We have set a date for the global assembly : discussions will take place between March 31st and April 2nd, 2016, on the campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.
The regional discussion phase of the WFAL has officially begun. The goal of this phase is to collect information about evolutions in land and natural resources access over the last 10 years from everyone who is interested in contributing : about the causes and consequences of these evolutions, the ways in which they have been addressed, and the ways in which they should be addressed. The International Organizing Committee has suggested focusing discussions on six major themes (see the working programme below).
- FMAT - Work Programme
Organizations and individuals may make contributions related to these themes, or to other related topics that they deem important. We will be adapting them based on contributions that we receive throughout the month of September.
You may send contributions that are related to these themes over the next four months (until December 20th, 2015). They will be uploaded onto the website http://landaccessforum.org, so that all participants can consult them.
We invite you to send us documents that reflect your point of view, or that of your organization : Reports, analyses, case-studies, manifestos, proposals, testimonials, etc. Your contributions may be sent in written, audio, or video form (to secretariat@landaccessforum.org). You are welcome to send documents or other media that were produced for previous occasions, or to draft documents specifically for this occasion. They must be in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, or Arabic. We are also trying to recruit volunteers so that we can accommodate documents in Chinese and Russian.
Your contributions will allow us to put together “diagnostic reports” for each major region (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America*). The reports will provide an overview of different points of view from each continent, as well as factual information about land and natural resource access and use in different areas (which will be supported by the case-studies that you send to us). We will also be producing a global summary report based on the regional diagnostic report.
The regional diagnostic reports, and the global summary, will be issued before March 31st. Participants will therefore have general information about discussion topics, and about overlapping regional issues, going into the global assembly. This will make it easier to begin lively discussions, and start crafting specific proposals, right away. Your contributions are an essential part of this process !
We are currently in the process of organizing small regional committees. They will be in charge of supervising the writing of diagnostic reports and encouraging as many organizations as possible to participate, by sending contributions and helping organize, summarize, and translate regional contributions that we receive. Regional coordinating committees should reflect the diversity of WFAL signatories. We will list the names of their members on the website http://landaccessforum.org.
We eagerly wait for your contributions !
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*The WFAL call has not yet been signed by any individuals or organizations focused on land and natural resource access and use in Oceania. If we receive any contributions from this area of the world, it goes without saying that it will be added to our list of regions.