Activities of Nirj DEVA related to 2013/2026(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Role of property and wealth creation in eradicating poverty and fostering sustainable development (short presentation)
Role of property and wealth creation in eradicating poverty and fostering sustainable development (short presentation)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the role of property rights, property ownership and wealth creation in eradicating poverty and fostering sustainable development in developing countries PDF (257 KB) DOC (125 KB)
Amendments (23)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2
Citation 2
– having regard to the Millennium Declaration of 8 September 2000 setting out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular goals 1, 3 and 7,
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 9
Citation 9
– having regard to the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources (PRAI) and, to the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and to the African Union's Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (ALPFG),
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
- having regard to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (no. 169) of the International Labour Organization,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 b (new)
Citation 10 b (new)
- having regard to the recommendations of the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to include a goal on governance of land tenure for women and men, and to recognise that women and girls must have, among other things "the equal right to own land and other assets",
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas in Africa alone 90 % of land is unregistered;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas in developing countries the registration process is fraught with high costs, corruption and cumbersome bureaucracy; whereas to register a business in Peru, for example, takes 265 days and costs 1300 US dollars, 31 times the monthly minimum wage; whereas to obtain legal authorisation to build a house on state owned land and obtain legal title to that land takes in total, approximately 900 administrative steps;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas an estimated 1.4 billion hectares in the world are governed by customary norms; whereas existing land tenure structures in Africa, Asia and Latin America are considerably different from each other and the local, customary arrangements that have developed, freehold or communal, cannot be disregarded when formalisation of land is undertaken;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas women, who represent 70 % of Africa's farmers, formally own as little as 2 % of the land; whereas recent programmes throughout India, Kenya and, Honduras show that low-income female-headed households have better nutrition figures than higher-income households headed by men, Ghana, Nicaragua and Nepal have found that women –headed households have greater food security, better health care and a stronger focus on education rather than men-headed households;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide have a strong spiritual, cultural, social and economic relationship with their traditional lands, whose management is usually community-based;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
Gb. whereas, considering that 99 % of conflicts could be classified ultimately as land disputes, i.e. Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Somalia, Darfur, in post-conflict societies and fragile nations, state-building must reflect a particularly strong focus on securing land tenure and accountable land governance for its citizens;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights the fact that empowering people to make decisions about their own resources, combined with formal inheritance provisions, strongly encourages smallholders to invest sustainably in their land, practise terracing and irrigation, and mitigate the effects of climate change; for example, studies have shown that a household with fully secure and transferable land is estimated to be 59.8 % more likely to invest in terracing than one who expects a redistribution within the village during the next 5 years;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recognises that the challenge is overcoming the divorce between legality, legitimacy and practices by building land tenure mechanisms based on shared norms, starting from a recognition of existing rights, while making sure that men and women, as well as vulnerable communities in developing countries have secure rights over land and assets and are fully protected against vested interests that could seize their property;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Strongly condemns the practice of land grabbing, which illegally dispossesses the rural poor of land without adequate compensation; highlights the fact that 203at least 32 million hectares worldwide have been part of at least 886 transnational large-scale land deals of this kind between 2000 and 20103 3; highlights that the figure is likely to represent a significant underestimation of the accurate number of large land deals concluded; __________________ 3 http://www.landmatrix.org/get-the- idea/global-map-investments/
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights the fact that land reform requires flexibility, tailored to local, social and cultural conditions, and should be focused on empowering the most vulnerable, regularising tenure security for urban squatters and bringing pastoralist societies into the scope of formal property law;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Highlights that the co-existence of customary land regimes and the imposed colonial models represent one of the main reasons for the endemic land insecurity in developing countries; stresses therefore, the imperative to recognise the legitimacy of customary tenure arrangements that provide statutory rights to individuals and communities and prevent dispossession and abuses of land rights, especially prevalent among African communities and the large indigenous populations in Latin America;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Emphasises that regularising tenure security for urban squatters has a significant effect on residential investment, with studies showing that the rate of housing renovation increases by more than 2/3rds;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Emphasises that land tenure reform should begin with accurate land data collection and with systematic titling by means of cadastral mapping using low-cost technologies, such as mobile technologies, GPS, GPRS and GIS monitoring tools; encourages the development and use of geographical information systems, including satellite and aerial imagery, taking into account technologies for participatory mapping;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls on the EU to strongly assist newly empowered landowners' investment, through auxiliary support mechanisms, in new equipment, whilst facilitating technology transfer and training new landowners in the use of innovative techniques and best practices;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Points out that formal recognition of land rights for women doesn't automatically entail an effective implementation of those rights; calls for the EU to pay particular attention in its land reform programmes to women's vulnerability to changes in family structure, the degree to which she can enforce her rights and ensuring that in practice, household deeds have both spouses' names on the land title;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12c. Calls for the EU to support developing countries' efforts in reforming land rental markets to provide land access to the poor and promote growth, while avoiding excessive restrictions on lease markets;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the fact that large-scale land acquisitions are a direct consequence of weak land governance in developing countries; emphasises that empowering peopleindividuals and communities through clear and secure property rights will open contractual arrangements to scrutiny and prevent land grabbing;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Welcomes the Land Transparency Initiative, launched by the G8 in June 2013 on the basis of the EITI and the recognition that transparency with regards to ownership of companies and land, combined with secure property rights and strong institutions are crucial for poverty alleviation; stresses, however, that efforts need to be scaled up in order for efficient land reform to be implemented;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Recommends that property rights and land tenure security for all be included as an objective on the post -2015 development agenda, with a view to sound land management as a key to achieving the MDG goals and eradicating poverty;