1.
DOCUMENT TITLE 1
Emily Polack
6 July 2016Author name
Date
Author name
Date
Partner logo
Partner logo
Partner logo
Emily Polack
6 July 2016
Using web platforms
to promote
transparency and
strengthen land rights
Legal Tools
Webinar

2.
DOCUMENT TITLE 2
Emily Polack
6 July 2016
Background
• Increasing number of online platforms providing
information on land deals
• But what contribution are they making to legal
empowerment?
• To be effective as a legal empowerment tool – for
transparency, accountability, justice, and better land
governance – some key issues need consideration:
• Reliability and credibility of data
• Data types and level of detail
• Maximising reach and reaching targets
• Accessibility
• Sustainability (ensure accuracy and usefulness over time)
• Practical uses of or engagement with the data

3.
DOCUMENT TITLE 3
Emily Polack
6 July 2016
Case examples
• Open Land Contracts: making investment
contracts for large-scale land deals publicly
available, plus legal analysis and advisory service
Speaker: Sam Szoke-Burke
• Open Development Myanmar: documenting land
conflict in Myanmar; legal aid services; and fact-based
stakeholder engagement for protecting land rights and
improving land governance
Speaker: Wai Wai Lwin

4.
IIED Webinar
Using web platforms to promote
transparency and strengthen land
rights
Sam Szoke-Burke
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
4

5.
Large-scale land, agriculture, and forestry contracts

6.
Outline
1. Investment contracts and agricultural projects
2. What is OpenLandContracts.org (OLC)?
3. How does OLC contribute to transparency?
4. Challenges
5. Contributing to best practices?
6. Practical uses of OLC

7.
Contracts & agricultural projects
 Agricultural projects are governed by many different legal
frameworks.
 National laws of host state
 International law
 National laws of home state
 International standards and best practices
 Contracts between different players
 Investment contracts (between host government and investor)
 Create additional obligations
 Can limit how domestic law applies (including laws on tax,
environment, and human rights)
 Usually negotiated without public participation
 Rarely published
7

8.
What is OLC?
 OpenLandContracts.org is the first online,
searchable, user-friendly repository of land
contracts
 The repository features publicly available
contracts for large-scale land, agriculture, and
forestry projects
 It is freely available to all users
8

9.
What is OLC?
9

10.
What is OLC?
The OLC repository features:
1.Full text of contracts
2.Plain-language summaries (“annotations”) of each
contract’s key social, environmental, fiscal, and
operational provisions
3.Metadata, i.e. basic contract information (country,
signature date, resource type, etc.) which is used to
categorize contracts and improve searchability

11.
Metadata / searching
11

12.
Annotations
12

13.
Objectives
OpenLandContracts.org aims to:
1. Promote greater transparency and facilitate
disclosure of land contracts
2. Equip stakeholders with the tools and resources
necessary to effectively read and understand land
contracts
3. Catalyze broader awareness of the implications of
land contracts and their underlying deals
4. Demonstrate that land contract disclosure is both
feasible and valuable
13

14.
14
http://www.open-contracting.org/2016/03/10/takeaways-from-eiti
-2016-contract-transparency-is-becoming-norm/

15.
Challenges
 Convincing governments to disclose
 OLC does not leak contracts; we work with governments.
 Reliability / credibility
 Contract disclosure policy
 Framing: the publicly available version may not be the final / only
version regulating the project
 Dissemination to, and use by, affected communities
 Lack of web-connectivity
 Ability to batch download contracts and annotations
 Lack of best practices
 Framing of OLC content: need to consider context, and listing of
contract is not endorsement.
15

16.
Contributing to best practice?
 Demonstrating that transparency can help governments
 Raising awareness regarding practices of other governments
 Providing a platform for affected communities to become
informed, and to use for advocacy or self-organization
 Awareness of contracting practices allows policy makers
and civil society to determine advocacy and reform priorities
 No explicit endorsement: contracts need to be considered in
their context
16

17.
Practical uses: OLC Mini-Grants Program
 Two grants awarded to encourage innovative uses of OLC.
 CED, Cameroon testing guidance on understanding and
monitoring land contracts. Focusing on the SGSOC palm oil
concession (see the SGSOC contract).
 A journalist from Thompson Reuters Foundation will visit
sites of several projects featured on OLC to compare the
realities on the ground with the relevant contract and to create
global discussions about transparency.
 Contracts exercise can be incorporated in training and capacity
building efforts — see
http://www.openlandcontracts.org/page/resources
 Other ideas? We would love to help.
17

18.
How can CSOs use OLC?
 OLC can be used as a tool for empowerment
 Designed for users without legal training/experience
 Can help advisers / community members understand contracts
governing projects, and see what other governments are
negotiating.
 Can assist communities carrying out community-led
monitoring efforts
 Contracts are another source of enforceable rights.
 Communities can use them as a platform for advocacy on legal
reform, better contracting practices, a government’s failure to
monitor and enforce contracts, etc.
18

19.
Thank you
s.burke@columbia.edu
info@openlandcontracts.org

20.
Open Data Myanmar:
Using web
technology to create
transparent land
conflict information
in Myanmar
06 July 2016

21.
 Open Data Myanmar (ODM)
(www.opendatamyanmar.com) --- Web-
based database
 To collect and document individual land
dispute cases from across Myanmar
 Focuses on conflicts between individuals
and companies or government actors
 Hopes to collect data from across the 14
states and regions in Myanmar, so as to
be able to show patterns in land grabbing
geographically
 Most of the cases are related to
investment projects

22.
1) Addressing the lack of
transparency in land conflicts and
ensuring reliable and credible
data
 Collecting info at field --- verified ---
analysed / extract --- import to offline
database --- export to online database
 Data displayed as “cases details” with
(very draft Google) maps
 ODM focused on collecting facts with
strong evidence --- not story-based info

23.
2) Promoting practical uses of the
data
 Legal literacy training with the affected
community
 Highlighting strong and weak points in the laws
 Empowering the community members with the
basic knowledge of laws and legal aspects
 ODM offered a free comprehensive legal service to
the affected communities
 Writing letters of complaint to relevant
authorities
 Representing them in mediation and court cases

24.
3) Influencing law/policy change and best
practice relating to the governance of land
based investments
 Providing independent data which can be
used by civil society, MPs and policy
makers
 Contribution towards the development of
good policy and law
 Info from the ground
 Supporting policy makers, NGOs and
donors to understand local land conflict
dynamics

25.
Cont.
Carrying out awareness raising
with MPs, investors and other
actors about the site
Created fact sheets which
include a summary of the info
by type of land grab,
geographical area, and simple
graphs

26.
4) How can CSOs make use of
ODM to protect the rights of
citizens
 To provide independent data which can be used by
civil society, MPs and policy makers
 Build a picture of land grabbing across Myanmar,
and by developing more accurate data --- with
proposed investment projects
 To feed information directly from affected
communities up to national level
 Present more visual representation of the data and
using maps

27.
5) Challenges and Next Steps
 Due to the history of dictatorship and a
repression of freedom of speech in
Myanmar
 A climate of mistrust also meant that
organisations and institutions
 Little sharing of data between
government departments
 Detailed information from Google map is
not available in Myanmar

28.
Cont.
 Continue to monitor previously documented
cases
 To improve data on land and the inter-
ministerial sharing of info
 Visiting the township offices with a lawyer
helped --- to convince officials of the need
to share data such as current land maps of
the area
 Offering an email update service
 Seminars
 Circulating info on social media