaten development achievements and challenge the resilience of people and governance agents. Themes central to the LAND-at-scale learning agenda have seen shifts: land and housing rights are increasingly insecure (2024 PRIndex Report), climate change more and more affects people’s ability to build livelihoods from their land, increasing numbers of people are displaced due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, and despite many efforts, m still experience inequality when it comes to their rights to land and resources. In recent times the Global North is starting to renege on its efforts to curb climate change, its (financial) support to the Global South, and anti-immigration voices are getting stronger. Democracies and human rights are under pressure, across the globe. In a connected world, such global shifts have impact at local levels. In this rather grim reality, how can we, as academics, practitioners, CSO’s and policy makers, as human beings, contribute with our plurality of knowing, of seeing, of imagining, to a more just, inclusive and sustainable land governance? 

Knowledge management is a way to bring these different stakeholders together with the aim to strengthen the implementation of land governance projects and programmes and inform policy in both the Global South and North. Dedicated components aim to work on generating, managing, disseminating, and using knowledge, with a focus on learning and adaptive programme management. This conference will zoom in on how plurality of knowledges have shaped and changed the implementation of land governance activities. With an integrated KM-strategy, implemented with and by LANDac and its partners, knowledge management and learning have been at the heart of the LAND-at-scale programme since its inception. The aim was to contribute towards the impact both at global programme level, and of the local in-country projects. The LAND-at-scale knowledge management programme brought together academia, practitioners, CSOs, policy makers and donors. This has taken shape in several collaborations such as between LANDac partners and the donor, and between the knowledge management partners and implementing organisations across the different countries. At country level, practitioners from different backgrounds and with different ways of thinking jointly worked towards shared outcomes. At the LANDac conference, the hosts want to reflect on: What lessons can be learned from such collaborations, what has been the impact? At the same time, they want to look forward to see how these experiences can inform future land governance interventions in a glocal world where interconnected global and local issues are being reshaped.

Event description based directly on original source.